Starting an online business can be a really frustrating endeavour. Anything could go wrong. And something usually does. Your server goes down. You forgot to stock up on a popular item. Last shipment from your supplier was poor. It’s even more frustrating, when you’ve seemingly done everything right, but the sales just don’t happen. You see people come to your online store.
And, just as fast, you see them go. Some leave right away. Others make it even more frustrating, by leaving your store straight from their cart.
So what went wrong? What can you do to make sure that people actually visit and buy from your eCommerce store? Let’s explore some of the things that could potentially decrease your cart abandonment rates and turn visitors into actual buyers.
Are Your Sending the Right Message?
If you’re advertising through any channel – make sure that the messaging in the ads match the messaging on the site. For example, don’t advertise blue jeans and take people to a page with yellow sweaters. It’s all about maintaining that messaging. This also applies to search engines. Are you sure that the keywords that you’ve optimized for actually any good? For example, you found a very popular keywords – ‘free balloons’ (let’s imagine that you sell balloons for now). So you decided to optimize your main page for that keyword. Bad move.
Most of the people coming in will look for free balloons. But, alas, those will not be found. So they’ll move on to the next site, searching for those mythical free balloons. This in an extreme example. But in many cases, stores target people in the wrong state of mind and don’t get anything out of the traffic that these people generate.
What can you do to take care of this problem? Make sure to use the same vocabulary for your ads and for your landing pages. Make sure to include similar calls to action in your ads and on your landing pages.
Same goes for your SEO efforts. Are you targeting the right keywords? Have you optimized for the most appropriate search term? For example, ‘free balloons’ is a bad choice, but maybe
‘cheap balloons’ will be worth it? And even in that case, make sure that your balloons are actually cheap. Otherwise, you’ll be lying to your visitors. And those people will never come back to your website.
Are You Competitive?
Are you following your closest competitors closely (sorry for the pun)? How is their pricing? What if they offer a better deal or a newer version of the product that you sell? All of these questions are especially important, if you sell in an overly saturated niche. You have to be on top of your game, when it comes to competition.
Research the search engine results. See who appears next to you. See what they offer, how their price compares to yours, etc. It might be wise to check out some of the competitive intelligence tools out there and see how you stack up against your rivals.
How Polished Is Your Shopping Cart Experience?
A very simple question. It’s either a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’. But the answer will affect your business greatly. Shopping cart abandonment rate is something that can kill your business. There are tons of things that you can do to better manage your cart abandonment rate.
From one page checkout options, better checkout design to re-engagement techniques for people that have already abandoned your store. Sometimes, all it takes is a simple email to annihilate a very nasty client drain.
These are some of the basic tips that can help you get started. If you’re looking for someone to optimize the shopping experience for your store – Liverpool’s Cheerful Lime has the experience and knowledge required to develop, oversee and optimize your eCommerce project.
