Forum Moderators: buckworks
The main page for my online store gets just 800 to 1000 views per day. Yesterday my site had 23,000 visitors and 56,600 page views. The online store .html page got maybe 1000 views, and the individual product pages another 1000 or so.
Twelve visitors made it as far as the shopping cart which, like every shopping cart I've seen, displays the item ordered, the quantity, the grand total, and the checkout button. Eight of the twelve visitors abandoned the cart at that point.
Four visitors went on to the next page, which asks for shipping information. Only one of the four went on to the next page which asks for the credit card information. That visitor completed the sale.
So, I had a 66% cart abandonment rate, and who-knows-how-bad a conversion rate.
People are interested in the products, and some are interested enough to go to checkout. What I can't figure out is why so few complete the purchase.
Any ideas or comments are very much appreciated.
That said, are you actively touting your store and funnelling people into it? are you making the process obvious? Are there checkout links on every page (not view cart - skip the view cart and go right to the checkout page)? It sounds like you have a multi-page checkout process - which is fine - but is it clearly marked 'step 1 of 3'? Is there any way to get the shipping info from them as they shop and display the shipping rates in real time to eliminate that first screen?
Even though I include shipping and all other charges in my price, I get a lot of people calling about an item, and then what the final price will be. I don't know how much more clear I can make it.
I know that trust is paramount at the checkout page, and wonder if the fact that I sell a relatively small number of products makes it seem like it's not a real online store. I don't know.
As for promoting the site, I'm running Adwords on products that have enough profit to justify the cost. I keep working on my organic rankings, too, and am on the first page of Google for what I think are the most relevant phrases.
I wish I knew of a good consultant who could help me improve my results.
Even though I include shipping and all other charges in my price, I get a lot of people calling about an item, and then what the final price will be. I don't know how much more clear I can make it.
I hear that. The collective intelligence of the human race never fails to disappoint. :)
It could be the small number of products. Good to know that you have a checkout link on every relevant page. Could be trust issue...I assume you have an SSL cert...do you have any trust or security seals, or at least a prominent link to your terms of sale and privacy policy?
And of course, do your prices compare to the competition? Generally speaking, I myself sometimes will go to 'checkout' and then just jot down the price of everything I had in my cart and then go 'comparison shop'. Come to think of it, in this way your included shipping could be hurting you, since the price per product will initially appear higher...you may want to do some a/b testing on how to add the shipping and see if it helps.
I have a security seal, and make mention of the safe, secure checkout.
As for my prices, I'm very close to the bottom. The distributor I deal with has very good prices, so I can pass along the savings and still make a profit (10-15% is common in my niche). My retail prices are lower than what some of my competitors pay their wholesale distributors.
The people who buy from my site are generally very pleased with the prices and service. I have testimonials from customers (using real names and their cities and states) on all of the product pages as well as the checkout pages. I have enough glowing endorsements from customers that I could create several pages of testimonials.
So, I have very good prices, a very straightforward checkout process, quotes from real satisfied customers, security seals, and everything else I can think of that should encourage people to buy from me. Maybe it's just that I offer a limited number of products. If nothing else, the laws of probability would dictate that the more products I offer, the more I'll sell. The problem is finding products that have decent demand and a profit margin that justifies the time required to create original pages for the products.
Or maybe the problem is that my site is a mix of advertising, content, and ecommerce, and that mix makes people uncomfortable.
Some of the customers reply, and it really helped us to improve. Sometimes it even helped to discover tehnical problems with our cart software.
Some of the customers reply, and it really helped us to improve. Sometimes it even helped to discover technical problems with our cart software.
The collective intelligence of the human race never fails to disappoint. :)
By the way, with the world economy plummeting, it's time to stop bashing customers.
Twelve visitors made it as far as the shopping cart which, like every shopping cart I've seen, displays the item ordered, the quantity, the grand total, and the checkout button. Eight of the twelve visitors abandoned the cart at that point.
Four visitors went on to the next page, which asks for shipping information. Only one of the four went on to the next page which asks for the credit card information. That visitor completed the sale.
Just the description of the checkout process makes me think of one thing that could greatly improve (decrease) the high percent of abandoned carts.
...the ecommerce software I build stores with has "single page checkout". (It accomplishes this by doing live rate shipping calculation on any item that doesn't have a flat rate or free shipping --- before checkout while the customer is shopping).
In also captures abandoned cart info, (if the user gets as far as filling in their name and address -- but no credit card info).
Nothing bugs me more (personally) than page after page of checkout steps -- especially if their isn't good error handling, (e.g.- you forget a zipcode or something and get sent back to step one or some error page telling you to click the [BACK] button.
Suggestions:
1. If you can deal with the phone, Put phone info in big, bold, red, or otherwise conspicuous font at the top and bottom of every page, (better if it's an 800 toll free number). Sometime swhen I am buying something online, I'll call and ask a 2 minute stupid question -- more to see how the customer service is and if the company is "real"..
2. Look into Live Chat software for your store like LivePerson that will let you help the customer checkout or clarify any problem they might have during checkout, (again -- put the LivePerson buttons in obvious places near possible abandonment points).. or better, at the top and bottom of every page on the site.
In these "hard economic times", a little extra customer service can set you apart from the competition.
