Top Reasons (and solutions) for Cart Abandonment

Shopping cart abandonment is an Ecommerce store owner’s worst nightmare. It can be frustrating to successfully move a shopper through the sales funnel and create offers that pique their interest, only to lose them at the point of purchase. It’s extremely aggravating.

And it is for this reason that we are here with this blog. We’ll go over a variety of cart abandonment statistics to paint a clear picture of why shoppers fail to complete their purchases and shed light on how to fix common problems to further increase the conversion rate.

What Are the Most Common Reasons for Shopping Cart Abandonment?

To gain a better understanding of why shopping cart abandonment is a problem for retailers and what causes it, you must first thoroughly understand your customer persona and business processes.

When making a purchase, it is critical to understand the customer’s psychology and mindset, i.e., what turns them off and what leads to a successful transaction.

Here are some of the most common reasons why customers abandon their shopping carts:

1. Excessive/Hidden Costs: Nobody wants to pay extra. As a result, it is one of the most common reasons why customers abandon their shopping carts. Customers are always hesitant to make a purchase when they are faced with additional costs.

2. Compulsory Account Creation: Forcing your users to create an account to make a purchase can turn out into a blunder and result in cart abandonment. Some users prefer not to create an account for a single purchase, so they would choose not to purchase if there’s no guest checkout.

3. Complicated Checkout Processes: When designing your Ecommerce website’s checkout flow, keep in mind that each additional step and form field limits the users’ ability to make a payment.

4. Technical errors and lags: Technical difficulties and flaws can happen on any website. However, you should make every effort to avoid these situations because they may make the customers uncomfortable. 

5. Payment methods are insufficient: Having only the traditional options is no longer prudent. Nowadays, everyone is used to a different payment method, and you can easily lose a customer if you do not offer a variety of payment options.

6. The website does not appear to be trustworthy: No matter how secure your transactions are, customers are unlikely to trust you with their credit card number and personal information if the page lacks a security icon.

While the six reasons listed above are the most common, there are several other reasons why customers abandon shopping carts.

Conversions can be increased by a whopping 35.26 percent by implementing the right checkout optimization strategies, according to experts. 

(source – https://baymard.com/lists/cart-abandonment-rate)

The Ecommerce store owners need to determine what isn’t working and make a concerted effort to improve the design, promotions, offerings, checkout flow, and other aspects of their store.

What Are Some Strategies for Reducing Ecommerce Cart Abandonment?

Every Ecommerce store is unique, and the methods for reducing checkout abandonment will also differ. We will go over some of the most important yet simple strategies for online retailers.

1. To avoid confusing and losing prospective buyers, make directions and CTAs as clear as possible.

Why it matters: Your purchasing path should be clear and simple. The better the UX, the more sales you can expect to make. Conversion rate optimization is distinguished by clarity and simplicity.

2. Display trust seals and use secure transaction methods to make shoppers feel safe when providing payment information.

Why it matters: While shoppers are much more comfortable with online shopping than they were when it first became available, they are still wary. The threat is kept alive by news of data breaches. Trust seals, such as Norton Secured (shown below), reassure customers that you are protecting their data.

3. Make it simple for customers to make changes to their shopping carts to avoid frustration and keep them engaged.

Why it matters: This part of the checkout process can be especially aggravating. You reach the end of the procedure and realize you have forgotten something. So, what now? Changes to the cart will be simple and instantaneous, thanks to the optimization.

4. To maximize conversions, audit the entire checkout process.

Why it matters: When an obvious problem is discovered, spot checks of stuck points along the path to purchase are typically required. Regular full-system inspections of the entire checkout process can identify revenue-draining areas before they become visible.

5. Use one-click shopping for repeat customers to make it even easier for them to return.

Why it matters: Online shopping is no longer a novelty or something you do because a particular item is not available locally. Ecommerce is now the preferred method of ordering for many people. There will be no driving, no fighting crowds, and no waiting in line. Shopper loyalty will increase if you make shopping with you as simple as loading a basket and clicking the Buy Now button.

6. Use testimonials and reviews liberally as social proof that doing business with you is a good idea.

Why it matters: Social proof is critical in Ecommerce. You, like the rest of the online shoppers, frequently read reviews before ordering an unfamiliar product. We are more likely to believe others (even if we have never met them) than we are to believe the seller. It’s just human nature.

7. Display contact information clearly on every page to establish trust and the ready availability of customer service.

Why it matters: Highlighting the various ways your customers can contact you is akin to reaching out and holding hands with them. Nothing beats company when it comes to removing fear. You can’t physically walk them through your online store, but you can guide them virtually and be there for them every step of the way.

8. Profitably stop cart abandonment by removing shipping costs or disclosing them.

Why it matters: The most obvious solution to high shipping costs is to eliminate them. This, however, may not be possible depending on your product mix. One effective strategy is to include the additional cost of shipping in the product price.

You can employ a personalized message bar to inform customers that if they meet a certain threshold, they can avoid paying shipping fees. This is a fantastic way to boost AOV and conversions, and it’s all made possible by personalization software tools.

If you are unable to reduce costs, fully disclose them. The product page is the best place to do this. Transparency is highly valued by digital shoppers and is essential for store success.

Conclusion

We hope that these tips and tricks will help you manage the shopping cart abandonment rate in your online store.

It takes time and effort to create an exceptional shopping experience. Do not pass up this opportunity, as it has the potential to help redeem what has been lost. To put it succinctly, you only need to be concerned with one thing: creating an experience that your visitors and existing customers will enjoy.

And, while your Ecommerce shopping cart abandonment rate is unlikely to drop to zero overnight, your efforts toward successful conversions should not be put on hold. The trick is to never stop striving to improve your company and its customers.

Begin by A/B testing the aforementioned techniques, keeping what works, and discarding the rest. You can even seek help from industry experts, whose knowledge and experience can help you stay ahead of the competition in this competitive Ecommerce landscape.

About us

We, at Galaxy Weblinks, specialize in developing the best online experiences for your users. We have expertise in customizing websites using multiple platforms, be it Shopify, Woocommerce, Magento. Contact us for your Ecommerce project today.

A failproof Magento 2 migration plan

Editor’s note: If you are still wondering ‘Do I really need to upgrade to Magento 2’, we recommend reading our 5 reasons why you should migrate to Magento 2 blog. Alternatively, you can take a leaf out of the book of Land Rover, Helly Hansen, Byredo, and thousand other brands who upgraded their Ecommerce websites to Magento 2 way ahead of time.

Migrating from Magento 1 to Magento 2 is tricky, as it involves a lot of manual tasks. No doubt the data migration tools do make the task easier!

But what about the prerequisites? Or existing traffic?

You can’t afford the bummers because of a lack of proper planning.

Here’s an ideal migration process for Magento 2 for a successful, hassle-free, and safe migration.

Cut down all the complexities before making the move

Video of a man thinking with math figures floating around his head

Here’s why?

You might start with setting a plan that includes deadlines, efforts required, and then end up with hair-pulling frustration by making unnecessary changes.

Mark down: The amount of time and effort depends on the number of customizations, complexity, and the number of extensions running on the existing store.

Here are the initial practices that should be taken into account before migrating to Magento 2:

  • Prepare full backup

Make sure you have a complete backup of your Magento 1 store and the required database, files, and folders.

  • Check compatibility

Check if your current extensions, custom code, and themes are compatible with Magento 2.

  • Analyze the data
  • Review what needs to be kept or removed from the new Magento 2 website.
  • Staging environment

Do not migrate when your website is live. Transfer the data from the copied database of the Magento 1 store.

  • SEO analysis

To avoid losing traffic, perform SEO analysis to retain best-performing URLs, keywords, and fix other possible issues.

You are ready for migration after you review and account for your existing site’s extensions, customizations, website design, and the data stored within your Magento 1 installation.

5 necessary steps for successful Magento 2 migration

1. Theme and extension migration

First, you need to check whether the themes and extensions are compatible with the Magento 2 version or not. If it’s compatible, then you can install the same theme and extensions in Magento 2. This will automatically make the migration process a lot easier for you. If not, then you need to head towards the next step…

2. Custom code migration

Magento 2 follows new approaches and architecture for developing themes and extensions.

Existing extensions, themes, and customizations are unlikely to work with a Magento 2 installation. Therefore, you will need to build them if they aren’t available as out-of-the-box functionality.

If you have installed a third-party theme for the Magento 1 site, then you have to check with the vendor whether the current theme will support Magento 2. You would need to create a custom theme and migrate this custom code using Magento toolkits.

3. UI and Design

During the redesign stage, you should consider which features and functionalities should be carried over, removed, or added to your new website.

Just like extensions, Magento 1 UI can be incompatible with Magento 2. It’s because the Magento 2 uses modern architecture and has different back-end and front-end requirements. This may make it impossible to convert Magento 1 theme and design code.

You’ll need a front-end developer to create a custom theme and templates from scratch if you want to create something unique and memorable to your retail business.

4. Data Migration

Next, start your engines!

The migration process starts with setting up a development environment by moving Magento 2 on a new server. Make sure to install a fresh copy of Magento 2 on the same hosting server where your Magento 1 store is located.

It is recommended to migrate data from a replicated Magento 1 database instance. You may be required to suspend all the activity on your Magento 1 admin panel, and stop Magento 1 cron jobs, except for the order management functions.

With the help of Magento data migration tools or back-end developers, you can migrate critical settings and data such as:

  • Settings: Websites, stores, system configurations like tax settings, payment, shipping, etc.
  • Data: Products, orders, wish lists, customers, categories, ratings, etc.

Magento offers a tool to assist in Data Migration. It can help you in importing product and customer data to the new 2.0 version.

Advantages of using Magento’s Data Migration Tool:

  • Migrating configuration settings
  • Migrating main data in the database
  • Transferring incremental data updates to the storefront and admin panel

Alternatively, you can outsource this project to an expert Magento development company.

5. Testing and SEO Audit

You’ll need to vigorously test the Magento 2 site to make sure there aren’t any issues before going live.

The internal testing involves whether the website and any new functionality have been completed as per the specification or not.

Run through a predefined list of user stories to ensure that there are no issues with the site’s usability and functionality. Once the website has passed all the quality assurance guidelines, you can go ahead with the SEO audit phase.

Complete an SEO audit to ensure that all content has been migrated over to the new site. Remove any thin or duplicate content, and ensure that all of your pages are optimized with relevant meta content, heading tags, alt text, and structured data.

Make sure that 301 redirects have been set up to direct users to your new pages.

And you are all set to go live!

It’s about User Experience!

Migration is the perfect opportunity to refresh your website and rethink about – “How can I offer the best customer experience?”

It’s not just a migration phase for your Ecommerce website. It is also the best time to review whether you need more advanced functionality in your Magento store.

If you want to create a high performing Magento 2 website or put together some initial mobile-first designs in it, reach out to our team of Magento developers here.

About the Author

Vinod Khajja is an Ecommerce expert at Galaxy. He is a firm believer of AI and it’s possibilities with Ecommerce. As a Senior Project Manager he has multiple ecommerce successes under his belt

5 reasons why you should migrate to Magento 2?

It’s high time for users to finally migrate, you cannot defer Magento 2 upgrade until the last minute. As it’s not a one-click-upgrade, Magento 1 users need to understand why this migration is crucial for their business.

Magento 2 is offering much more intuitive functionalities and benefits in comparison to Magento 1. But before the advantages, let’s understand where we’re coming from when we say ‘migrate now’.

Why sticking with Magento 1.x is not a good idea?

After June 2020 there will be no official support for Magento merchants or developers. This means there’ll be no more technical assistance, no more security patches, and ultimately, no more Magento 1.x as a viable platform.

Any technical issues with your website, as mentioned below, could have a huge impact on your revenue and brand image.

  • Security vulnerabilities

After the cut-off date, any sites that missed out on a migration would be vulnerable to security breaches and hacks. E-commerce sites that are still on unsupported versions of Magento will be exposed to hackers equipped with backdoor exploits.

This means you will be putting your customers’ data at risk. And without protection of their payment details and security updates, your checkout may no longer be secure.

  • Quality fixes

Magento will no longer be rolling out quality fixes for Magento Open Source (Community) or certain versions of Magento Commerce (Enterprise). Users with Magento 1.x will not get any further improvements to existing core features, and will find it difficult to make their site more user-friendly with broken features.

And with no more feature upgrades to Magento 1 means low customer retention, as it will be difficult for you to keep up with the services offered by your competitors.

  • 3rd party extension

Magento’s security patches and quality fixes only cover the core platform and not any extensions, bespoke modifications or enhancements.

In this case, you’ll need maintenance support to improve extensions and prevent them from getting defunct as they won’t be compatible with any new patches released to the core platform.

Magento 2 has several advantages over its predecessor

You must think about migration if you are looking towards a smooth customer shopping experience with your existing ecommerce website. Here are our 5 reasons to migrate to Magento 2:

1. Improved Performance

Magento 2 performance

Load speeds on the first version were slow. The possibilities of working with dynamic databases like PostgreSQL and MySQL has allowed better processing of caching, re-indexing and queries.

Magento 2 sites will run on average 20% faster than the sites based on the previous version. Pages will load in half the time as it has full-page caching. Whereas with an efficient indexing system, transactions become faster and easier to process.

Thus, faster site speed will encourage more sales and increase website search engine optimization.

2. Mobile Friendly

As we know that online shoppers perform more than 50% of online transactions on mobile devices, a responsive web shop is a must.

Magento 2 makes mobile commerce a priority as Magento 1 sites did not deliver optimum performance on mobile devices. Customers can take their mobile performance even further with the release of PWA (Progressive Web Application) Studio in Magento 2.3.

3. Smooth and Simple Checkout Process

Even though the Magento 1 checkout was a single page process, it was cumbersome.

Now Magento 2 offers a simple 2 step checkout process and the Instant Purchase feature. Existing customers can use their email address to check-out faster using their saved information like using previously-stored payment and shipping information to skip checkout steps altogether, taking them to a confirmation purchase page.

This increases conversions and reduces abandoned cart rates.

4. Better Admin Interface

This is a non-technical user’s dream! The admin user interface has been touted as the most problematic elements of Magento 1 for its confusing layouts and being intimidating to first timers. That problem was solved in Magento 2.

Magento 2 offers a user-friendly and clean experience where even the most non-technical users can add new product listings and find tools with ease. The admin dashboard enables you to find crucial business information about your e-store in one single place, leaving no room for confusing navigation.

The new version is easy to navigate and use which means that your customer will get to pages or products they desire faster.

5. Improved Security

A lot of attention has gone into the security of the online platform in the wake of increased data breaches.

Magento 2 also offers robust desktop protection due to major changes in the source folder structure. Ther number of root folders has been reduced to five by Magento 2 which in the previous version of the platform was containing nine root folders.

Moreover, the mask folder has also been deleted from the root folder. This new structure means that the code cannot be stolen or stolen directly from the root, making Magento 2 more secure than Magento 1.

The Next Big Step Towards Migration

Customers reported they benefited from Magento Commerce 2’s comprehensive security standards, native B2B functionality, multi-site capabilities, and easy-to-use content development functionality.

Their reasoning for choosing Magento was based on how it can be customized to meet their specific needs. You can certainly find your why in the above mentioned reasons to not delay the upgrade any further.

We recommend you to take a systematic migration approach or get a team of Magento experts onboard to help you with the migration with zero down time.

About Galaxy Weblinks

We have a team of Magento experts that will assess your eCommerce website and help you stay up-to-date when it comes to security, performance, and stability. Contact us for a free consultation!

Magento 1 End Of Life: It’s time to migrate to Magento 2

Magento announced that it is pulling the plug on Magento 1 in April 2017 at the ‘Meet Magento’ conference in Prague. The announcement caused a frenzy amongst developers and business owners. However, Magento later cancelled the End of Life and announced an 18-month notification policy for the EOL date. Even though the End of Life has been delayed, it’s high time you start planning Migration to Magento 2. Magento’s team will provide support for Magento 1.13.x and 1.14.x Enterprise editions, but only till June 2020. The support for Magento 1 community edition is no longer available. End of support on Magento 1 means that there will be no further development. With no security patches, your business and data will be at risk. This would leave your website vulnerable to hackers. Apart from security you might also face the following issues if you decide to delay the upgrade:
  • Increased maintenance costs
  • Lack of support for extensions
  • PCI compliance issues
  • Lack of speed (Magento 2 is faster)
Magento has provided you with the timeframe to understand the database, compatibility, and integration needs for a smooth migration and upgrade. As most of the current Magento websites are running on Magento 1, the users currently have two options:
  • Start planning the migration to Magento 2
  • Stick with Magento 1 for a while till a glitch makes it urgent.
Moving to Magento 2 will change your website’s game. It easily handles huge traffic and aids faster checkouts. As per previews, the stores in Magento 2 load 30–50% faster than Magento 1. Magento 2 solves the problem of slow page loading speeds and checkouts, resulting in lesser transaction failures and more business! As Magento 2 is based on a different architecture, the migration will be a time-taking process. It is highly advised to get a team of Magento experts on board and get on with it. Bottomline, GET IT DONE NOW! DO NOT PUT THE UPGRADE ON PENDING TASK LIST! Migration to Magento 2 is a walk in the park if you have right development partners onboard. Get a Magento expert here!