Typical abandonment rates and what to do about it

[wizardofy]

First let's agree on terms. By "abandonment rates" I mean
people that open up a shopping cart and then leave it without
completing a transaction.

I have been trying different strategies to try to decrease
abandonment rates without much success.

Our products run from $5 to $5000, we get about 500 on-line
orders a month and another 200 by phone. We average
$200k in sales per month.

So what are typical abandonment rates?

best regards
wiz

[wizardofy]

No response, I can't believe that some of you smart people
haven't figured this out already. Here are some of the things
that I have tried

1. Putting up a "privacy guaranteed" medallion on the shopping cart. No effect.

2. Using a "rate us" service on every page including all of the
shopping cart/checkout pages. No effect.

3. Cutting the shipping cost by $3 for a month. If there was an effect
(statistics are poor for 500 per month) it was 9 customers
out of 500, not enought to justify continuing.

4. Secure on-line ordering medallion on the shopping cart. No effect.

5. Paypal verified medallion on the shopping cart. Unclear
whether this had an effect or not. When we did it we only had
about 100 orders per month and the statistics are really
horrible at that level.

I don't think that any of the above can hurt us so we have
left all of them up except the $3 shipping reduction.

NOW TAKE NOTE our customers are for engineering stuff, your experience may differ!

Maybe if we were selling vitamins these things might have
helped.

Any more ideas?

[TipPro]

Hello Wiz,

Are you tracking if customers are abandoning their carts before or after they proceed to checkout?

[wizardofy]

About 1/3 are at the checkout page, the rest are at the
shopping cart stage.

Why do you ask?

[TipPro]

When do your customers learn how much shipping costs? Do you have a way for customers to learn their shipping cost before they proceed to checkout?

Do you have a save cart option or a move items in the cart to a wish list option?

How many payment methods do you have available... and ...are your payment methods available to the customer before they proceed to checkout? (PayPal, Visa, MC, BillMe Later, etc...).

Do you force customers to create an account before they order?

Do you force customers to agree to a terms & conditions type policy before they finish their purchase?

[roban]

All good questions TipPro. I was wondering how many steps the checkout process was myself.

Maybe a link to your store would help us to help you.

[wizardofy]

1. When do your customers learn how much shipping costs?

2.Do you have a way for customers to learn their shipping cost before they proceed to checkout?

3. Do you have a save cart option or a move items in the cart to a wish list option?

4. How many payment methods do you have available... and ...are your payment methods available to the customer before they proceed to checkout? (PayPal, Visa, MC, BillMe Later, etc...).

5. Do you force customers to create an account before they order?

6.Do you force customers to agree to a terms & conditions type policy before they finish their purchase?

1. When they put their items in a shopping cart they can enter in their zip code and calculate the shipping based
on UPS and mail services (I find that many international
customers prefer mail service).

2. Yes, as described in #1.

3. No, sounds interesting. What benefit do you see from
this?

4. Paypal, e-check, visa, mc, amx, discover

5. No

6. No, though there is a link to our terms

best regards
wiz

[wizardofy]

All good questions TipPro. I was wondering how many steps the checkout process was myself.

Maybe a link to your store would help us to help you.

They push "add to cart" to create a shopping cart. This
is where shipping is calculated. They can continue to
shop but if not, they proceed to the checkout page.

Then they go to a "thank you" page.

wiz

[econcepts]

First let's agree on terms. By "abandonment rates" I mean
people that open up a shopping cart and then leave it without
completing a transaction.

I have been trying different strategies to try to decrease
abandonment rates without much success.

Our products run from $5 to $5000, we get about 500 on-line
orders a month and another 200 by phone. We average
$200k in sales per month.

So what are typical abandonment rates?

best regards
wiz

If they are bailing out of the checkout process, then first you have to determine at what exact point they are leaving. Then, where they go.

These two elements can begin to build the solution to your puzzle.

Oftentimes, you can decrease checkout process abandons by adding customer assurance in the proper locations (ssl certs, seals within the eye flow, etc...) and answering their questions before they ask (again, by placing the proper elements in front of them so they don't "question" in the first place.)

You can also decrease those abandons by streamlining the process.

There are a variety of ways, and often times the flexibility of your cart (what it actually allows you to adjust) within the process will determine how effective the process converts visitors into customers.

I've written a number of articles on this topic that you may find useful.

It comes down to building up the customer confidence at the right moment, explaining clearly what they need to do next in order to move through the process, defining what will happen when they perform that action, and speaking from the Buyer's point of view (not the seller's.)

If a potential customer has an item in their cart they should be qualified to buy. Typically they leave for a number of reasons; some of which can include confusion, they are afraid (which means the store owner has not provided the proper assurances to make them feel comfortable), too much personal information is asked for during checkout (don't ask for more than you actually need to complete the sale), and more ...

It's the store owner's job to find out where these issues arise, and then correct them in the steps. The "where" oftentimes can be found by looking at your analytics.

[wizardofy]

Overall I have an abandonment rate of about 65%,
42% at the shopping cart and 22% at the checkout
where they have to enter their details.

Is this good/bad/average?

best regards
wiz

[veikoh]

Dereks Internet Marketing courses teaching that you should get at least their email adress when they are leaving. Why not to ask them to fill the survey? You should capture the moment with small javascript code.

[wizardofy]

People have told me that they would never visit again a
site that tried to hound them with popups when they
tried to leave, trying to get them to say why they left.

It is a good idea on paper, but has it ever been successfully
implimented?

If anyone knows of such a site I would like to visit it.

It reminds me of the problem with "customer satisfaction
surveys." It bugs the snot out of people to fill these things
out, so management decides to make getting them filled
out a corporate goal. When they can't meet their goals
they tie bonuses to their employees that can get them
filled out. Customers learn to avoid such businesses.

best regards
wiz

[wizardofy]

If they are bailing out of the checkout process, then first you have to determine at what exact point they are leaving. Then, where they go.

These two elements can begin to build the solution to your puzzle.

Oftentimes, you can decrease checkout process abandons by adding customer assurance in the proper locations (ssl certs, seals within the eye flow, etc...) and answering their questions before they ask (again, by placing the proper elements in front of them so they don't "question" in the first place.)

You can also decrease those abandons by streamlining the process.

There are a variety of ways, and often times the flexibility of your cart (what it actually allows you to adjust) within the process will determine how effective the process converts visitors into customers.

I've written a number of articles on this topic that you may find useful.

It comes down to building up the customer confidence at the right moment, explaining clearly what they need to do next in order to move through the process, defining what will happen when they perform that action, and speaking from the Buyer's point of view (not the seller's.)

If a potential customer has an item in their cart they should be qualified to buy. Typically they leave for a number of reasons; some of which can include confusion, they are afraid (which means the store owner has not provided the proper assurances to make them feel comfortable), too much personal information is asked for during checkout (don't ask for more than you actually need to complete the sale), and more ...

It's the store owner's job to find out where these issues arise, and then correct them in the steps. The "where" oftentimes can be found by looking at your analytics.

I told you all the things that I have tried above. Again,
I think we are into the realm of "it sounds good, it must
be good," but when actually tried it is no good.

So what really works? I don't even know if my abandonment
rates are normal, poor, or exceptional.

best regards
wiz