Written by Merchant Account Central.
Customer abandonment of the internet shopping cart can make a significant impact to sales. Try these tactics to reduce abandonment and increase sales:
Free shipping
Statistics show that up to 44% of shopping cart abandonment is due to shipping costs. Free shipping is a major incentive and is one of the reasons so many people sign up for Amazon Prime. Calculate the costs and offer free shipping wherever possible. Even eBay sellers now price the shipping into the cost of the item and call it free shipping rather than show the shipping component separately.
Visibility
According to KISSmetrics, 24% of shopping cart abandonment is done so with the intention of completing the purchase later. For sites that are visited regularly, keep the shopping cart, along with item indicators visible at all times. For sites that are not regularly visited, send a reminder email to the user of the open shopping cart. Most merchant shopping cart systems will allow you to do this.
No surprises
Make sure that shipping charges and any others are mentioned from the start of the checkout process. Even on the product page, mention potential delivery costs if possible. People do not like surprises and up to 22% of the previously mentioned abandonment rate due to shipping charges is because they did not about it until the last phase of the checkout.