Why Your “Beautiful” Website is Losing Sales

Fixing Cart Abandonment for eCommerce sites.

If you’re an eCommerce business owner, you’ve likely spent hours lovingly creating your online store, agonising over wording, images, headings and the like. You may have even spent hours adding your products individually to the site, whilst dreaming about making lots of sales.

Except, after all the time, sweat, and tears, you’re struggling to make sales and have noticed in Google Analytics that you’ve got an incredibly high cart abandonment rate. This has likely made you sit in front of your computer, with a blank and confused expression on your face, and potentially led you to increase your stock offering. 

This is a very common issue we see with new and old eCommerce stores across a wide variety of sectors, all with the same issue: High cart abandonment rate and low sales. 

In this blog, we highlight what the issues could be that are tanking your conversion rates and how our team can turn your online store into a profitable revenue stream.  

What can cause cart abandonment?

Annoyingly, there is no big neon light that says “This is what is causing your cart to be abandoned”, and there is usually not one singular issue that could be resulting in customers not finishing their purchase. 

No, it’s usually a range of issues that can cause cart abandonment. Although if you have a broken checkout button, that is definitely going to be a major cause.  

If you are experiencing high levels of abandoned carts, there are a few things you could potentially look for, which include: 

Simplifying steps at the checkout:

If you have multiple pages or multiple steps to finally purchase an item, users can get fed up and go elsewhere. Think of it like this: If you were to go to the shop, and you had to go through multiple barriers just to use the till, you’d likely put your basket down and walk out. This is the same principle for your website. 

Allow for guest checkouts:

If a user would rather not make an account, if the only way to buy your products is through creating an account, they may click away and use a site that offers this. 

Hidden costs:

Whilst you may have the cost of the item upfront, on the product page for example, but your customer then finds there are other costs involved that they were unaware of, they may feel duped. Having delivery fees, whether VAT is or isn’t included, and any other additional costs displayed clearly and early in the process can help. 

Offer free shipping:

With Amazon being the dominant force in the eCommerce world, it can be hard to compete. Offering free shipping, if you’re able, is a great incentive. If you’re not able to, offer a free shipping threshold, such as “free shipping on all orders over £50”. This can increase the size of your orders and make customers more likely to purchase. 

Display payment options or Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL):

Customers trust sites more when they display multiple card/payment options, such as PayPal, Stripe, Google Pay, & Apply Pay. Equally, if you can offer BNPL like Klarna or PayPal Credit, customers will feel more inclined to purchase, especially as they don’t have to spend a large amount of money straight away. 

Speed:

If your website is slow and clunky, customers are going to leave, as they aren’t going to want to wait for your site to load when they could go to a much faster site. Speed is important; you should not neglect it. 

Set up cart abandonment email automations:

If a customer has provided their email address, this can be a great way to encourage them to complete their purchase. This is because some users may get distracted during the checkout phase, and may have slipped their mind and need reminding. Sending email reminders of their cart is a great way to get customers over the line with their purchase. You can also incentivise the user with a discount code to encourage a purchase.

Do I need a new website?

Not necessarily, if you’re having cart abandonment issues and have resolved the above points, you might not need a new website if sales start to shoot up. 

However, if you find that you have multiple friction points, broken elements across the site that you’re unsure how to fix, and other small issues that are causing your visitors to leave, a new website might be the best course of action. 

When working with Website Design Ltd, our team have a wealth of experience designing and creating eCommerce websites from the ground up that perform well in both search and, essentially, conversions. 

Whether you need a small site with only a few products listed or you need an extensive website with multiple categories and listings, our team can create a beautiful, bespoke website that converts your visitors into customers. 

If you are interested in getting a new website built, speak to our team today, who are more than happy to help!

Will marketing help me avoid cart abandonment?

Yes, simply put, marketing is a great way to avoid cart abandonment. This is because marketing is designed to bring higher-intent customers onto your website, who are ready to purchase.  

You may find that the users who are abandoning their carts may be lower intent and making more impulsive purchases. For example, with PPC, you are able to create highly targeted ad campaigns that directly target users physically searching and looking for your products, and putting you front and centre, to say “buy my stuff”. If you want to know more about how PPC can help your site, check out our PPC page. 

Whereas with SEO, you are optimising your products, categories, and key pages to be as attractive to organic search users as possible. This can lead to your site appearing on Google when users are searching for your products, leading to your pages appearing below sponsored posts. If you want to learn more about our SEO offering, visit our WooCommerce SEO page. 

Equally, email marketing can be used to effectively drive users who have visited previously, to return and complete their purchases. When using email marketing experts like ourselves, we can help set up automations that trigger when a cart has been abandoned. 

Also, when using email marketing, encouraging customers to sign up for a newsletter allows you to incentivise your subscribers to return to your store and offer promotions that drive users back to your store.   

Why choose Website Design Ltd to fix my cart abandonment?

As previously mentioned, at Website Design Ltd, we have helped hundreds of eCommerce websites across the UK increase their sales through the creation of bespoke websites and targeted marketing efforts. 

Our team of developers and marketers are experts in their field, and will work with you tirelessly to ensure that your website performs and converts more effectively and efficiently.

If you’re interested in growing your eCommerce website and avoiding the dreaded cart abandonment issues plaguing your competitors, speak to our team today!