Shopping cart

Maximising the shopping cart is one element many people fail to work on and as such, miss out on crucial revenues. You have worked incredibly hard to get customers visiting your site and they are engaging with you. They start selecting items in their virtual shopping cart but they have not gone through with their purchase. They like the produce and are making all the right noises. But they’re not following through with that transaction. So how do we get them over the finish line to part with their hard earned cash?

The customer must get the perception of value – much like in a physical store, where the appearance of two-for-one offers gets the buying juices flowing.

This can seem a little desperate but the mechanics of shopping have changed a great deal in the last decade. The small details matter a great deal. Being able to engage with your customer online at the moment of their purchase, much like in a physical store, is invaluable. It must be done carefully and respectfully. The customer must get the perception of value – much like in a physical store, where the appearance of two-for-one offers gets the buying juices flowing.

• Live chat. This may not be the most practical option for your one-man business but the technology is such that you can do this anywhere. There is no doubt that customers who are able to have questions answered instantly about a pending purchase, will more than likely go on to make that purchase.
• Window shopping. Customers like to fill up their online shopping baskets because it is fun and represents no commitment. Fair enough. There are also other reasons why they find obstacles to parting with money: Slow-loading pages. Limited payment options. Being sent to a different looking payment page. Shipping arrangements that are an unexpected added expense, too slow or both. These are obstacles you can remove and make that experience as frictionless as possible. This is one thing which we pride ourselves on at theimagefile and have invested hugely over time to make this process as painless as possible for the end customer.
• Cart reminder. It is commonplace that people have a quick look for items, leave in a shopping cart and then search elsewhere online or go off somewhere. Chances are they will forget the action they just took or possibly even the website. If you have got them to register (on their first visit to the site) with their email, then set up your system to send a reminder of their basket items and maybe some incentive to get them to go through with the purchase.
• Entice them to spend more. Have threshold amounts where they get more for spending more. Spend £100 and you get a free calendar, mug, or free shoot for a family member to give away as a gift.
• Data capture. Make use of every opportunity to get the customer to give you feedback, their email, their friends’ email, leave comments, product suggestions….you get the message!

What you are seeing above is a common thread of going the extra yards to get people signed up and making sales. E-commerce is so competitive. Not least the research carried out by consumers to find the best price and best recommendations. With that in mind you have to be prepared to cover as many eventualities in the buying process. Incentives and securing data are paramount in this battle for customer’s wallets and helps in maximising the shopping cart.