Abandoned Carts

[flare91]

Hello,

I checked the number of abandoned carts on my website, and the number is shocking. To think of all that lost business, it makes the mind boggle!

I've checked the checkout process, and there doesn't seem to be a problem with it. I've also asked friends to check it out, and again, they seem to think it is fine.

I was just wondering if you could all let me know what you think of the checkout process? Obviously, you don't have to buy anything, but if you could just go until the point of payment? Like I said, I've done it dozens of times, and it all seems to be fine! Here's the link:

http://www.empireteaandspice.com/Default.asp


Any feedback (positive or negative) would be great. Thanks!

 

[webgeek]

I would guess it comes down to:

1) The checkout process requires something on the order of 4 screens to complete. If you had a 1-step checkout, your abandonment would drop considerably.
2) The initial shipping calculator didn't give a value. Then, late in the process when it does work, the shipping cost is 4x the product cost.

I would bet a large sum than most of your abandonment is due to shipping sticker shock. If you put some sample shipping costs up front, or did a geo ip lookup and defaulted to showing shipping in that location, you would probably find the up-front honesty would stop people from adding items to their cart and then never completing the sale. You would likely then find that people didn't add anything to the cart...

Consider pricing your products with shipping included (again geoip). You'll quickly weed out tire-kickers and just keep those genuine buyers on site.

 

[flare91]

Thanks for taking the time out to have a look!

I agree with you on somethings. I however, get the shipping price when I put in my post code and the such?

I don't really like that "calculate shipping" section on the cart, but I spoke to volusion (my host) and they said you can't get rid of it.

In regards to shipping prices, the price was £2.00, and I absorbed the £1.50. Recently though, I reduced my prices because business was slow. Therefore, I'm already not making much on each product and adding the £3.50 for recorded delivery would make an average product go from £3.50 to £7.00, which would price me right out.

The next day delivery option is obviously there for people who don't mind paying the price to get their products early: that's just what I pay at the post office, and so I'm not making anything on it.

In regards to geo-ip look up: is there much HTML involved with integrating this? Or is it common on ecommerce hosts?

I don't know: it seems that I may have misjudged the market on this one :|

 

[webgeek]

I'd bet you'll find that if the host can't sort the shipping, a geo-ip function will be monumental. It never hurts to ask.

The two obstacles to overcome are the multi-step checkout being streamlined in any way you can, and giving customers fair warning as to how high the shipping prices will be to their location. Otherwise, you'll just have to accept that there will be a lot of sticker shock abandonment (from these 2 causes).

Surely there are other things that could be done to improve conversion optimisation - hopefully the other kind folks will chip in some advice.

 

[Fred_the_frog]

I agree with the shipping module thing- when I used it it said the total was £3.50 (The product cost £3.50) so I thought it was free shipping. Then I got to the next page and it said it was £3.50 for shipping. I think that is one reason.

The next reason is when you fill out the form on the next page, you get to the bottom (when you select paypal) and there is no button which says 'continue' or 'next' which confused me a little, until I saw it on the side. I still wasn't sure if that was the correct button to press, so maybe stick a button at the bottom or make it more clear which button to click.

Which platform are you running the shop on?

 

[flare91]

Thanks!

I'll certainly contact them about geo-ip shipping.

In regards to shipping prices: There is a "shipping" page on the site, but I doubt anyone visits it. I usually never do when I'm on a website: I just wait until it tells me. I don't find £3.50 to be amazingly high though. Different folks, different strokes though, I suppose.

 

[flare91]

Apologies Fred, didn't quite see your post. I see what you mean: the 'place order' button is relatively high up on the side, even though you will probably be right at the bottom when you've finished selecting payment type.

I just tried out what you did: It does give you the 'optional' feature of giving your postcode to calculate shipping, but if you didn't do that, it will say "Shipping: £0.00" until you fill out your address.

I think the reason for that, is because most of the people who use the platform will probably be from USA, where shipping costs (I assume) vary greatly from one state to another.

I use Volusion to host my site: It was the cheapest, cleanest, and easiest of the platforms I tried out.

 

[Fred_the_frog]

Apologies Fred, didn't quite see your post. I see what you mean: the 'place order' button is relatively high up on the side, even though you will probably be right at the bottom when you've finished selecting payment type.

I just tried out what you did: It does give you the 'optional' feature of giving your postcode to calculate shipping, but if you didn't do that, it will say "Shipping: £0.00" until you fill out your address.

I think the reason for that, is because most of the people who use the platform will probably be from USA, where shipping costs (I assume) vary greatly from one state to another.

I use Volusion to host my site: It was the cheapest, cleanest, and easiest of the platforms I tried out.

Oh, I just tried it again and it did work. I only put the post code in first time. Because the 'type of address' box had a *, I had the impression that you only needed to put the post code OR county, and select the type of address.

Also, the postage cost depends on the value of the item. A product costing £150 with a shipping cost of £3.50 is good, but a product costing £1 with shipping of £3.50 is a different story!

 

[flare91]

Should I maybe reduce the delivery costs back to £2 and take a hit absorbing it?

I only recently changed the price for delivery to £3.50, but a lot of the abandoned carts were before the change. I doubt it helps though.

 

[webgeek]

Test it one way for a week or two, then the other for a week or two and compare your conversion rates and total profit - then decide which one makes sense

 

[QuickHomeBuyers]

And what difference does it make to ship to a residential address or business address? Unnecessary complication.

 

[flare91]

Completely agree: Not sure why that is there, but like I said, I can't remove it!

 

[Liybpg]

Why do I need to register in order to order? this is a big turn off for me personally. For something small I would probably go to another website or amazon to avoid this.

We are currently running a free offer on a service which will allow your website to be reviewed by hundreds of users who will provide feedback on your website and will also be incentivised to buy - so double win. As I said, it is currently free of charge, no nothing to lose if you want to get a broader opinion. If you are interested, please send me a PM.

 

[flare91]

Why do I need to register in order to order? this is a big turn off for me personally. For something small I would probably go to another website or amazon to avoid this.

You don't have to register to checkout: I made sure this wasn't the case, because I don't like that when shopping myself. At the bottom of the page (on the cart) it says:

"On the next page you'll be able to create a personal account or checkout anonymously."

And the customer will choose to register, or they can not.

Thanks for having a look though

 

[flare91]

do we have a "Bob the Knob" in the house?

 

[Liybpg]

You don't have to register to checkout: I made sure this wasn't the case, because I don't like that when shopping myself. At the bottom of the page (on the cart) it says:

"On the next page you'll be able to create a personal account or checkout anonymously."

And the customer will choose to register, or they can not.

Thanks for having a look though

Sorry, did not notice -only had a brief look. It is possibly the case through that other customers might think you need to register to buy? Don't know how much you can change, but something like: fill in details to register on the left and a button 'proceed without registration'?

 

[flare91]

Sorry, did not notice -only had a brief look. It is possibly the case through that other customers might think you need to register to buy? Don't know how much you can change, but something like: fill in details to register on the left and a button 'proceed without registration'?

That's a great Idea : I'll ask have to find the relevant button, but shouldn't be hard!

Thanks again

 

[mpunaskar]

As a consumer i hate to see ecommerce sites asking me to register before i can give them my money. I just want to order stuff and go away.

I would say - Remove registration form entirely

Let people :
STEP 1> add stuff to their cart
STEP 2> see total on checkout page and click pay now button
STEP 3> fill in cc number and click submit on payment page
STEP 4> Thanks Page to show order was placed sucessfully

Then send them order# number via email (which they can use for tracking)

Hope it helps.

 

[flare91]

As a consumer i hate to see ecommerce sites asking me to register before i can give them my money. I just want to order stuff and go away.

I would say - Remove registration form entirely

Let people :
STEP 1> add stuff to their cart
STEP 2> see total on checkout page and click pay now button
STEP 3> fill in cc number and click submit on payment page
STEP 4> Thanks Page to show order was placed sucessfully

Then send them order# number via email (which they can use for tracking)

Hope it helps.

I think there's a place for both registration, and anonymous checkout. If I shop somewhere regularly (e.g. Amazon) I actually want to have an account, so they can save my CCdetails, or so I can view past order, check progress on current orders, print old invoices, etc etc.

So although I despise forced registration, I think there's definitely a place for customer accounts.

It's also a great way for me to keep a track of what certain customers buy, and to check other info should I need to.

 

[mpunaskar]

I think there's a place for both registration, and anonymous checkout. If I shop somewhere regularly (e.g. Amazon)

I agree, but in case of OP whats the % of business coming from :

1> New Visitors
2> Repeat Buyers

If there are loads of shopping card abandonment i suspect that % of new visitors (one time shoppers) is higher.