How to Create an Optimized Shopping Cart Page for Your Ecommerce Site
- On March 22, 2018
Creating an optimized shopping cart experience is one of the easiest ways to reduce lost revenue in your e-commerce business. Various payment processing companies and digital marketing agencies have estimated products abandoned in carts amounts to around $4 trillion each year. For an individual e-commerce business, reducing these levels can lead to increased revenue and additional advertising spend. You can try all kinds of tricks to increase conversion rates, but it is important to start from the best possible place before testing. The following techniques can be applied to your shopping cart page for an optimized experience.
Focus on Security
Security is paramount for any site that accepts payments. Customers need to feel safe before they will make a purchase, but it is not too difficult to achieve this. Ensure you use a secure payment gateway, offering recognized brands in the industry. Authorize.Net, Apple Pay, PayPal, Stripe, and Square are some of the most popular names available. Additionally, you need to use SSL encryption to keep customer data private. If your site does not have an SSL certificate, browsers will indicate the page is not secure, causing major problems in gaining trust.
Request an Email Address
Prior to taking a payment, it can be worthwhile taking an email address. A visitor might not go through with the payment, but you then have the ability to reach out to them. Individuals can be added to a custom email list, with a follow-up sequence designed to persuade them to finish the purchasing process. If they do become a customer, your email service can automatically transfer them to a buyer list.
Use a Comprehensive Cart Page
Some e-commerce store owners like to use a simple cart page, with only limited information included. In most cases, though, you will get better results from a comprehensive page. A full-length page will include detailed product information, item graphics, shipping cost and details, and any other information that will benefit customers. As long as the page is formatted effectively, the information won’t overload customers and you can avoid last-minute hesitations.
Add Trust Seals
You can develop a highly secure website, but if visitors don’t realize this your site won’t be optimized. It is important to visually indicate your site is safe and secure, offering quick indicators that visitors can purchase without fear. Trust seals are the best example of these visual signals, with most popular e-commerce sites using them. Some of the most recognizable seals include VeriSign, PayPal Verified, McAfee Secure, and the popular credit card company logos.
Communicate the Buying Process
One of the primary concerns of people who leave a shopping cart page is a lack of clarity over the buying process. While someone may want the products in their cart, they could be unwilling to fill in the forms and complete the process if it is not accurately conveyed to them. You can avoid these problems by creating a clear process, visually indicating how many steps will be required. If you have a three-step process, for example, a completion bar subtly helps avoid any confusion and removes an excuse to abandon the cart.
While it would be easier if the perfect shopping cart page existed, there are too many individual factors on each site. There are, however, various elements that almost always provide good results. Creating an optimized page that fits with the rest of your store ensures your conversion rate starts at a positive level. From this point, individual elements can be tested to try and add an extra bump to sales. Shopping cart abandonment is one of the major concerns for e-commerce store owners, so tackling this issue should be at the forefront of your efforts.
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