Tips for high risk merchants to help to reduce shopping cart abandonment.

The success of  high risk merchants to sell products & services online depends upon your ability to turn visitors to your site into buyers.  Yet, it is common for merchants in high risk industries to have visitors put items into the shopping cart then leave without buying.

Of course, not all visitors to your website will make a purchase.  Still, studies show that a many causes of why visitors leave without buying can be solved.

Why and How Often Do Visitors Leave Your Site?

In the past years, study after study has concluded that around 70% of visitors will leave your without making a purchase. Business Insider recently published an in-depth analysis of shopping cart abandonment which confirms the previous findings.

According to the results of the study, the percentage of abandoned orders has been increasing quite steadily in recent years, reaching 74% in 2013. The BI Intelligence report points out that around 63% of these lost sales can be recovered by providing a better customer experience.  

Visitors are most likely to quit before completing the order due to unexpected costs (shipping fee) and unsatisfactory pricing. If the website is not user-friendly or if it stops responding, then this will definitely result in a lost sale. In addition, payment-related issues, such as authorization errors, security concerns, excessive verification, and the unavailability of the desired payment method will discourage visitors from buying from you.

Using Email to Recover Lost Sales

If used properly, email can help address most of the issues presented above. In an extensive article about recovering lost sales, Shopify explains how to create an email that will convince the customer to come back and proceed with the order. The article also provides a variety of examples that illustrate how to apply this technique.

Since many customers are forced into quitting the process because of website malfunction, receiving an email with a link to the shopping cart might be exactly what they have been waiting for. Whether the email is minimally designed or contains some visually appealing elements, it should enable the customer to continue with the order without any additional effort. Remember that both the contents and the subject line should be as persuasive as possible, directly targeting the "hot buttons" of your customers.

If the customer abandoned the order because of reasons other than website functionality, then simply providing a link to a shopping cart via a well-designed email will not lead to a sale.

One of the most common reasons behind shopping cart abandonment is the pricing. This is when providing a discount code might actually convince the customer to come back and make a purchase.

Add a final touch to the email by informing the customer that the products are reserved for a couple of days during which they are welcome to complete the payment. In terms of timing, it is preferred to send the email in the first 24 hours after the initiation of the order. Feel free to adjust these tips according to the characteristics of your customer base.

Conclusion

High risk merchants that effectively use email reduce shopping cart abandonment. Increase the number of completed sales at checkout.

Proper use of email can rescue sales that otherwise would be lost. Which translates into more profits for you.

 Implement some simple email follow up tools and watch your grow sales grow.

Are you a high risk merchant that wants to turn more visitors into buyers?

Contact info@paynetsecure.net today