The average conversion rate for e-commerce websites is 2%, which means that the vast majority of customers don’t make a purchase.As many as 10-20% of your unique visitors will place an item in their shopping cart, but leave before closing the deal.
Below are the main reasons people abandon shopping carts:
- Unexpected or high shipping costs
- Total cost of purchase more than expected
- Comparison shopping
- Product was out of stock or didn’t want to wait
- Checkout process was too complicated
You can take steps to improve your checkout process and convert many more of these visitors. By simplifying checkout and shipping options, you could see your conversion rate increase by 50% or more.
Below are a few quick tips to reduce your shopping cart abandonment rates:
- Offer free or flat-rate shipping
- Post your guarantee or return policy clearly on your website
- Post your toll-free phone number on your website and shopping cart pages
- Consolidate the checkout process to as few screens as possible
- Use real-time inventory and show quantity on hand on product information pages
It’s also a good idea to do usability testing on your website. There are a lot of inexpensive tools available that will record users’ responses and even where they looked on your pages. They can provide a lot of insight into why visitors are leaving.
Hi,
The gloomy state of the economy poses a bleak outlook for businesses in the New Year. Money is tight, and as consumers cut spending, business owners are looking to do the same, with many restructuring and even cutting jobs to save money. For companies looking to bolster profits during the recession, the internet can be an inexpensive tool for generating prospects and increasing sales.
Bob Regnerus, an eCommerce expert known as The Leads King®, says the most effective marketing tool during tough a tough economy is a highly converting website landing page. I thought you might want to schedule an interview with Regnerus, or post a contributed article on your site.
“Whether you buy your website traffic online through media such as Google or Site Placements, or you drive prospects from direct mail or magazine ads, a highly effective landing page will yield more leads and maintain—if not improve—your cost-per-lead and cost-per-customer ratios,” says Regnerus, president and CEO of RJR Computing Solutions, Inc.
Author of the new book, “Big Ticket eCommerce” (Innovation Press, 2008), Regnerus has created thousands of websites, attracted more than 35 million website visitors and generated 2.2 million leads for clients in 30 different industries, including the Dartmouth School of Business and Miracle-Ear®.
“Use your website to reach out to people who wouldn’t otherwise know who you are, and get them to take the next step, whether it’s picking up the phone, coming in to your office or sending in their contact information,” Regnerus says. “No matter how well you’re doing, you still have a lot of potential customers out there, and a website is your most efficient bet for getting their attention.”
Regnerus can discuss topics such as:
• Why businesses should focus marketing efforts online during the recession
• Top five cheap ways to promote your business on the internet
• How the economic slump means more opportunity for your company online
• How to develop an effective lead generation website
• The four-step Big Ticket eCommerce system
• Six secrets to building a website on a budget
Visit http://www.bigticketecommerce.com for more information.
Would you like to schedule an interview or receive a review copy of his book? Regnerus is also available to offer a contributed article for your site. Thank you for your consideration.
-Maggie
—
Maggie Lea
Assistant Publicist
Phenix & Phenix Literary Publicists
mlea@phenixpublicity.com
phenixpublicity.com
Brandon,
Nice blog. Where did you get the 2% conversion rate figures from?
Also, I wrote an in-depth article about shopping cart abandonment, and am very curious if you agree with my advice there:
http://www.pinnycohen.com/2008/12/29/marketing-wisdom/shopping-cart-abandonment/
There are several sources, but repeatedly GrokDotCom notes that the average new visitor conversion rates and average organic search conversion rates are right around 2%.
Checkout the report for August 2008. The earlier reports also confirm the numbers.
Obviously this is an average, and some industries and niches convert higher or lower than this, but it’s a good place to start.
Great article on shopping cart abandonment btw!
This is a significant site post, im thankful I ran across this. Ill be back later to check out other posts that you have on your blog.