Why do buyers bail out ?

[FiFi Fashions]

Hi all,
I have a website selling dog clothes and accessories.
Strangely my hit rate went up about 10 days ago from averaging around 50 hits a day to over 100 hits a day, I don't know why but I'm not complaining
I spend a whopping £30 a month on PPC and get around half my traffic from this source.
However my question is I get one or two "buyers" every couple of days that bail out of the buying process at stage 1. Stage one in my cart is where the buyer has added the product to the cart but then abandoned it. I get the occassional stage 3 buyer bailing out as well(stage three being where the buyer has entered all their details as well as the product)
So why do these buyers bail out ?
It's very frustrating as if only half these buyers went the whole hog and actually paid for the products I would be in a much healthier position
many thanks,
Anthony - FiFi Fashions

 

[downsouth]

You'll prob see a lot of customers adding products into the basket to check the shipping, not like what they see then go.

Another reason may be that your checkout process too long??

 

[deniser]

Is everything clear in terms of postage amount, despatch time, returns policy etc. clear before they enter the buying process?

What payment methods do you accept? Paypal can put a lot of people off as can not having Paypal depending on the individual.

Abandoned items in carts is normal. I always add things to my basket as I am browsing make a decision to buy afterwards depending on whether I found enough things to buy to make the delivery charge worthwhile.

 

[Idontbuy]

Do they have to register at stage one?

Or register any where, this really puts me off.

 

[Piqueperfumes]

We get a few also. Not many and recently some have come back after a day or two and bought, so I guess they are shopping around. We have delivery rates on our front page (as this can be an issue if people can't find them quickly). We don't ask people to register as we are sure this is a turn off for a lot of people.

I think its a pretty normal part of online selling, but in our experience they may not be gone forever.

 

[FiFi Fashions]

Thanks for the replies,
I have a whacking great banner on the top of the home page plainly stating all products are sent with FREE postage so I don't think it's that

I accept PayPal and credit cards through RBSWorldpay so I don't think it's that

The checkout procedure is not overly arduous and seeing as they are bailing out at stage 1 it can't really be that

As I say I'm not sure what it is but it's disappointing:|

regards,
Anthony

 

[OldWelshGuy]

are you displaying out of stock items? often times someone will intend buying multiple items, but then the secondary items are out of stock, so they leave.

 

[FiFi Fashions]

are you displaying out of stock items? often times someone will intend buying multiple items, but then the secondary items are out of stock, so they leave.

Not really, I do sell some American items that I don't have in stock but clearly state that there is up to a 21 day delivery period. Maybe that could be the reason, interesting.

 

[AndyP]

Thanks for the replies,
I have a whacking great banner on the top of the home page plainly stating all products are sent with FREE postage so I don't think it's that

...

Don't fall into the trap of thinking that visitors are reading a book where they start at your homepage and work their way through to the end. Most visitors will enter the site somewhere in the middle via a link for a product (PPC etc) and a high pencentage will never actually go to your homepage and will therefore miss your banner.

Try incorporating important stuff into your product template or the toolbar or menu or footer so that it displays on every page. That might help..but as others have said, basket abandonment is not unusual. How do you shop? I know that I look at the product and very often go to the checkout to see the process and see the total amount payable...plus of course your competitors will also be doing just that as well...know your enemy etc!

 

[FiFi Fashions]

Don't fall into the trap of thinking that visitors are reading a book where they start at your homepage and work their way through to the end. Most visitors will enter the site somewhere in the middle via a link for a product (PPC etc) and a high pencentage will never actually go to your homepage and will therefore miss your banner.

Try incorporating important stuff into your product template or the toolbar or menu or footer so that it displays on every page. That might help..but as others have said, basket abandonment is not unusual. How do you shop? I know that I look at the product and very often go to the checkout to see the process and see the total amount payable...plus of course your competitors will also be doing just that as well...know your enemy etc!

Actually that's an excellent point about the free shippiing. I really think it gives me an edge over many of my competitors but you're right with it not being on every page some would miss it.
I will attend to the issue straight away and make sure it's on EVERY page, thanks for pointing that out,
Anthony

 

[AndyP]

I've just been having a good browse around your site. You have some great products that really are at a good price point. Please don't take this the wrong way but IMO I think one big problem is that, frankly, the site is incredibly dull. You are speaking to dog owners with a bit of flair and style and, to be honest, as great as your products are, this aspect is sadly lacking throughout the site. Obviously this is just my opinion but if it were me I would seriously consider giving the site a bit of a makeover....some "pizazz", camp it up a bit.... your site is an entertainment extravagana just waiting to happen. You need to make people smile as they shop. These are products that will be impulse buys for a lot of people.....you need to make them feel that they can't leave without buying something.... I love this site.....it just needs some knock 'em dead flair!

 

[owas]

we get this about 2 in every 10 orders, they place the order put all the detials in and then dont pay, we dont have a registration part yet (not my toy site btw) We give it about a day or so if they havent called to pay then we send them an email, along the lines of sorry you could not complete your transaction, was this due to an error on our site, we usally get either payments or useful feedback, such as I found it cheaper elsewhere and then we can offer discount for next time or apologise, I would say that out of 5 emails we send 2 will pay.

 

[CaterTrade]

The three things I can see in the checkout process are thus.

Text on the cart page reads: "Note: Total does not include tax, shipping, and handling rates. These will be calculated during check out."

Didn't you say it is free shipping? You might be confusing people

The coupon input field might be making people wander off to google looking for codes.

Proceed to checkout button could be a bit more visible.

However, at the end of the day there's nowt so queer as folk and people will do the strangest things at times.

 

[FiFi Fashions]

I've just been having a good browse around your site. You have some great products that really are at a good price point. Please don't take this the wrong way but IMO I think one big problem is that, frankly, the site is incredibly dull. You are speaking to dog owners with a bit of flair and style and, to be honest, as great as your products are, this aspect is sadly lacking throughout the site. Obviously this is just my opinion but if it were me I would seriously consider giving the site a bit of a makeover....some "pizazz", camp it up a bit.... your site is an entertainment extravagana just waiting to happen. You need to make people smile as they shop. These are products that will be impulse buys for a lot of people.....you need to make them feel that they can't leave without buying something.... I love this site.....it just needs some knock 'em dead flair!

Thank Andy for some truly constructive criticism
I know exactly what you mean. I do feel I'm almost there with the content and products but like you I feel there is something missing...."pizazz" as you say. I work hard on trying to provide for my customers, articles, blog, entertaining product descriptions(not on every product yet but I'm getting there) etc but I too would like to make it feel a bit more "light-hearted". You've certainly given me a lot to think about. For a while now I've felt close but wasn't sure where to go from here to get to the next level. Maybe you've helped me discover the answer. All I've got to do now is work out how
regards,
Anthony

btw. as regards the products I've got some really interesting and unique stuff going on the site soon which I hope will be given the showcase they deserve by my site

 

[FiFi Fashions]

The three things I can see in the checkout process are thus.

Text on the cart page reads: "Note: Total does not include tax, shipping, and handling rates. These will be calculated during check out."

Didn't you say it is free shipping? You might be confusing people

The coupon input field might be making people wander off to google looking for codes.

Proceed to checkout button could be a bit more visible.

However, at the end of the day there's nowt so queer as folk and people will do the strangest things at times.

This is great feedback,thanks.
I will look into changing the checkout routine to remove the issues you've mentioned,
regards,
Anthony

 

[AndyP]

Thank Andy for some truly constructive criticism
.....

It will always be "work in progress". You can't do everything at once (well, you can, if you have deep pockets) but make yourself a rule to update, change and improve at least one thing a day...thats seven things a week....scale that up and who knows where you will be this time next year!

Go for it. Keep the vision!

 

[deniser]

I don't have a dog but I love the testimonials section with the pictures of the dogs in their coats. You could capitalise a bit more on the people wanting to show off their pets aspect of your site with photo galleries, fan photos, photo competitions that you enter every dog into who is wearing one of your clothing items etc. This might just push them to buy where they are only thinking of it.

I do this with (not with animals) and it is remarkably popular.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Your PPC is not really massive we spend over £3000 each month and many spend many multiples of that, so £30 is not agreat deal

Free postage may be seen that the prices are high to cover the postage costs and therefore if you buy say three items you are paying three times a normal postage rate as apposed to buying a single item.

All sites get drop outs at some time, I guess it's like browsing in a shop, asking the sales assistant about something, playing with it and then walking out without it.

Nowdays all customers expect to pay postage so I dont think free postage is a winner, they understand you get nought for nought, no free lunches so the money must go some where

 

[AndyP]

Your PPC is not really massive we spend over £3000 each month and many spend many multiples of that, so £30 is not agreat deal

Free postage may be seen that the prices are high to cover the postage costs and therefore if you buy say three items you are paying three times a normal postage rate as apposed to buying a single item.

All sites get drop outs at some time, I guess it's like browsing in a shop, asking the sales assistant about something, playing with it and then walking out without it.

Nowdays all customers expect to pay postage so I dont think free postage is a winner, they understand you get nought for nought, no free lunches so the money must go some where

Sorry but I have to totally disagree with your statement on free postage. This may be the case in your experience but certainly, in ours, free postage has been an absolute winner. I understand what you are saying about price loading but not everyone actually does this and I think its a mistake to assume that the public at large believes this to be the case. It should also be noted that your site is B2B for the most part whereas the OP's is B2C - two very different animals.

I also think that the OP's comment about his ppc spend was a little tongue in cheek. I am sure that when he has the budget available to him he will also increase his spend but organic growth based on what you can afford to lose must surely be a better way forward than jumping headlong into a massive spend that you cannot afford without the sales to finance it. Too many people have approached bankruptcy fast using this stategy.

 

[deniser]

We didn't notice any difference when we took free postage away.

It depends though what postage actually is.

Psychologically people don't seem to mind paying £2.50, £2.95 or even £3.50 but higher than that and people start to take it into account much more. I haven't looked to see if you stock heavier items but on collars and clothing I would have thought you could keep it fairly low. No-one would even blink at £1.95.

 

[FiFi Fashions]

Hmm interesting stuff here.
The spend of £30 per month was indeed tongue in cheek
I realise that by increasing my PPC I would increase traffic but I have laid out quite a large sum of money to build the site and buy stock etc so I'm being a little cautious at the moment where PPC is concerned. I will of course increase my budget when finances permit.
With regard to free postage I simply used my own experience. If I visit a website which offers free postage then providing the goods are the same and the price is close I will ALWAYS go back to the site offering free postage. I will happily pay a little more for the actual goods if free postage is included. I HATE it when you have a basket full of goodies and then you get to the end and bingo ! there's an added postage charge. At the moment I kind of take the postage costs on the chin ie: I don't build it into the price. Maybe this will change further down the line. I'll just have to wait and see on that front.

 

[FiFi Fashions]

I don't have a dog but I love the testimonials section with the pictures of the dogs in their coats. You could capitalise a bit more on the people wanting to show off their pets aspect of your site with photo galleries, fan photos, photo competitions that you enter every dog into who is wearing one of your clothing items etc. This might just push them to buy where they are only thinking of it.

I do this with (not with animals) and it is remarkably popular.

Hi,
thanks for you reply.
I have quite a lot of pictures of my customer's dogs on the website under the "Customers Dogs" section
I recently sent out a newsletter offering a prize for anyone commenting on my blog so next time I will offer a prize for the best picture of a customers dog wearing a FiFi Fashions outfit, in fact I may well just run a competition on the website. I also have some incredible testimonials (some even handwritten and posted !! ) which I should really have on the site. One customer from Italy has written some fantastic stuff on her well known blog about FiFi Fashions and the customer service she has had from me
When I set the site up I was determined that my customer service would be top notch, so far so good
regards,
Anthony

 

[deniser]

Hi,
thanks for you reply.
I have quite a lot of pictures of my customer's dogs on the website under the "Customers Dogs" section
I recently sent out a newsletter offering a prize for anyone commenting on my blog so next time I will offer a prize for the best picture of a customers dog wearing a FiFi Fashions outfit, in fact I may well just run a competition on the website. I also have some incredible testimonials (some even handwritten and posted !! ) which I should really have on the site. One customer from Italy has written some fantastic stuff on her well known blog about FiFi Fashions and the customer service she has had from me
When I set the site up I was determined that my customer service would be top notch, so far so good
regards,
Anthony

Facebook is also a great place to do this. You have a good FB page but no Fans.

 

[James1980]

http://www.permuto.com/blog/2010/06/17/the-ins-and-outs-of-the-abandoned-cart/

 

[AndyP]

309.5 billion? I think somebody needs a better proof reader!

 

[mobyme]

309.5 billion? I think somebody needs a better proof reader!

Its American billions. Their billion is one thousand million (1000,000,000) against ours which is one million million (1,000,000,000,000)

 

[AndyP]

Its American billions. Their billion is one thousand million (1000,000,000) against ours which is one million million (1,000,000,000,000)

I don't think so...I think its simply a mistake...it should read 309.5 million. Although you are correct of course that a US billion is different to a UK billion.

 

[deniser]

The percentages for reasons carts are abandoned don't add up to 100% so people must have more than one reason for abandoning the carts - or am I misunderstanding?

 

[FiFi Fashions]

Facebook is also a great place to do this. You have a good FB page but no Fans.

A bit sad isn't it ?
I really need t owork on recruiting people to my facebook page but just don't seem to have the time at the moment (not sure of the best way of going about it either )

regards,
Anthony

 

[deniser]

A bit sad isn't it ?
I really need t owork on recruiting people to my facebook page but just don't seem to have the time at the moment (not sure of the best way of going about it either )

regards,
Anthony

Do you have a personal FB page? If so you could start by suggesting it to your Friends. Once a few people catch on it soon spreads.