Envision pouring your soul into your online business, only to be confronted with distressing cart abandonment levels. It can be a disheartening experience, fraught with missed opportunities for sales and revenue. Furthermore, your faithful patrons may defect to rival establishments, adding insult to injury. The onus of compensating for these lost customers by shelling out customer acquisition costs on advertising again can be overwhelming. 

However, cart abandonment is a common issue for many eCommerce businesses. 

According to Baymard Institute, the average cart abandonment rate is 69.99%. 

You can overcome the problem by understanding the reasons and taking proactive steps to address them. A rise in conversational commerce has proven valuable to help you improve customer relationships and provide excellent customer support during customer journeys. 

It helps build trust and loyalty and encourages customers to complete their purchases.

Table of Contents

1. Cart Abandonment 
2. What are The Reasons for Cart Abandonment? 
3. What is the Impact of Cart Abandonment?
4. How Can Conversational Commerce Help Reduce Cart Abandonment?
5. Types of Conversational Commerce Tools and Techniques
6. Reduce Cart Abandonment with Verloop.io

Cart Abandonment

Picture this: a potential customer stumbles upon your e-commerce site and eagerly begins adding items to their virtual cart, only to depart abruptly without purchasing. Perhaps they were browsing without the intention to buy, encountered a technical snag, or found the prices dissatisfactory.

Regardless of the reason, cart abandonment poses a dire threat to any online enterprise. Not only does it signify a squandered chance to boost revenue, but it also dampens customer satisfaction. As such, it is incumbent upon companies to investigate the underlying causes of cart abandonment and take corrective measures.

What are The Reasons for Cart Abandonment?

1. Mandatory Sign-Ups

Signing up for a new account takes time and effort for customers. Especially when they are planning a one-time purchase. However, e-commerce businesses insist on doing so to re-target customers with email and boost lead generation. 

On the contrary, customers hesitate to disclose their email id because they don’t wish to get bombarded with messages and emails. And remembering passwords is another headache.

2. Confusing the Checkout Process

A smooth, frictionless checkout process should consist of minimum steps. It should follow simple steps like:

1. Adding to cart
2. Billing information
3. Shipping information
4. Shipping method
5. Preview order
6. Payment
7. Confirmation

Anything beyond the above steps can confuse and annoy the customers. As a result, they would shift to the other brand and never come back again.

3. Technical Issues

If customers encounter technical issues such as a complicated website interface, slow loading times etc., they are most likely to get frustrated and abandon their cart.

For instance, if the checkout process takes forever to load or if they encounter any errors and bugs in the checkout process. The customers will immediately leave with a negative impression of the brand.

4. No Discounts or Promo Codes to Use

Discounts and promo codes are an effective incentive for customers to complete purchases. Of Course, the quality of the product matters the most in the long run. However, customers only get the hang of your product when they use it. And promos and discounts are very effective ways to encourage new customers to use your product.

5. Lack of Information

Customers would want to know the details of the product before making a purchase. Uncertainty can arise if there is a need for more information about the product, leading to cart abandonment, especially when they need clarification about the size or fit of the product. 

They may become frustrated and leave the cart if the information they seek is hard to find.

What is the Impact of Cart Abandonment?

A surge in cart abandonment rates can serve as a harbinger of deeper issues plaguing the user experience or checkout process, deterring customers from revisiting the site to make subsequent purchases. This can lead to a dip in conversion rates, hampering the business’s expansion plans and impeding its growth trajectory.

1. Forgoing Future Revenue

The customer’s long-term relationship with your business is critical. It helps you predict the overall profit margin your company can expect from that regular customer. It guides you towards marketing campaigns and building strategies to build short-term and long-term goals.

However, that’s only possible when your first-time customer feels engaged and converts into a long-term customer.

But cart abandonment prevents customers from becoming long-term customers. That’s because business misses out on the opportunity to engage with them further and miss out on opportunities to cross-sell or upsell.

2. Higher Retargeting Cost

You lose money in cart abandonment, not just due to lost sales. But also during retargeting campaigns. As per the research, recovering lost sales via retargeting campaigns can cost you between $0.66 & $1.23 per click.

And businesses spend thousands to bring visitors to their sites for the first time and then more dollars to get them back.

3. Negative Impact on Customer Lifetime

When customers leave the cart abandoned, they might need help with some unsolved difficulties. As a result, customers needed a better impression of your brand. This means they are more likely to share their experiences through online reviews or by word of mouth. 

Eventually, it discourages potential customers from doing business with the company. Hence, it hurts the long-term value of a customer for the business.

How Can Conversational Commerce Help Reduce Cart Abandonment?

Here’s how conversational commerce can help reduce cart abandonment.

1. Reminders

Customers often place the items in their carts and need to remember about that. They might have intended to buy the product but abandoned the coaches because they needed to be more focused.

Keeping that in mind, conversational commerce sends reminders via various channels to prompt the customer to return to the cart and complete the purchase. Or simply send emails or messages via chatbots containing a clear call to action—for example, a button to return to the cart or a link to complete the purchase.

2. Offer Incentives

Customers may have left the cart abandonment due to high shipping costs or waiting for some offers and discounts shortly. In both cases, offering incentives can be very impactful.

Chatbots or virtual assistants can offer them on-the-spot discount coupons or inform the customers about an ongoing promotional offer to encourage them to return and complete the purchase. Or offering a free shipping coupon could turn the tide.

3. Creating A Sense of Urgency

Customer abandoning their cart also means that they were interested in making a purchase, but due to some reason, they couldn’t. So if you create a sense of urgency, the customers can act quickly and complete their purchase.

For instance, chatbots could send a message with a deadline for the offer. Such as buy three, get two free if you purchase within the next 13 hours. This time-limited offer creates a sense of urgency and encourages the customers to complete the purchase.

Types of Conversational Commerce Tools and Techniques

1. Chatbots

Chatbots are software that uses AI and ML to establish a conversation that sounds natural and human-like. You can integrate the chatbot with your websites, mobile apps, or other messaging applications to allow users to interact with your brand.

Chatbots can answer frequently asked queries, provide information about products and services and help users proceed with their orders. And they improve their responses from their past interactions.

2. Live Chat

Live chat is an online communication technology that allows website visitors or app users to interact with your business in real-time. It is a form of conventional commerce that offers immediate assistance, answers queries, and instantly resolves concerns. 

Similarly, live chat can also be used for sales and marketing purposes as offering personalised product recommendations, offers and discounts.

3. Messaging Apps

Messaging apps are software applications that businesses use to send and receive text messages and other multimedia content. WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram are popular messaging apps that e-commerce businesses use to interact and engage with potential customers.

Since most of these apps are free, the number of active users on these platforms is very high. So your e-commerce business must take full advantage of these apps.

4. Voice Assistants

Voice Assistants are interesting software applications used for conversational commerce. Users can simply use voice commands to purchase and ask for product information without typing or navigating complex menus. 

For instance, a user could say, “Hey Alexa, order me an ice cream from my favourite ice cream parlour”, and the voice assistant would process the request and place the order.

Reduce Cart Abandonment with Verloop.io

Conversational Commerce has the potential to make a massive difference in cart abandonment by recognising customer worries and providing customised help to customers along the way. Chatbots or live agents can identify their requirements and direct them to complete their purchase while also jolting you out of your contentment and getting you to pay attention to what’s happening.

So keep up with customers’ queries anytime, anywhere, with Verloop.io.  Verloop.io enables customers to communicate with you on their chosen channel and provides valuable data to help minimise cart abandonment.