How to Turn Cart Abandonment into Conversions

If you run an online store and track sales and conversions of your e-commerce website, you may notice that customers are filling up their online shopping carts with products but not completing the purchase. This behaviour suggests that the online shoppers are interested in your products enough to consider purchasing, but something is stopping them from following through or converting. 

While this cart abandonment phenomenon is unavoidable in some cases, with the right strategy and e-commerce website design, you can reduce cart abandonment and boost online sales.

In early 2021, research found that around 80% of online shopping sessions resulted in cart abandonment. Data suggests that the automotive, airline, luxury, and travel industries had the highest cart abandonment rates, hovering between 85% to 90%. High cart abandonment is frustrating for businesses running e-commerce websites, but it's not impossible to manage.

Here are a few ways you can leverage digital marketing strategies and intuitive e-commerce website design to improve conversions online. 

Product Listings 

One of the most apparent reasons shoppers abandon their cart is because the total price for the products they're interested in exceeds their expectations. To avoid this problem, manage expectations right from the start. Be transparent about the costs of your products, adapt your ecommerce website to filter and sort prices and product variations so shoppers can explore your offerings with greater ease to find the best fit for their needs and budget. 

User Experience (UX)

User experience is key to retaining online customers and should be considered at every point of your e-commerce website design by your website development team. The more challenging visitors find moving around your website, the less likely they will be to convert. To optimize navigation and discourage cart abandonment, consider your page load speed, mobile usability, and easy navigation from one page to the next. If it’s taking longer than a couple of seconds to load any given page on your website, it is enough to send an online shopper away to another competitor. 

Google Ads & PPC Marketing

Running Ads online is an opportunity to advertise your e-commerce website directly to your target customer. By working with an Ads expert or a local digital marketing agency, you can effectively fine tune your Ads to target according to lifestyle, interests, income, gender, and location. These targeting options allow you to bring visitors to your online store who are most likely to purchase because their profile aligns with your business. 

Email Marketing

A likely reason why shoppers are abandoning their cart may have nothing to do with your e-commerce website design but could just be the result of a shopper taking some time to consider their purchase. This is especially common with non-essential items like fashion, décor, and even travel. 

Email marketing is one of the most effective and direct channels to communicate with your potential customers. As such, a personalized email sent to a potential customer after they've abandoned their cart can help you convert that sale. To garner the best results, these emails should feature relevant copy and compelling images. It should also be sent within a day of cart abandonment. By waiting too long to send a follow up email reminding the recipient that they have items in their cart, they could lose interest, leaving them less likely to convert. On the other hand, sending an email too soon after a potential customer leaves your e-commerce website can overwhelm or annoy recipients. Work with a local email and digital marketing agency to leverage A/B testing and analytics to finetune the best email marketing strategy for your business and customers. 

Promo Codes & Exclusive Offers 

Psychological studies suggest incorporating FOMO or the "fear of missing out" into your website or marketing content significantly improves online conversions and e-commerce sales. When shoppers add items to their cart but ultimately abandon their cart, they often need an extra push to convert. In this case, a limited-time offer creates a sense of urgency that encourages online shoppers to complete their purchases. 

Paid ads, social media marketing, and, once again, email marketing are all great ways to promote your deals, but the most important place to showcase your limited-time offers is on your e-commerce website itself. Try displaying promotional offers on the shop page and your website's home page. 

Time Limits on Cart 

In some cases, shoppers fill their cart to work out the cost and then leave the e-commerce websites to explore competitors and compare. Time limits on items in the cart can help to generate instant conversions. If items left in online shopping carts are no longer being held for customers, it creates the concern that those items will go out of stock or be sold out by the time they're ready to return. You can show the time limit with a pop-up on your checkout page and in the shopping cart.

Payment Processor

Despite the e-commerce boom over the last few years, there still remains some hesitation regarding the security of online shopping. With cautious shoppers, the payment processor your e-commerce website uses can make all the difference in whether a customer converts. If your payment processor fails to complete a purchase, shoppers often second guess the legitimacy of the site in fear of security breaches. To overcome this concern, choose a familiar and reliable payment processor your customers will recognize and trust and display on your website which payment process your store uses. 

Trust Building 

If your brand is considerably new or unrecognized, there is a higher chance that customers will think twice about making a purchase simply because it's unfamiliar. Brand recognition is vital to trust, especially when it comes to online transactions. Your e-commerce website should feature awards, reviews, and business certifications like a BBB accreditation to enhance feelings of security and trust. These features help online shoppers feel more comfortable entering their personal identification data and banking information online, leading to more online sales. 

Smart brand awareness campaigns can help with your trust factor by boosting brand recognition. Research says it takes about 7 interactions with a brand for someone to be able to recognize it and feel comfortable purchasing. Digital marketing is a great way to put your branding in front of new audiences. 

• Leverage social media marketing to use ads and organic postings to give your business a notable presence on online platforms related to your industry like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, and more. 
• Search engine optimization services are traditionally used to boost search engine rankings on Google, Yahoo, and Bing!, but they can also increase brand awareness and trust. By ranking your e-commerce website in the top results, potential customers will see your brand as they search. Your e-commerce website will be more authoritative and reputable the higher your website ranks on relevant and popular search queries. 
• Remarketing ads or retargeting increases views of your marketing material online to increase the ease with which your target customers identify your brand. Remarketing targets online searchers who have previously interacted with your marketing material, presenting them with your ads again, building a sense of familiarity and eventually trust. Statistics show that when executed strategically, remarketing ads increase online conversion rates.

Your brand awareness and trust-building strategy should always be tailored to your industry, product offering, and competitor analysis. But it's important to note that the more places your business can be found, the more reputable your e-commerce website appears to shoppers. 

Working with an E-Commerce Website Development Team 

Cart abandonment is a frustrating problem, but it's not unbeatable. Working with a skilled e-commerce website development company that you can trust, and an expert digital marketing agency can help you overcome the setbacks of cart abandonment to increase conversions and profitability. Xi Digital is a website development firm and a proven digital marketing agency that specializes in e-commerce website design & development as well as pay-per-click marketing, search engine optimization or search engine marketing, social media marketing, and much more! To learn how we can help you boost your sales online, contact our team today for a consultation. 

Contact us today to learn more!