Converting Clicks into Cash: Use Web Design to Avoid Abandoned Carts

You go to look at your website’s stats for the week, and you see the all-dreaded “Abandoned Cart” rate from indecisive shoppers hasn't budged. You’ve tried everything, from “Forgot This?” emails to persuasive discounts. So why do your customers leave items in their carts, and why aren’t your lead conversion efforts working?

Your website could be the culprit, especially if you haven’t spent some time considering a normal consumer’s decision-making after the initial Google search that led them to your product or service. Follow along as we outline a few proven web design tactics that could increase your customers’ likelihood of making a purchase.

1. Be upfront about shipping, taxes, and other hidden costs

I recently did some transactional research into different print companies for some business cards and experienced a perfect example of this. I clicked on a brand whose headline on the search engine result page (SERP) read something along the lines of “250 business cards for $13.99!” The bargain hunter I am, of course I clicked to the company’s website. I went through the entire process of designing my card, only to be severely disappointed when I was ready to complete my transaction.

My cost had nearly doubled. The promised $13.99 was only for 250 cards with one side printed, not both. I was also startled by the cost of their standard shipping–almost as much as the cards! (In this economy?!) I’m not trying to make a blanket statement, but I’m pretty sure that 90% of people ordering business cards would prefer to have both sides printed.

Sound familiar? You make it from A-Z on a website with intent to buy something (usually with a determined spend amount in mind, whether it be from an advertisement or how the site portrays its price points), only to wind up with $40 worth of surprising fees. The candle you wanted was advertised as $15, but the promo was deceiving about what size. The necklace you saw an influencer wearing was reported to be $50, but that’s only if you get the shortest chain length and no engraving.

These “let-downs” come purchase time can contribute significantly to the amount of your shoppers who decide against completing a transaction, and guess what? Consumers don’t like feeling lied to, so they may never be back! ThinkShop encourages business owners to design their product pages with thorough, accurate pricing; advising that “many customers add items to shopping carts to determine what the total cost for their order will be.” If the number in their head more closely matches the total number in their cart, you’ll be more likely to gain a transaction rather than another abandoned cart.

In fact, QuickSprout’s research shows that having an accurate price on your product or service’s landing page can double your amount of relevant leads!

There’s nothing more frustrating than driving all this traffic to your site, when these site sessions rarely result in completed transactions. Don’t let those efforts go to waste!

2. Design your eCommerce site with the buyer journey in mind

User experience is becoming an increasingly researched topic in web design, and for good reason: Understanding consumer behavior can seriously impact how successful your website is in the lead conversion department.

According to Forbes, the average checkout form completion rate on e-commerce websites sits at 46.4%, and there’s multiple factors of consumer behavior that could be contributing to this low number. In addition to making sure product information and pricing is accurate, you’ll need to lay out your site in a way that drives searchers to a completed sale.

• Add reviews and testimonials to your offerings’ webpages:  Northwestern U’s research tells us that a product with five reviews is 270% more likely to sell than a product with zero reviews. Consumers are heavily influenced by others’ evaluations, and the risk they associate with purchasing your product may decrease upon seeing five star reviews from past happy customers.

• Understand purchasing habits: Doing research into your industry’s top competitors and how they arrange their webpages to maximize sales could increase your edge. Check out business.com’s list of common digital consumer behaviors and apply these to your personal sales funnel for best results. Go through your website as if you were a customer or send to a friend for unbiased feedback.

• Pay attention to potential obstacles that would keep a customer from making a purchase: No one likes obnoxious upselling, mandatory account creation, or relentless pop-ups. Would you go through with a purchase if you had to give out excessive information and fill dozens of lead form input fields? Online shopping is supposed to offer ease and convenience, after all. 

• Blend eye-grabbing visuals with simplicity: Digital consumers do not like hunting for information during their buyer journey. How concise and accessible your webpages are could be the difference for a consumer choosing between your product and a competitor’s. In fact, a Microsoft study revealed that the average digital consumer’s attention span has dropped to a whopping low of 8 seconds–You’ll have to consider how to design your site in a way that catches a searcher’s attention and KEEPS it throughout their buyer journey. Don’t disrupt their shopping with unnecessary information or confusing navigation–get right to the point!

3. Focus on technical design to ensure speedy + secure checkout

First of all, there’s something to be said about how annoying it is when you’re forced to create an account in order to buy something. You’re already getting my money, now I have to be a member of your monthly newsletter just to get through checkout?

The Baymard Institute’s research recalls that 24% of abandoned carts occur simply because shoppers didn’t want to create an account at checkout. Don’t be this person: Offer guest checkout! The only emails you should have automated to guests are their order confirmations and relevant shipping updates. Filling up inboxes with promotional content despite users never opting in for additional emails can ultimately hurt your marketing efforts: The domain you’re emailing from will be marked by servers as spam, and your exposure will actually decrease in the long run.

That being said, it’s important that your website’s checkout process is as speedy and accessible as possible. HotJar credits errors and crashes with 13% of abandoned carts, warning that these technical malfunctions “don’t just cause a poor user experience and lose a sale in the moment; they can erode trust and put people off trying again later.” Yikes!

On the topic of trust, users want to feel that precious information such as their credit card number and home address are in good hands. They also want to see signals of safety, such as SSL certificates, secure checkout indicators, common payment methods, and accessible return policies. In addition, you should always have a channel open for questions about orders, whether that be a dedicated contact email or an FAQ tab. Address common concerns you’ve had in the past to communicate transparency to new customers. 

When it comes to web design for eCommerce, the above tips only scratch the surface of creating a truly successful website. While it’s easy to recommend making webpages technically sound, our designers know better than anyone how time consuming this can be, especially for brands with multiple product SKUs. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, check out a few of our website design examples here, or use the contact information below to speak with some of our web design experts. Every brand is different, and we believe that your website should showcase what makes you better than your competitors.