Cart page conversion rates for most e-commerce websites typically hover around 2-5%. This means that for every 100 visitors who add items to their shopping carts, only a small fraction complete the purchase.
One of the most important parts of your e-commerce platform is the checkout process. It doesn’t matter how much time you’ve spent, creating solid products and effective marketing strategies that would make your visitors buy them. It won’t count if your website visitors abandon their cart on the cart page.
According to Baymard Institute, the average shopping cart abandonment rate is 69.80%. Simply put, seven out of ten persons abandon their cart even after adding products, due to a long or confusing buying process.
Reports also show that this overlooked feature costs most brands thousands and millions annually.
The good news is that there are best practices to improve your cart page conversion rates that would ultimately increase sales. In this blog post, we will show you 7 effective ways to optimize your cart page and turn more of those abandoned carts into successful transactions.
First, let’s look at why customers leave their shopping carts.
Why do customers leave their shopping carts?
Understanding the reason behind cart abandonment is the first step to optimizing your cart page.
A quick look at this survey carried out in October 2023 by Baymard Institute would show you the reason people abandon their carts at the checkout process.
The primary reason is this – Extra fees at the checkout process, for example, shipping fees, tax etc.
Imagine you were purchasing something online and when you got to the checkout page, you realized that the shipping fee was not as moderate as you expected. I’m sure you’d reconsider making the purchase. This is the major reason people abandon their shopping carts.
The next big reason for cart abandonment according to the survey is asking the customer to create an account before making a purchase.
Understandably, you need your customers to have an account on your platform but make it optional not compulsory.
Other reasons include
- Delivery was too slow
- They didn’t trust the site with their credit card information
- Too long or complicated checkout process
- They couldn’t see/calculate the total order cost upfront
- The returns policy wasn’t satisfactory
- The website had errors/crashed
- There weren’t enough payment methods
- The credit card was declined
Another important reason for cart abandonment that wasn’t stated above is “window shopping”. Today, Gen-Z shoppers use the Internet to research products, businesses etc. Some of them add items to the cart and abandon them with the intent of coming back to it. So, some cart abandonment is unavoidable.
Why do you need to optimize your shopping cart?
Customer satisfaction. That’s the main reason you need to optimize your cart page to increase conversion rates. Many online shoppers abandon their shopping carts due to the long and confusing checkout process.
It happens at the supermarket or shopping mall too. If you walk into a shopping mall to get a few things and end up spending twice the amount of time at the checkout stand, you’ll probably be drained.
Improve the checkout process to be very easy for your customers. Customers like it when they don’t have to think too much before clicking on a button. When you simplify product search, selection, and checkout, you’ll see your conversion rate rise.
7 ways to improve your cart page conversion rates
- Make registration optional
- Increase loading speed
- Include an order summary
- Include multiple payment options
- Use clear and visible calls to action
- Add reviews
- Offer complimentary products
1. Make registration optional
A lot of Internet users today are very impatient. They just want to buy your product and leaves. They’re not Interested in creating a connection with your brand. Offer guest checkout as an alternative to account registration.
According to a study by Econsultancy, 25% of users abandon their carts due to forced account creation. This is the second biggest reason for card abandonment. This reduces the cart page conversion rates and makes the customer leave without making a purchase.
Here are 3 alternatives you can use to make their purchase without forcing them to create an account:
- When a customer makes a purchase, automatically create an account for them and send the login details with their order confirmation to their emails.
- Think about adding a guest checkout option for them just like Amazon and eBay. Their users buy without signing up.
- Allow users to sign in using their social media accounts such as Facebook or Google. This will eliminate the bees for manual account creation.
2. Increase loading speed
Today, every second on the internet counts. The loading speed of your cart page can impact conversion rates.
Research by Google indicates that 53% of mobile site visits are abandoned if pages take more than 3 seconds to load. Amazon also calculated that a 1-second lag in loading time for their website would cost the company, $1.6 billion in annual sales.
Too much loading time makes your customers uncomfortable. And customer satisfaction should be every business owner’s goal. Please ensure that the hosting and design of your website is not lagging. Optimize it to increase loading speed.
Include an order summary
Transparency is very important when building trust with your customers.
Give your customers or shoppers a full summary of their orders. Provide them with all the necessary details about their selected items, quantities, colours, estimated delivery time, and a breakdown of all the fees and extra charges.
When you do this, you avoid surprises at the checkout section.
Include multiple payment options
Customers have preferences when it comes to methods of payment. Offer them a variety of payment options which would increase the likelihood of them completing their purchase.
Baymard Institute shows that 8% of shoppers abandon their carts due to a lack of preferred payment options.
When you add popular payment options like PayPal, credit cards, and digital wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay, it can help capture lost sales.
Use clear and visible calls-to-action (CTA)
Don’t assume that your customers always know what to do. Assumptions like that are costly. Provide them with a very clear and visible call to action.
When they add products to their cart, give them options like “continue to payment” or “keep shipping”. And make sure these calls to actions are very visible to them.
Don’t use generic words like “submit”, “complete” etc. Use descriptive phrases like “complete purchase” or “proceed to checkout” to indicate their next step in the process.
Add reviews
More than 65% of customers equate an online review to a personal suggestion. Always try to include reviews and feedback from customers in your product pages.
People are compelled to buy a product when they know that others are buying it also.
Social proof reassures your customers and reduces cart abandonment.
Offer complimentary products
To increase cart page conversion rates, you need to up-sell and cross-sell. This is how to increase the value of your shopping cart. Suggest related items or accessories that complement the products already in their cart. This will increase the average order value.
McKinsey and company reveal that cross-selling can increase sales revenue by up to 30%. Brands like Julia Excel at this strategy by showcasing sections like “related items” or “customers who bought this item also bought”.
For example, if a customer buys a camera, offer related items such as camera bags, tripods, memory cards, etc. It will engage them to add more items to their cart which will boost sales conversion.
Optimize and increase Your Cart Page Conversion rates with ClaryLife Global
We have given you 7 proven strategies to improve cart page conversion rates. As a business owner, we also understand that you may not be able to implement all the strategies we mentioned above. You can reach out to Clarylife Global to help you optimize your cart page.
We help e-commerce businesses like yours create high converting cart pages and also help you reduce cart abandonment rates by simply optimizing your cart pages. Contact us today to learn more about our services and how we can help your business.