Ways to Reduce Cart Abandonment with Checkout Manager (Part One)

With Checkout Manager coming out of beta this month, I thought it would be good to visit the topic of cart abandonment and point out many of the features of Checkout Manager that address cart abandonment reasons.

• Problem: Surprises late in the checkout process related to shipping and handling costs or delivery times accounted for the most-cited reason for abandoning a cart during an online purchase according to research.
  Solution: Display shipping costs as early as possible. The UPS OnLine Tools® allow you to display Rates and Services and Time in Transit on your checkout pages which can answer buyer questions about total cost with shipping and how long an order will take to arrive. Checkout Manager also offers a shipping calculator that can be displayed in the shopping cart page so buyers can view your sipping costs based on their zip/postal code and a selected shipping method.Merchants can also choose to display the coupon code section in the shopping cart so buyers with coupons can see the final cost to purchase without going into shipping or billing pages.

Figure 1: Shipping Calculator in the shopping cart page available in Checkout Manager.

• Problem: Buyers will not purchase often times when they have lingering questions.
  Solutions: 
  • Include your shipping and return policy (or a link to this information) on all of your checkout pages. If your customers can get their questions answered, they are more likely to buy rather than hesitate due to uncertainty and abandon their cart. In Checkout Manager, this information can be added as links in checkout regions, as text in the page message field at the top of pages, or to the top or bottom of any section in any checkout page. Adding as links to the headers has the benefit of being a consistent location throughout checkout where buys can get this information.
  • Include contact information (or prominent links to this information) so customers can call to get any questions answered before placing their order. Some merchants display a toll-free phone number. Others offer a live chat feature so customers can get questions answered immediately. With Checkout Manager, you can easily place links to your policy pages in the header or footer regions, or add custom fields if you wish.
• Problem: Buyers will not provide personal information to sites unless they trust their information is safe.
  Solutions: 
  • Include security and privacy policy information (or a link to this information) so shoppers know your business can be trusted to safeguard and properly use their personal and financial information. If you belong to or have been rated by a consumer affairs group (such as the Better Business Bureau) include a logo so consumers know your business is trustworthy.
  • Include a testimonial section within your store to build shopper’s confidence. If you have some feedback from one of your shoppers, ask if you can use it on your store.

Up next: part two of Ways to Reduce Cart Abandonment with Checkout Manager

Paul Boisvert
Yahoo! Small Business