Dave Pelland has extensive experience covering the business use of technology, networking and communications tools by companies of all sizes. Dave's editorial and corporate experience includes more than 10 years editing an electronic technology and communications industry newsletter for a global professional services firm. |
Preventing Shopping Cart AbandonmentAbandoned online shopping carts are all too familiar for small businesses selling products online, but making the buying process as simple as possible can reduce the risk. The term "abandoned shopping cart" refer to situations where a consumer reserves an item in their online cart, but fails to complete the purchase. As all retailers know, this is very common: most market researchers say between two-thirds and three-quarters of all items placed into carts aren’t purchased in the same browsing session. Abandoned carts cause a number of issues for online retailers. For instance, a customer who leaves without making a purchase may not come back, depriving the opportunity to generate future sales. Similarly, an unpurchased item sitting in a shopping cart is reserved for the customer who placed it, leaving it temporarily unavailable for other customers and distorting the retailer’s inventory levels. Also, having a large number of items sitting in carts can slow the site’s overall speed. Consumers walk away from online shopping carts for a variety of reasons:
Reducing Abandoned Carts While the issue will likely remain a problem for online retailers, there are a number of steps you can take to reduce the risk:
Cart Recovery Emails The most common strategy online retailers use for recovering abandoned shopping carts is sending an email to the customer reminding them that the item is waiting for them, and inviting them to complete the purchase. While this obviously depends on your company having the customer’s email address, it can be a common way to reach out to rekindle the relationship and complete the purchase. Some information to include in your recovery email:
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