Improving Online Shopping Experience Part 5: Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment

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There are a million reasons why, but trying your best to improve user experience and prevent the preventable will close the gap a little more from a browser to a buyer.

• The shopping cart is one of the most important features on an e-commerce site. It must be visible and accessible at all times, with a summary of the items in the cart, keeping check-out a click away.
• A persistent shopping cart is also important. When a user leaves the website without completing their purchase, they should be able to return and still see their items there. If a user is logged in, then the shopping cart should persist across devices. This allows customers to seamlessly continue their shopping anywhere and anytime, whether on their phone or computer.
• Using customer’s address or ZIP code, show taxes, shipping options and costs, delivery estimates, and the total cost, before hand to avoid “cart shock” and dropping off.
• Give users the ability to update their shopping cart without having to go back to the product page.
• If you are offering promotions or discounts, be sure to give users the option to redeem them without making it too difficult or unachievable, as well as offer users who don’t have promotional codes the opportunity of receiving them (“Signup for our newsletter and get a discount on your next purchase”) so they don’t like they are missing out any savings.
• Increase buying confidence by providing support to answer questions that shoppers may have regarding information such as arrival time, return policies, contacting live help, call-back or chat. Make this information easy to see and accessible such that users don’t lose the context where they are at. Provide pop-up windows or information in a sidebar.

Source: Smashing Magazine