You’ve done the hard work to get traffic to your site – and taken extra steps throughout your marketing activity to ensure that your traffic is relevant and targeted in order to boost sales. It’s frustrating when your conversion rate then isn’t what you would expect it to be, and even more so when you can see that shoppers are placing things in their cart but simply not completing the purchase process.
Here are a few ways you can fight this drop off and boost your conversions and sales on your site. Try these tips to ensure your shoppers follow through and check out on your eCommerce website:
1. Show shipping costs upfront
Unexpected shipping costs are of the biggest conversion killers and can lead shoppers to abandon their carts and look elsewhere for a better deal. The best way to tackle and to ensure that more shoppers proceed through to the thank you page is to be transparent and clear about postage costs across your site.
Don’t wait until the consumer gets to the checkout page to present them with the cost for receiving their order, as this all but guarantees a poor conversion rate. Instead, show shipping cost on product pages and consider adding to the footer of your site too. Another tried and tested method here is to offer a choice of shipping options, so the client is in charge of the cost and speed of delivery, allowing them to choose a method which suits their needs and further ensuring they proceed to checkout.
2. Don’t force registration with lengthy forms
It’s a fact of life that we are all busy and today’s modern day shoppers don’t have the time or inclination to fill in lengthy forms to be able to complete a purchase. Streamline your form fields to the necessities, so completing the purchase doesn’t become a time consuming chore.
It’s wise to offer the option to checkout as a guest too, so the shopper isn’t forced to create an account and share lots of information with you. Allowing one click sign in from Facebook, Google or Amazon accounts can also speed up this process.
Keep in mind too that some shoppers will be visiting from a mobile device, where it’s often inconvenient to complete a lengthy form. Check your Analytics to see what percentage of your site traffic comes from mobile and if necessary, overhaul your form designs so that they accommodate the restrictions faced by mobile device users in terms of screen size.
3. Make your returns policies clear and easily accessible
Although we are all increasingly confident shopping online – and for younger generations it’s considered the norm – buying from a website does require an element of trust. After all, the shopper can’t just walk into your store if there’s a problem or pop by to return an item that’s unsuitable.
You can combat this and nurture the shopper through the checkout process by ensuring your returns and refunds policies are clear, fair and readily accessible. Consider adding a line about returns to your product page or checkout process and make sure your policies are linked in the site footer.
4. Offer live chat
It’s not a given that someone who has placed their item in their online basket is 100% certain about what they want to buy. They may have a question about which size is best for example or if their choice really is the best product for their needs. Offering a live chat on site puts customer service at the shopper’s fingertips so if they do waver, they can quickly ask any questions they need for clarity before proceeding with their purchase.
If you can’t offer live chat, make sure your customer service phone number is prominently displayed.