What is Order Abandonment?
Order Abandonment, sometimes known as Shopping
Card Abandonment, is when a customer spends time on an e-commerce website,
looks around, begins making a purchase and then abandons it at the last minute.
It is not absolutely clear that shopping card abandonment suggests loss of
orders because there are other factors that can drive a customer to discontinue
the action. What is somewhat ambiguous, and therefore potentially frustrating,
is that the cause of the abandonment is not always 100% clear. In such cases a
company must carry out an investigation of sorts to uncover the reasons for
order abandonment.
What is encouraging is that numerous studies have been
carried out which attempt to catalog customer behavior and reasons for
abandoning orders. This blog post will enumerate some of the major reasons behind
order abandonment and discuss Adrecom’s solutions to such problems.
Why do Customers Abandon Orders?
The first thing to realize is that dissatisfaction with a product is not always the reason for abandoned orders; often times a customer will feel insecure, for a variety of reasons, when it comes to making purchase. As neutral as such behavior is it nevertheless suggests that a company must take certain actions in order to avoid it in the future.
Insecurity
One cause of order abandonment is related to SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) and it is important to test run your checkout process in both Firefox and Internet Explorer browsers before going live, which handle security issues differently. For example, Internet Explorer might not recognize certain elements that are not referenced through an https: address. When IE doesn’t recognize, for example, something as innocent as an image, it will display a message that one or more of that page’s elements are not secure. Since a customer has come to the site in order make a purchase, such a message might very well push him away and cause him to discontinue his order. A great way to increase customer security during the purchasing process is by utilizing third party verification and to use a secure connection (SSL).
Order forms that request too much information might as well discourage a potential customer from making a purchase. Adrecom respects this concern and uses only uses order forms that request basic and standard information relevant for the creation of an order. If further information is required, consider placing a small message on the page for the customer to see.
Comparison Shopping
According to a study carried out by Web Surveyor Services in 2006, approximately 30% of e-commerce consumers discontinued their purchase due to comparison shopping. A relatively common practice is for a customer to complete every step in the purchasing process right up to the checkout stage in order to get a true picture of their cost after taxes and shipping. A customer might also repeat this procedure for several products until either making a purchase or leaving the site altogether, with every discontinued purchase registered as an abandoned order.
The Reports section of the Adrecom Back Office records certain information, such as date of use, product being viewed and the customer’s stage in the purchasing process, to help you understand customer behavior. An analysis based on these reports can lead your company to developing a stronger marketing strategy.
Distraction
A customer may find himself distracted by the amount of options offered to him on a webpage, or to a particularly distracting layout. An unclear or straightforward layout might also confuse the customer as to how the purchase process actually works or whether there are added costs. A good way to deal with this is to design a neat and organized layout whereby the customer’s eye can easily navigate around the page, making it easy to distinguish between and identify all elements. It is also wise to not bog the customer down with too much information – this can easily be avoided by creating individual pages for information that deserves its own attention.
Adrecom’s management and web design team are fully aware of this element and pay special attention to constructing web layouts that help the customer focus and easily navigate the site. Our customers appreciate the easy-to-use website designs generated by our graphic design team.
Overly High Shipping Cost
According to the Web Surveyor Services study, around 27% of customers abandon an order due to the shipping cost being too high or will choose another website with a lower one. One of the options available with us is that you can set free shipping as one of your options for your e-commerce products.
The Adrecom Method
The list of reasons leading
customers to abandoning orders is more extensive than one mentioned in this
blog post, and Adrecom gives special attention and consultation to customers, as laid down in our 3-D Implementation Program, in order to adopt and adapt the best strategies for dealing with such issues in a calm, clear and confident manner.
