If you’re selling anything online then it’s that final conversion that you’re really watching. You can have all the top positions for all the keywords you want and you can be getting all the traffic in the world, but if they’re not actually going through with the conversion and hitting that ‘confirm’ button at the end of the shopping process then it’s all for nothing. It’s reported that an average of 50% of all shopping carts are abandoned so what can you do to make sure you get that final purchase?

Complete The Process Yourself

This one is so obvious but it’s always overlooked. The sheer volume of abandoned shopping carts might be a technical problem, they might not be able to physically complete the transaction and unless one of your customers lets you know it might be days before you even figure it out, or at least long enough to cost you some serious cash and customers. Even if there isn’t a really obviously reason it might be it’s just too complicated to convert. Maybe you have pop ups, or banners that make the final confirmation button too hard to find or maybe those links take them away from your site. Run through your conversion process and make as many notes as you can and start making some changes

Check Your Stock/Prices Against Competitors

You probably keep an eye on your competitors any way but how often do you check their prices against yours? Do you subscribe to their newsletters to make sure you always know what special offers they’re running? Do you just check the same customers all the time or do you keep an eye out for new guys or sites that only compete with you for one or two keywords? The majority of internet savvy shoppers are always going to do a quick check with at least one other site just to make sure they can’t get a better deal elsewhere and that check might not be with the most obvious competitor so make sure you know what’s going on and don’t forget to check delivery options too.

Get In Touch Straight Away

If they’ve abandoned the cart at the last minute you already have their contact details so get in touch straight away. Don’t assume they abandoned because of the price (otherwise you’re basically admitting you know your prices are too high). Assume it was through a technical error on your part and offer them a discount or a special offer if they go back and convert, you could even suggest a time frame if you like. Now you look like a caring retailer who values their custom and even if they don’t complete the same transaction they were going to, they’ve now got that special offer to entice them back to the site to try something new.

Give Them A Reason To Come Back

You don’t know they’re going to abandon the cart until they do so it’s a bit hard to convince them to stick around after they’ve already left. This means you need to convince them before they decide to up and leave so once you’ve got their contact details send them a presumptuous thank you gift as soon as the final page loads. A last minute free delivery option or a discount off their next purchase (not valid straight away of course) next to the final confirmation button could be all it takes to stop them taking the offer from your competitor. Alternatively you could let them Know their discount off their next purchase will be coming in their conformation email.

Jessica works for Solopress who have a great selection of business card printing options for all their customers.