We enjoy fishing. Fresh water, salt water, it doesn’t matter. Part of being a fisherman is understanding that some fish are going to get away. At times, they’ll be hooked, nearly reeled in, mere feet from the boat, but they’ll still manage to get away.
It is part and parcel of online credit card processing: customers will abandon their shopping cart in the middle of checkout. It happens to every e-commerce merchant, some more than others. The key, however, is finding why customers leave the checkout and figuring how to make the appropriate adjustments.
Recently we read the results of a survey regarding checkout abandonment among UK consumers that revealed some telling figures:
- 67 percent of UK consumers have left the checkout process because of frustration with the payment process.
- 25 percent abandon checkout because the merchant doesn’t offer their preferred payment method.
- Four years ago, half of UK consumers abandoned checkout, citing difficulty to complete — that figure is down to 21 percent, which is welcome news.
However, we’ve got some advice for e-commerce merchants with high rates of shopping cart abandonment: Diversify. Because it only takes one inconvenience, however significant, to turn away a customer for good.
It’s not all online credit card processing — consumers embracing different methods
Through the years, consumers have abandoned their purchases for several reasons:
- Too many steps, too many windows
- Website/checkout page wasn’t secure (no ‘https’ precursor in the URL)
- They get to checkout only to find excessive shipping costs
- No guest checkout; consumer forced to create an account
Some of those reasons are ancient and relatively easy to amend. A growing reason for abandonment, that we touched upon above, is that the merchant lacks enough ways to pay — for example, credit cards only, and Visa and MasterCard at that; a bank transfer; or electronic check.
Recently we blogged about e-wallets, and how their use is steadily increasing. PayPal, Venmo, ApplePay and SamsungPay are recognized worldwide and have done well to expand their reach. Not every consumer wants online credit card processing — we believe the lack of e-wallet options are a significant reason why modern day customers abandon checkout.
Our two cents: Message the customer after abandonment (but don’t stalk)
A way to entice customers back to the checkout process to complete their order is to offer them something in return.
About two years ago, we contributed a piece to The Green Sheet about how an online seafood merchant colleague of ours handles shopping cart abandonment, which we think is brilliant. He has an automative response e-mail set to encourage the customer to complete his/her order two hours after they abandon. If that fails, he sends one more e-mail message two days later with a $15 off coupon for orders of $100, enticing them to make their purchase.
He estimates his abandonment rate is just under 50 percent (which is well below the national average), but also claims he wins back 10 percent of those customers who abandon.
We reiterate, however, that two e-mails following an instance of abandonment is enough. In the age of the GDPR and merchants contacting customers, contact should be limited.
Online credit card processing solutions and more
More has happened in the last five years of the payments industry than the last 50, and Instabill has done its collective best to continue to offer e-commerce merchants custom solutions by aligning them with the best acquiring banks — domestically or internationally — that specialize in their business.
This is why we prefer to discuss our online credit card processing solutions over the phone, enabling us to get a feel for your business and its needs.
Approvals are waiting at 1-800-530-2444.
