We spend so much time on SEO, marketing, and link building. Yet many times we forget that optimizing our web pages can have an immediate and lasting positive effect on our success.
Studies show carts get abandoned 60% to 70% of the time. It is frustrating to work so hard to promote your product, only to have a customer abandon his shopping cart at the last moment.
Do the math. Decreasing abandoned carts to 50% from 70% represents a 67% increase in sales! You will be producing 50 sales for every 30 you used to receive. That is tremendous growth, and you can see the benefits immediatey.
The first thing you need to do is put yourself in the place of your customers. Place some items in your cart.
Examine your Call to Action
Are you convinced to place your order immediately? Is there anything distracting you to click elsewhere? Where is your checkout button, and is it encouraging you to act immediately?
A nice bright red button which says “Checkout Now” works well. I have seen plenty of other colors used successfully too, including green. One could argue green is less intimidating and more calming. Which brings us to our next point…
Are You Calm?
Studies show that relaxed customers are more likely to buy. We can create soothing backgrounds and color schemes which work to this effect.
Are You Tempted to Click Away?
Look at the webpage. You don’t want your customers to do anything but check out. Are there other enticing links calling you away? Some marketers prefer to remove all links at this point to keep the customer focussed.
Is Your Entry Form a PITA?
Don’t require your customers to enter any information beyond what you absolutely need. Think of every entry as a potential point of cart abandonment. If you don’t need a customer’s zip code or phone number, don’t ask for it.
Follow these simple tips and you should be able to greatly reduce cart abandonment, and increase your sales.
- Dan Padavona, Warmpicture
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