Want to know an alarming stat about e-commerce? Merchants are losing as much as 42% of potential sales due to checkout abandonment! And we do mean checkout, not cart abandonment. There are a lot of different tactics out there to help with cart abandonment, but what about when your customers’ payments aren’t going through? These are the more critical conversions you may be missing on your e-commerce site that a retargeting email won’t help you with. Sales are being lost on the actual checkout page itself – not a moment before. The reason for this abandonment is due to checkout friction, lack of consumer confidence and payment processing declines. Fortunately, merchants can take specific actions to remedy these problem areas and reclaim that lost revenue.
Here are 8 proven ways merchants can eliminate the friction and increase sales by as much as 42%.
- Implement Subscription Based Pricing
Subscription based pricing gives merchants a tool for engaging and retaining customers. Instead of selling one-off products or services, subscription based pricing allows merchants to lock in customers with a recurring, scheduled purchase. This is not only beneficial to the merchant who receives a steady revenue stream, but it is beneficial to the customer who is ensured they will receive their product on time and on schedule according to their timetable.
- Proactively Manage Fraud Rules
Certain fraud prevention techniques can hamper conversions by creating an excessive amount of friction. For example, large ticket transactions are much more likely to be declined than smaller ones. If a merchant offers subscription billing, perhaps on a yearly basis, the bill could be quite high and end up being flagged as fraud. However, if that merchant breaks up the annual subscription of $2,000 into four payments of $500, there is decreased risk the transaction will be declined.
- Add Security Logos and Badges
It’s no surprise that shoppers are concerned about site security when it comes to entering their personal and financial information to make a purchase. Merchants need to ensure there is no question in a customer’s mind as to the security of their site. This can be done through adding security logos and badges prominently on the checkout pages, reminding shoppers that they are on a trusted and secure site.
- Offer Free Shipping
Offering free shipping will deter budget conscious shoppers from abandoning their carts. If a customer is shopping within a budget and then finds out shipping will cost them $25, for example, they are likely to abandon their cart, taking their purchase to a competitor who offers shipping free of charge. According to the Checkout Conversion Index, 93 percent of the best sites (in a study of over 650 e-commercewebsites) offer free shipping.
- Offer Coupons
Coupons can act as multi-purpose tools for generating more traffic to a site, re-engaging customers, sustaining customer relationships and increasing conversions – all of which drives revenue.
- Limit the Steps and Fields Shoppers are Required to Fill Out
Merchants who require a shopper to complete fewer steps and fewer form fields are more likely to convert that shopper into a paying customer. This means allowing a customer’s shipping address to be the same as their billing address, eliminating the question that asks “type of payment” (this should be recognized automatically when a credit card number is entered) and denoting which fields are required and which are optional.
- Offer Live help
When a shopper needs help, they need it immediately. Nobody wants to wait for a call back or wait on hold. In fact, a Forrester stat claims that “44% of online consumers say that having questions answered by a live person while in the middle of an online purchase is one of the most important features a Web site can offer.”
- Don’t Be Afraid to Go Global
Local currency, language, payment types, and connections to banks around the world are becoming increasingly important. As we’ve mentioned before, customers want to feel at home when they shop. With the cross-border e-commerce market growing at booming rates, merchants need to be aware of how this affects e-commerce. For detailed tips on how to go global, continue reading here.
By implementing these 8 strategies, merchants will increase conversions and consequently generate greater revenue. The Checkout Conversion Calculator, recently created by BlueSnap, helps merchants identify the areas of weakness within their checkout process so they can pinpoint exactly where they are losing the most sales and why.
