The chain is as strong as its weakest link. Same applies with buying process optimisation. If your shopping cart lacks to show trust and reliability then it might be your weakest link in converting visitors to buy.
In this series of Quru Tips we are focusing on the different ways you can try to optimise your shopping cart abandonment by building trust and providing a reason to continue to checkout. This post is a follow up sequel on my previous post regarding shopping cart recovery strategies. Within each abandonment recovery strategy one can utilise several tactics of which none of them are perfect for all situations, but at least one of them is most likely good for your purpose.
Where the cart abandonment strategies can be very abstract and high-level, the tactics are very concrete and tangible. These tangible things can be as simple as test different design and navigation or change colours and font. When applying shopping cart recovery tactics you should always set the baseline or the benchmark before starting the test and have proper testing tools in place such as Google Optimise or Adobe Target.
Tips for building trust and persuasion on shopping cart
1. Test different copy and design
Testing the effect of different designs to improve shopping cart success is often recommended to start with small and non-dramatic changes. However, if small changes have no effect, you might want to try testing with dramatically different design for certain segments of visitors. Use urgency and persuasive sales tactics to activate visitors. The tactics used to create urgency are typically something like:
- Buy two get the third for free
- Limited offer, as long as there is stock
- 15 minutes to get 15% off
- Share your purchase and get a 20% discount voucher
- Special 30% Discount to buy now, during this visit only
2. Test different process
The length and complexity of the shopping cart process can make a huge impact on how your customers buying experience on your website. The more questions you ask, the more steps you have in the process, the more pages the visitor needs to swipe through, the more probable it is that people will abandon the cart. There are quite practical reasons for this. Let’s say you are at the dentist waiting room and you have 5 minutes before the appointment. You go to the ticket sales website hoping to find a venuu and buy the tickets. The ticket sales process is asking everything from your mother’s maiden name to your hobbies and the process seems to be very lengthy and time consuming. 5 minutes is up and your name is called. Another visitor abandoned.
3. Test different trust copy and images
Include content that creates and builds trust with credibility. Such content could be logos of customers, testimonials, supported credit card vendors and payment options, ratings & reviews such as TrustPilot. Authenticity builds trust so you should provide authentic images and videos rather than stock photos.
4. Test different shipping options
Using different shipping tactics to urge people to buy can help you close more sales and increase average order value. You might want to try to set the basket value limit for free shipping higher than your typical AOV in order to increase the AOV. On the other hand you might want to try to adjust the cheaper product value by setting higher shipment and handling costs. It’s all about persuasion and about what matters most to your customers. If you use SKU strategy and want to get rid off costly stock, then you could apply free shipping for all deals including the SKU you want to get rid off.
5. Test less options, clean and zen
Sometimes less is more. The less the visitors need to fill in the more likely they will complete the process. You should consider cleaning your cart from any misleading attractions especially if people add products to your cart then proceed to cart but end up abandoning the process. Clean and clear helps people focus on what they want to achieve on the checkout page.
6. Test interactive CTA’s
The interactive CTA’s are such as chat, pop-up/under, interstitials. Sometimes interactive content work against you, sometimes for you. One can never know unless they have tried. This is the whole ideology of testing, so keep on testing and stop guessing.
7. Test latent recovery
Latent recovery is a tactic to be used if you know that your visitors might drop the process but could be willing to be reached out later. In these cases you should provide an option to save the cart. You could also take the opportunity to collect phone numbers and email addresses early in the sales process so that you can send recovery messages. With recovery messages you should apply persuasive messaging such as “go back, get 10% off” or “Receive a gift voucher after finalising your order.”