Add-to-Cart Rate
Monitoring your online store’s add-to-cart rate will help you identify and resolve conversion problems to boost sales. This key performance metric tracks the share of website visitors who insert products into virtual shopping carts. Often, it shares a close association with three other benchmarks:
Bounce rate: Measures the fraction of shoppers exiting your site after viewing one page
Shopping cart abandonment scale: Indicates the ratio of browsers who demonstrated inclinations to order by adding items to their carts but then didn’t finish all checkout steps
Cart completion percentage: Calculates the proportion of patrons who become purchasers
The tips below will help you use those conversion factors to troubleshoot related internet business setbacks.
Products and Pricing
If your site’s in-cart rate is low, such as under 5 percent, problems may include search, navigation, product selection, merchandise displays, and/or pricing. Increase this key level by improving the following categories:
Hard-to-find products: Search and navigation issues hinder shoppers’ chances of locating suitable items.
Unsatisfactory offerings: Merchandise choice and presentation concerns indicate that users experience disappointment upon finding products.
Vague values: Pricing challenges occur if shoppers can’t perceive products’ values.
Marketing
Examine your in-cart rate in a promotional context to identify your most effective campaigns. For instance, research into 2015’s third quarter found these percentages according to various marketing channels:
Direct customers entering URLs in browser bars: 10.62 percent
Shoppers clicking on email-marketing links: 10.23 percent
Search engine results sending visitors to websites: 7.54 percent
Social media posts recommending online destinations: 4.58 percent
Assuming that your store’s rates are comparable, improving your email blasts could be a wise move. Tailor messages to increase items sold. All exceeding the 10.23-percent standard above are good performers you should repeat. Search engine optimization strategies and marketing campaigns that don’t generate the 7.54-percent add-to-cart goal are underachievers you should examine and enhance.
Checkout
Compared to your in-cart amount, lagging finalized sales can be disappointing. They represent significant lost yet potential business with great opportunities for improvement. Industry reports indicate that 30 to 40 percent of visitors placing items in their e-commerce carts check out eventually. Conversely, 60 to 70 percent of patrons don’t buy goods in their carts. So raising your completion percentage even slightly could boost your revenue considerably.
Previous purchasers revisiting your website are the best candidates to place items in their shopping carts. But low conversions could signal that your store complicates future orders. Unlike first-time patrons who know they must key in their billing/shipping details, repeat users like online retailers to remember them. Upgrade your checkout to avoid reentering personal information, and returning customers will be more willing to buy again.
E-Complish’s e-commerce solutions allow you to accept credit cards online quickly, securely, and efficiently. Processing 5,000 or more monthly transactions? No problem. Our internal expert programmers will custom design your PCI-compliant platform to feature your chosen options. Upon reaching your hassle-free payment site, users will recognize your organization’s unique branding look. Everyone from your clients to your employees will appreciate how E-Complish’s automated systems simplify purchases.
Promises
Your website’s in-cart percentage may indicate if you’re keeping your business promises. Internet consumers count on seller consistency, spanning from marketing to merchandise presentations to checkout. Product descriptions, prices, and shipping terms assure certain expectations. When cart and completion rates don’t mesh, you may not be following through with official declarations at some point during shopping journeys.
To decrease cart abandonment:
Display all fees clearly: Taxes, shipping costs, and any other charges drive up online product prices. But withholding that information pushes away shoppers who think websites are hiding extra expenses. So present multiple shipping options with full fee transparency.
Explain all policies: Place your delivery, privacy, and return policies in prominent site locations. Patrons with questions want answers before finalizing sales. Research shows that almost 7 percent of consumers abandon carts when such explanations are unclear. Include links to lengthy details that open new windows without redirecting buyers away from their carts.
Offer multiple customer support channels: Make convenient ways to reach customer support like real-time chat buttons, phone numbers, and email addresses conspicuous. Besides reassuring visitors, easily available assistance encourages conversions. If perplexed shoppers can’t get advice on completing purchases, they defect to other sites. Ensure forward momentum while reducing abandoned carts by aiding patrons in need where and when they need help.
