Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

At least a fifth of all U.S. survey respondents cited the following as very important reasons for cart abandonment:

• High shipping charges: 46 percent
• Wanted to comparison shop: 37 percent
• Lack of money: 36 percent
• Wanted to look for a coupon: 27 percent
• Wanted to shop offline: 26 percent
• Couldn`t find preferred pay option: 24 percent
• Item was unavailable at checkout: 23 percent
• Couldn`t find customer support: 22 percent
• Concerned about security of credit card data: 21 percent

-------------------------

Web Design | Best Beef Jerky | ecommerce articles | Follow vwebworld on Twitter

I think another (which paypal doesn`t really talk about) is the necessary step until completion.  I know I was using 2checkout and Paypal and didn`t see real results until I went with a merchant solution.

Jason Drohn
@jasondrohn

High shipping is probably #1 for me. I don`t comparison shop. Lack of money is sometimes the case, though only if high shipping is also true. I don`t bother with coupons. Sometimes wanting to shop offline is true for me, if there`s no expedited shipping and I want the product now. I pay with visa and paypal, so if I can`t find the preferred pay option, the place won`t be in business very long - they probably barter in sheeps and cows. Item unavailable happens once in a while. I don`t care much about customer support. I`m never worried about security.

-------------------------

Making limitless possibilities much more limited.

I`ll throw out my reasons I abandon carts on-line -
1- You have to add the item to the cart to see the price (I hate this).  Usually I`m checking prices so after it`s in the cart I get the price and leave the site.
2-The cart is a pain.  I can`t see or edit what`s in it, I can`t find the checkout button etc.
3-Shipping - I really hate vendors who offer something at a very low price, and then try to make up the difference on shipping.  I`m sure they get sales from people not paying attention, but how much return biz do they get?

This is an interesting report and it doesn't surprise that many consumers use online sites to compare prices. It does highlight that companies should ensure that whether your selling computers, laptops or any product for that matter, website usability should be top of the agenda.

------------

Matthew

HP

My tuppence, based on my painstakingly long hours spent at Google Analytic's Abandoned cart reports table:-

1. Far too many steps in the sales transaction process;
2. Too many fields in Payment form ( Its fairly common for folks to request up to 10 fields of info right on the Payment page, even from registered users)
   
3. Confusing Shopping cart sequence;
4. Aggressive and exaggerated cross-selling on pre-payment page, and ,up-selling on Payment pages ( GoDaddy is a great example)

Amending on the above points have invariably helped me decrease the abandonment rate by more than 50% each time.

Hersh

People have to be very cautious when dealing with "trial offers" over the phone that come from attractive but hidding deceptive business practice of companies such as ORTHOWHITE or  TRAVEL CHOICE, and their numerous reincarnation.

They send you a worthless trial package together with a default "program" package and you must return the program package on time, or they charge you big bucks on your credit card.

Of course you have too send the package back at your expense of time and shipping cost.  Are you willing to do that?  The value of their trial package is amybe a dollar, but it will cost you the trial package (about $5 S&H) plus the return freight.

My advice to you is don't touch ORTHOWHITE & TRAVEL CHOICE with a nine-foot stick.  They make money on their trial shipment, and huge profit if you missed the dead line to cancel their default program, which is worthless and misleading to start with.

Yes unless you deal with reputable companies such as Amazon - 100% satisfaction from me even when I don't read the books - stay away from teaser offers with a phone marketeer behind them.

-------------------------

Go Green and put more money onto your bottom line with award-winning LED-based light bulbs PearlLED. If you manage a good sized store/business and want to boost the bottom line, call us!

My shopping cart system is very simple and the rate of abandonment is very low, but my products on that web site have very low demand - wrong business or bad promotion.

But that confirms webworld's points: KISS.

-------------------------

Go Green and put more money onto your bottom line with award-winning LED-based light bulbs PearlLED. If you manage a good sized store/business and want to boost the bottom line, call us!

Regarding high shipping charges, it's no secret that companies selling via infomercials and eBay and via internet make money on shipping charges.  In volume, a box costs maybe 20 cents, postage 2-3 bucks, a first-class postage for very small items, yet they charge 6-9 bucks S&H.

-------------------------

Go Green and put more money onto your bottom line with award-winning LED-based light bulbs PearlLED. If you manage a good sized store/business and want to boost the bottom line, call us!