The problem of an abandoned shopping cart is a significant factor that hinders the success of e-commerce businesses, as evidenced by the statistics that show that two-thirds of carts are abandoned.
Reports from the e-Commerce platform Shopify show that, on average, 67% of online shopping carts are abandoned, revealing that e-retail stores are not engaging proactively with potential customers.
How Real-Time Advanced Analytics Helps in Reducing Cart Abandonment
This leads to losing out on a huge opportunity to encourage and keep customers interested in your products, ultimately generating conversions and sales.
A common reason for cart abandonment is customers being undecided about a purchase. But this is not the sole reason. Undecided customers account for only a small percentage, among many other reasons why they abandon carts before finalizing a purchase.
In the first section of this article, let us tell you five ways to ensure your customers do not abandon their shopping carts in your e-Commerce store.
Remaining accessible throughout the checkout process makes customers more comfortable with last-minute queries, reducing the chances of cart abandonment.
It is common for customers to have several questions about products they are considering buying. These queries may not be adequately addressed through the FAQ section on your product listing page. Therefore, you must be easily accessible to address such pre-checkout product queries. It does matter how responsive you are to customers because a quick response during this critical purchase process can spell success or failure for your business.
Only 24% of customers prefer to fill out an online query form to ask questions during checkout, while 75% of customers believe a phone call is the fastest way to respond.
Hold abandoned cart items so it will be easier for returning customers to find the products they had selected earlier.
Customers may commonly delay purchases at least two days after their first visit to your e-Commerce site. However, an abandoned cart doesn’t mean the end of a transaction. Reports reveal that 55% of customers leave their shopping cart before checkout because they are not ready to buy, expecting their chosen items to be saved later.
If you want to boost your conversion rates, consider making it easier for returning customers to access carts in progress.
Try sending a shopping cart abandonment e-mail to remind potential customers that they’ve left some items unpurchased. According to reports from SaleCycle, almost half of all abandoned cart e-mails are opened, and more than one-third of clicks lead to purchases back on the site. This makes these targeted e-mail campaigns ideal for increasing conversions.
Reports reveal that just 2% of shoppers convert on the first visit to an online store. E-Commerce brands must attempt to re-engage prospective customers wherever possible, and retargeting on social media channels is a good choice. Retargeting can increase click-through rates, develop brand loyalty and increase brand exposure.
Suppose a customer has left an item in the shopping cart. In that case, the e-Commerce business can try to serve retargeting ads featuring the abandoned product on social media to rekindle interest in the abandoned purchase. Retargeting campaigns increase conversions because they are personalized based on a customer’s recent e-Commerce browsing habits and preferences.
Allow Guest Checkout to encourage new customers to complete purchases without creating an account.
Making the checkout process as frictionless as possible is crucial in boosting sales and conversions on your e-Commerce store. To this end, you must consider allowing customers to finish checkout without having to sign in or create an account on your online store. Forcing customers to create an account can adversely impact the likelihood of a successful sale.
Statistics from Business Insider’s shopping cart abandonment research reveal that being forced to log in or create an account to finish a purchase is considered by 28% of consumers as one of the most frustrating reasons for shopping cart abandonment.
Simplify the checkout process to avoid customers abandoning carts because they are asked to fill out tedious forms.
Customers shopping online expect a seamless and hassle-free experience on eCommerce websites. To offer customers an easy online experience, simplify the checkout process. This will directly affect cart abandonment rates and help increase sales and conversions. Reports show that 27% of customers abandon a purchase if the checkout process is highly tedious or complex.
The ideal checkout process must consist of three to five steps. Therefore, it would help the customer see a simple checkout trail above the checkout page, outlining the various steps in the checkout process.
Real-time e-commerce analytics can help reduce cart abandonment rates
The primary goal of the e-Commerce store owner is to gain a comprehensive understanding of the customer. To be able to serve your customers, you must be aware of their online shopping habits. Real-time advanced eCommerce analytics will help you understand your customers’ behavior.
Here are a few questions about your customers’ behavior you must consider.
- What are your customers doing before adding a product to the cart?
- At which stage in the buying process are your customers when abandoning their carts?
- Where do your customers go after they leave their shopping cart?
Rather than attempt to guess the answers to these important questions about your sales funnel, a robust analytics solution will be able to provide you with real-time data on your website and customers’ browsing habits.
Real-time analytics will give you an advantage in that you will understand your customers’ behavior patterns in real-time, as they happen, and not retrospectively through end-of-day, weekly or monthly reports.
Real-time advanced analytics data will provide reliable insights you can act on instantly.
Harnessing advanced real-time analytics for your eCommerce store will give you an enhanced visualization of e-Commerce data about shoppers visiting your store.
You can analyze shopper behavior, checkout behavior, and patterns and get a detailed glimpse at product and sales performance, among other advanced reporting metrics.
With real-time analytics powering your eCommerce store, you can leverage advanced capabilities such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to predict shopping or customer behavior patterns, detect threats and anomalies and make critical business decisions faster. This deeper level of analytics will positively impact your conversions and help you boost business on your eCommerce store.
With an in-depth analysis of your eCommerce store’s visitors and buyer behavior, you can actively take the necessary actions to increase conversions, retain customers, build brand loyalty, and boost overall business.
Author Bio: Dheeraj, a content writer at IQLECT, Bangalore, is passionate about writing content for blogs, websites, and e-mail channels, with almost three years of experience in the field. He is an alumnus of Christ University with an Honours Degree in English Studies. Dheeraj is a voracious reader and also enjoys writing fiction and poetry.
