5 reasons your e-commerce shoppers abandon their carts

After launching your e-commerce website after what seemed like months or years of planning and developing, its time to sit back and watch the orders roll on in. Only, instead, you are experiencing merely window shoppers who abandon their cart.

If this is the case, you need to ask yourself why exactly your visitors are exiting without making a purchase. Your job as an e-commerce business owner is not only to entice people to your store but to also convert them into buyers.

You must ask yourself questions about your products, the user experience of your online business, and various other factors, in order to identify weaknesses and then make improvements.

This article will outline some factors which may explain why you aren’t experiencing the e-commerce success you desire.

Checkout chaos

When it comes to checking out, customers have a very short patience. Shoppers want the ability to make a purchase fast and conveniently. Convenience is one of the major reasons why shoppers opt to shop online as opposed to shopping in a brick-and-mortar store.

Thus, your e-commerce website should encompass a checkout procedure that requires no more than three or four steps.

Research has found that 30 percent of visitors will abandon checkout if they are required to sign in or register an account. While retrieving customers information, such as their email addresses, is beneficial for your future marketing efforts, it may not bode well for your sales figures. Therefore, it is always a good idea to include a guest checkout option instead.

A lack of customer support

The ability to provide exceptional customer support is a necessity for both offline and online businesses. I’m sure we have all experienced having an interest in a product but wanting to know more details than what is outlined in the 20-word product description, right?

From payment queries to product questions; whatever the query may be, if you fail to help your visitor during the checkout process, you are likely to lose the sale.

Painfully slow loading times

Just like a lengthy queue spiraling out the shop door, a slow-loading website can truly deter a shopper’s purchasing decision. While some individuals may have higher levels of patience than others, this is something that you just cannot afford to mess up on.

A fast-loading website is necessary for your customers to be able to browse your site with ease, as well as make fast purchases- necessary for contributing to your business growth.

You should regularly go through your site – from home page to checkout – to ensure your website is running smoothly. Additionally, you should perform such checks across a variety of devices, especially as mobile-commerce continues to grow in popularity.

In fact, you can check your site speed on a number of free services including Google Pagespeed Insights and Pingdom.

Payment problems

If you’running an e-commerce website aimed at a local audience then this may not be such a problem. But if you want to go global, then it is crucial that you have a proper gateway for every currency.

Many e-commerce websites lose out on a multitude of sales due to an inadequate payment gateway.

Your online business should support all major credit and debit card brands in order to cater to everyone. Additionally, third-party payment services should also be made available to enable payments, especially PayPal.

Can your shoppers trust your site?

A major factor stopping consumers from completing their purchases revolves around the issue of security. Making a purchase online and sharing their card details is a big deal for many customers, who are actively on the lookout for aspects of your website which portrays the security of it. Customers aren’t going to risk credit card theft for a website that looks like it was designed in the ’90s.

As such, you should invest time and money into making your e-commerce website secure and trustworthy. A website with a clean design and easy-to-use functions also goes a long way in proving to customers that your e-commerce website is reputable and sophisticated.