As well as looking at new strategies to stop it, first lets look at the top 5 reasons people abandon their shopping baskets in the first place:

• 44% due to high shipping costs
• 41% due to not being ready to buy
• 25% due to a high product price
• 24% due to saving the products for later consideration
• 22" due to unclear shipping costs

The infographic these statistics are pulled from also details the seven key elements that impact shoppers in the checkout process, which include buying stage, complexity of checkout process and level of engagement; and the top 10 conversion optimisation problems - some of which are very easily remedied, such as confusing page designs and too many calls to action (CTAs).

Knowing your audience is key as well, and research from Forrester has shown that:

• Women are more sensitive to shipping costs.
• Men are less likely to abandon baskets.
• The typical abandoner has been shopping online longer than non-abandoners.
• Some customers will only complete a purchase online if a promotion is offered or if the item they are interested in is then re-marketed to them.

5 tips for preventing shopping basket abandonment

Tip 01 - Allow guest checkout.

In all of the research this is coming out as a key success factor in driving abandonment rates down. Obviously you need key information such as their name, email address and card details, but stop there. You’ve then got all you need for your contact database and the customer isn’t forced to go through a lengthy process answering unnecessary questions. Design the checkout process so that it gives them the option of creating an account right at the end once the sale is complete by just registering a password. Simplicity is key, and by providing a painfree checkout process you’ll have increased customer satisfaction immediately.

Tip 02 - Watch what you say.

Pushy sales language is off-putting and makes customers feel like they are being harangued - never a good feeling, and especially bad if many of your customers’ purchases are impulse buys. If you’re guilty of bombarding customers with ‘Buy it now - last chance’ and other messages of a similar vein, redesign your promotional banners and checkout pages to be more subtle and softly persuasive. Think more along the lines of the ‘Customers who bought this also liked these’ approach.

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Tip 03 - Use thumbnails to show what’s in the basket.

Having thumbnail images of the items included in a shopping basket displayed on the checkout page reassures shoppers that they are buying the right things. Including these can increase conversion rates by 10% as shoppers don’t get confused and feel like they have to start the process all over again.

Tip 04 - Follow-up with abandoners using email marketing.

This tactic has been proven to be very effective; 2013 statistics show that 48.1% of basket abandonment follow-up emails were opened, 14.9% were clicked and 33.3% of clickers went on to complete a purchase. This article from Internet Retailer outlines the success of specialist DVD ecommerce site Movies Unlimited, which ran a campaign that emailed shoppers 24 hours after they abandoned a basket. It gave them options to buy the items, save the basket for later or clear the basket. If shoppers didn’t respond, they received a second email offering the same options. In the first three weeks of the campaign, Movies Unlimited saw a 1.5% increase in purchase transactions that it attributed directly to recapturing sales from abandoned baskets using follow-up emails.

Tip 05 - Offer the best payment options.

Concerns about payment security came high on the list of reasons why shoppers don’t complete the checkout process in research by Econsultancy, with 58% of respondents saying that it was a concern. Be upfront about the security procedures you have in place to keep their data secure and consider offering PayPal options. Apparently 83% of online stores that implemented PayPal on their site saw an increase in sales of up to 18%.

Takeaways

Despite the statistics showing that rates of abandonment have remained at around the same levels for the past three years, you can deploy some simple remedies to improve the sales conversions on your site.

Remember to:

• Allow guest checkout.
• Simplify your checkout process and page design.
• Offer the best payment options and reassure shoppers about your site’s security.
• Proofread your site for typos.
• Make sure it’s easy for shoppers to contact your customer service team.
• Be upfront about shipping costs.
• Follow-up customers that abandon with emails that give them options to buy, save or clear the basket.