Are Prospective Buyers Just Lazy? 6 Ways They’re Not and How To Deal With Cart Abandonment

Your clients sometimes don’t seem to know whether they want your product or not.

Your conversion analytics program tells you a big number of users clicked on your landing page and then the ‘Buy Now’ button, BUT the number of completed purchases is way inferior to that.

You wonder why your customers are lazy when it comes to buying, and you wonder if you’ve been doing something wrong all along.

Sometimes it’s a wrong approach, sure, but there might be other customer factors to take into account.

Why do customers abandon items in the cart? (6 ways they’re NOT being lazy)

According to statistics by Statista, 28% of customers abandon their cart because they decided they didn’t need the product or service anymore, 27% wanted to do more research first, and 19% found it cheaper elsewhere. Among the other reasons on the chart, you will find curiosity and waiting for a sale.

There can be many reasons behind cart abandonment, but your customers aren’t doing it because they’re lazy or they don’t care about what you offer.

They might actually have other good reasons to not buy now. Here is a list:

1. They don’t have enough money (to buy without discount or to cover shipping costs)
2. They have to postpone buying for other reasons (e.g. emergency asking for extra budget)
3. They have second thoughts (e.g. they might be considering a competitor’s product with a lower price)
4. The price was not clear from your sales page and it was higher than they expected

Some other times they might have reasons that are not as ‘justified’, but they still call for your action:

5. They forget items in the cart
6. They get distracted by something else

How to deal with cart abandonment?

Let’s see what to do case by case and why it matters that you make your best effort to help these customers solve their problems.

1. Customers with financial issues or waiting for a sale still want your product

They do, no doubt about that. They just can’t afford it right now.

You’ll see Amazon users do that often — add items to their cart, calculate shipping costs and then either leave items in the cart or add them to the “Save for later” section, so they can wait for the right opportunity to click the ‘buy’ button, which may happen a day later or even a few months later.

Whether you send these customers an email reminder or not, they will still return to place a purchase as soon as they can afford it.

As stated in key findings from a Business Insider report, cart abandonment “should be seen as part of the increasingly complex series of steps a consumer might take before finally making a purchase and a strong indicator of consumer interest in a product or a brand”.

Also, read Reason #2 on this post at ConversionXXL. You might be surprised.

2. Help customers with second thoughts make an informed decision

When it comes to customers who are considering a more affordable competitor or they are simply questioning their need for your product, you can help them make an informed decision on the basis of product or service value.

You might add a product or service user guide to your follow-up emails, add more content and offer help desk to respond to every prospective customer’s question.

An example:

Hey (User Name)!

We’ve noticed you left [item name, code, title, etc.] in your cart for # days now. Can we help?

Our help desk service is available 24/7  to respond to your questions about our products prior to making a purchase.

You can also find more information, a user guide and video tutorials for our product on our blog.

Thank You,

Lunares

This is also a good idea to reach out to customers who didn’t expect a higher price at checkout (because of shipping costs, coupon code not available for their country/region, etc.) and try to convert them into buyers anyway.

3. Combat trust issues with proof of trust

“Create trust early on in the buying cycle.” That is what Doyan Wilfred of HowtoGetMoreSalesOnline.com said in an interview.

How are you building trust to your products, services and brand?

Proof of trust starts with your website, product descriptions and testimonials, but if you can add case studies, video tutorials and visual (images, videos) and audio testimonials to the mix, you will up your chances to build trust right after the first click.

“Word of mouth works like magic,” says Doyan, “You can add customer testimonials and celebrity and/or expert endorsements.” says Olivia Summers

4. Minimize elements of distraction and improve UX

“I guess you should concern more about your conversion optimization,” says Irina Weber of SE Ranking. “You can do A/B testing and figure out how to reduce the cart abandonment rate. For example, you can remove some mentions of registering or top navigation that can be very distracting while checking out.”

Display of similar products and other offers at checkout can also be distracting, especially when you are displaying your partners’ offers and not just your own. Checkout process should be streamlined and free of clutter, because all your user needs to do that moment is one thing only: make a purchase.

You can still display other offers at “add to cart” stage and after the buying process is complete (e.g. “Thanks for purchasing [item name]! Did you know we have related products in our store? Check out these popular items: […]”).

Also, keep UX in good shape, because, as David Leonhardt of THGM Writers says, “anything that makes a cart slow or makes us go through multiple screens or fill out lots of information will increase abandonment”.

5. Use email reminders and surveys

Writer and content marketers Christopher Jan Benitez suggests you get in touch with customers to really find out what’s going on:

You can never know the exact reason until you asked them personally. This can be done by sending an email to them using a sales platform that specialized in e-commerce customer conversion and retention. In the email, remind them of the cart they abandoned and link to their cart to bring them back to your sales cycle. Also include a possible survey about your ecommerce site to understand the problems that your customers are encountering with your site and how you can fix them.

Doyan Wilfred also recommends you “implement a follow up plan. For example Amazon emails their customers when there are items in their cart.” This works when customers simply forgot to make a purchase or had to rush away from their computer.

What if you are a blogger selling products from your blog?

“If you are a blogger, its easy,” says Doyan Wilfred, “[as] all you have to do is create the feeling in your customers that they know you. Hint: reveal a little of yourself. For example, Neil Patel has a section on his about page dedicated to it.”

Also, she recommends you “add a ‘Featured On’ section mentioning all the websites that you guest post on or contribute to.” This can be seen on sites such as Diversified Crating as they always try and showcase where they have PR.

Takeaway

Overall, it’s better to keep a positive attitude when it comes to cart abandonment. To quote key findings from the previously mentioned Business Insider report, an

abandoned shopping cart does not automatically translate to a “lost sale,” because three-fourths of shoppers who have abandoned shopping carts say they plan to return to the retailer’s website or store to make a purchase.