Forum Moderators: buckworks
Any suggestions.
an educational site that is geared to the 14-17 market
I'm not sure if you should target your site to the youths themsleves, but rather to the parents.
I am wondering if the kids go to the website and realize that they don't have a credit card and decide not to buy.
I would assume that these young folks know that they don't have a credit card right from the start. I don't expect that they would get to the checkout and be surprised by that.
Currently the site is seeing nearly a 100 people a day going to the checkout page and not checking out.
I know I often go to the checkout just to see what the total cost with shipping will be. I dunno if this is a factor.
You would think that they could get their parents to get out the credit card to pay (it is an educational product) but maybe they are too lazy or something.
Are there any usablitiy or other issues with the ecommerce system itself? Is it robust and reputable looking? Do shoppers feel like their information will be sent securely?
Perhaps shoppers are turned off by the look or feel of your shopping cart or whatever.
Of course, I'm not trying to accuse you of running a disreputable operation. I'm just exploring the possiblities of users feeling skittish about somthing.
You would think that they could get their parents to get out the credit card to pay (it is an educational product) but maybe they are too lazy or somethingit's more like the somthing, they are probably looking for free information that will help them with end of year exams and once they see they need to pay for answers to their buning questions they back out. You didn't indicate who your payment processors is, but I can tell you if your only using paypal, most people who don't have a paypal account are under the impression that one is need this reputation has hindered sites that only use paypal and I would add another payment option if that is the case. Also is your site secure when payment information is being requested using SSL? If so make it clear with some sort of text or image indicating "Secure on-line payment processing". These are just suggestions and if you have this already then you need to understand that the majority of your customers are under age and abandon carts are going to be higher due to that. There are some interesting articles on "abandon shopping carts" on the web search google,yahoo,ect for more information on how you can cut down on this.
Kids are very "right now" these days. They want it now and not later. They want it free. At least free in their heads. If you can convince them (or their parents) to buy a subscription, then in their young brains the rest is free.
You may not even really be losing anything by offering a subscription. You will probably have a large number who only use your service once and never come back, but they (and parents) may be more willing to purchase something that they feel would be something they could use for the long term.
I do like some of the ideas mentioned, especially the email a parent thing. I will bring that up to the client.
They are using an external payment service, do you think that scares people away? The biggest loss seems to be at the credit card page.
Thanks
They are using an external payment service, do you think that scares people away?
I believe that this may be an issue. If they are sent to another page for credit cards, that may throw people off. Your whole ecommerce solution should be seamless to ensure that customers will feel confident making the sale. Aslo, make sure you emphasize your secure payment processing.
