Be it Amazon or a newly launched mom-and-pop store, conversion matters. It is the ultimate proof that the online store is able to sell to the customers who are visiting the store.

Despite heavy discounts, offering free shipping, and same-day delivery (or even on-demand delivery), online stores are struggling to maintain their conversions at a healthy rate. Closely tied to conversions is another metric — cart abandonment. Cart abandonment is the term used to describe a store visitor adding a product to the cart but leaving the page without completing the purchase.

According to Baymard Institute, the average cart abandonment rate pegs at a whopping 69.57%. In other words, almost 7 out of 10 customers abandon their shopping carts. Isn’t that insane? What could programmers do in 2020 to change it?

Why do customers abandon carts just before the checkout process?

What could be the possible reasons that make customers hesitate before performing an extremely impulsive act like online shopping? Baymard Institute’s study was able to find some common reasons that make customers abandon their online shopping carts. The chart below depicts the same.





We know that extra costs are something that cannot be dealt with directly. Businesses have to price their products accordingly to remain profitable or at least break even. To create a profitable site, you must always be aware of the latest eCommerce trends

However, there are other things within the control of an online store that can help reduce cart abandonment. Incidentally, they are all actions that happen right before checkout or during the course of it.

Let’s take a quick look at some ways how you can make your e-commerce checkout process conversion-friendly.



Have Single Page Checkout Processes

To cite Baymard’s Institute’s study, 26% of customers cited a ‘too long/complicated checkout process’ as one of the top reasons for cart abandonment.

What constitutes a long or complicated checkout process? One that asks too many questions, often private ones that customers are not willing to share. Not every customer would be willing to share information about the school they went to on an online store. Such questions are unnecessary too.

In another scenario, a lengthy process is one that has too many steps requiring customers to perform many actions, key in input, and click several times that tires them out.

Also, online shopping mostly happens impulsively. When you give customers too much time to complete the transaction it gives them time to rethink the decision to buy. That is a time gap sufficient enough to result in cart abandonment.

It is in this situation that a single-page checkout process can help reduce cart abandonment. As the name suggests, a single-page checkout process is the checkout process that is completed in the same page or in a single page. It offers a simplified checkout process that asks minimal information. The swift process helps boost conversion rates by eliminating the possibility of cart abandonment.





Drive Omnipresence Through Live Chat

The prime difference between an online store and a brick-and-mortar store is that online shopping has no business hours. It is open round-the-clock and can be accessed anytime from any device.

This facility comes at a cost for customers. They find it difficult to reach out for support when they are shopping in the middle of the night. What happens when they are unable to find information and need support to complete a purchase? They expect a store executive to be available online to chat and find what they need. When that doesn’t happen, the cart is abandoned.

To remedy the situation, online retailers can consider installing a live chat software, like Acquire's. A live chat software is an application that can be used to initiate and continue conversations with customers when they are online. It takes care of the job of engaging with customers, providing them with support and on-boarding them as paying customers by offering complete guidance throughout the customer journey. Since most live chat software are powered by intelligent bots, they are available for support whenever customers visit the store.



Answer All Their Questions