Sure, the trailer for the upcoming Winchester horror film promises chilling jump scares, but as an entrepreneur, you aren’t afraid of these supernatural spectres. How could you be when you deal with the real fright of owning and operating your business? What gets your heart pumping isn’t so fantastic as vengeful spirits wreaking havoc onscreen, but the ghostly presence of customers who, despite a full shopping cart, never finish the sale.
Shopping cart abandonment is one of the most fearsome adversaries of your online business. Unfortunately, it’s all too common. Listrak’s Shopping Cart Abandonment Index shows the rate is as high as 81 percent around the holidays, and it averages to 78 percent for the rest of the year. If you expect to buck the trend, try these two ways to lower your abandonment rate.
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Ensure your website is secure
In the age of large-scale security breaches affecting trusted companies like Yahoo and Equifax, customers are now warier than ever before of how they share their financial data online. They want reassurance that the retailer will protect their information to prevent identity theft. If you don’t meet their expectations, then customers will second-guess your trustworthiness. As soon as that happens, your business loses.
One way of proving your business does take security seriously is with valid SSL certificates and trust logos from well-known security services. These logos include:
- Norton Secured VeriSign
- McAfee Secure
- Verified by VISA
- PayPal Verified
Though these symbols are just a small facet of your security policy, they’re an important visual for customers. Failure to have one at the checkout could cost you a sale.
According to a survey conducted by Actual Insights, 61 percent of shoppers won’t buy when a trust logo isn’t present. More than 75 percent of respondents said they wouldn’t complete a purchase if they don’t recognize the trust logo.
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Lower your shipping charges
In 2013, UPS analysed the habits of online shoppers. Forty-nine percent of its survey respondents admitted they abandon their carts whenever they deem a retailer’s shipping costs are too high. These shoppers expect reasonable shipping costs — if not free shipping — anytime they shop online. If you can’t offer this, you’ll lose a sale to another retailer who can.
Saying you should lower your shipping charges to save a sale is easy. Putting it into practice is a lot harder. Shipping can be very expensive for small business owners, especially when you’re shipping large items internationally. The difficulty lies in finding out a way to lower these costs without cutting into your profits.
A simple solution to your problem is a courier broker like netParcel. They facilitate shipping on behalf of small and medium-sized businesses all over Canada and the US. Since they operate on a larger scale than your small business, they can tap into large volume discounts and LTL (Less-Than-Truckload) services.
As a result, they can save up to 70 percent of shipping from the world’s top couriers like DHL, UPS, and FedEx. With over 7, 619 users and counting, netParcel has saved nearly a collective $4.5 million for their clients. If you want to see what discounted shipping rates look like for your business, open a new tab and visit netParcel to learn more about their small parcel and LTL courier partnerships.
Unlike the spirits that star in the scariest movies, the ghosts in your online shop are real. As the reason behind your high cart abandonment rate, they’re much more frightening than any cinematic spook. Luckily, you have a way to exorcize them from your business. Try beefing up the security on your website and lowering the cost customers pay for shipping. By applying these techniques to your ecommerce site, you’ll find a simple way to lower your shopping cart abandonment rate.
