Imagine that you run a high street retail store, and that every night as you are closing up, you notice that there are dozens of half filled shopping baskets all over the floor.  Each evening as you restock the items onto the shelves you can be pretty sure that high on your list of priorities for the following day would be trying to work out why it is happening and doing something about it.  The equivalent happens thousands of times on the web every day and yet it doesn’t seem to get the same priority.

If ever there was a medium where the phrase “out of sight out of mind” was true it is the web.  I believe the web would be a much better place if companies could watch their customers trying to use their website, to see their frustration first hand.  So often when websites are being built, the builders concentrate on keeping internal departments happy, on ensuring the CEO remains onboard and on internal politics – too often the last person who is considered is the site visitor.

If only website owners could watch their visitors faces as they use their websites, and particularly shopping websites, it would really help focus the mind.  Or perhaps the statistics will help focus the mind.  Some industry experts estimate that well over half of all baskets in online stores are deserted by shoppers, costing an incredible $65 billion per year worldwide.

If you run an e–commerce website which is plagued with deserted shopping carts, you need to focus on reducing the level of desertion.  This can be achieved by understanding what is driving shoppers to create shopping baskets in the first place, recognising where in the process fallout is happening, and concentrating on closing the sale.  In doing so you can learn more about your potential customers, what motivates them to buy, and thus create more profitable and loyal customers.  Consider some of all of the following strategies to help you convert more online enquiries into online sales:

Use current customers as a test bed – Do you have a range of customers who buy regularly from you and who trust you?  Incentivise them to check your site and try to buy a range of items and to provide you with their feedback on how they found it.  Make sure the test case of customers have varying degrees of IT ability.

Recognise when a shopping basket isn’t a shopping basket – Often online shoppers use a shopping basket to store items they are interested in, but have no direct interest in buying; or perhaps they want to compare prices with another website.  Web shoppers often complete more price comparison and specification checking that high street shoppers.

Only ask for the  bare minimum of information required to confirm the sale – To use the well worn business maxim, make it easy to buy.  The fewer fields you require shoppers to complete the more you will sell.  Make sure that site registration, promotional competitions and the request for marketing information are optional.

Show ALL costs up front – Don’t annoy your visitor by telling them one price and then surprising them with surcharges such as VAT and hidden shipping costs later in the transaction.  Make it clear and make it obvious from the start.

Make it easy to edit orders – Ensure that your shopping basket is easy to use and that your order can be quickly and easily edited at any stage.

Provide a progress indicator as the customer orders – Your customer wants to feel a sense of comfort as they complete the task and want to know what is required to complete it.  In the high street they may be used to the protocol (browse / fill basket / queue at till / pay at till / leave shop) but on the web there are different means of shopping and it’s important your visitor feels welcome.

Use the shopping basket summary wisely – A shopping basket summary within the navigation of your site will help your user understand exactly what they are doing.  The use of thumbnail images representing your product and functionally rich baskets will ensure that at all times your visitors understand what is in their current order at a glance.

Leave cross selling late in the process – It is incredibly difficult to upsell on the web, and if you get it wrong, or you try to upsell too forcefully, not only will it not work, it will cost you sales.  Ensure that your upselling is subtle, is optional, is as personalised as possible and is late in the buying process.

Introduce customer service at common desertion points – As well as ensuring that there is a helpful FAQ, simple instructions and calls to action throughout the shopping experience, there are situations (e.g. involved sales, or highly complex products) where it makes sense to have live chat facilitated on your website.

Follow up abandoned visitors via email – If your shoppers get as far as leaving their email address but go no further, email them and ask what went wrong and if you can help them.  Don’t blast them all with a common email – it’s against the law – rather email them personally and politely, asking for feedback and offering to help follow up the sale.

In short, follow the principles which high street retailers have been using for years, by making the shopping experience as fun and simple as possible and you won’t go too far wrong.  Focus on your customers and their needs, and your online revenues will be sure to rise.