How to Improve Your Ecommerce Shopping Process

On September 7, 2023, an event Ecommerce Bridge LIVE! took place in Nitra, featuring Barbora Blahušiaková and Peter Angelov from our UX team. In their presentation titled "Don't Abandon Abandoned Carts," they shared several tips on how to reduce the abandonment rate of shopping carts in online shops. For everyone working in the e-commerce field, the following checklist of the most common mistakes to avoid in order to prevent carts from remaining abandoned is available.

6 min read

• Peter Angelov
• 7.9.2023

• UX Design

Selection of Products, Information on Prices and Services

• Inform about the options and price of shipping. In addition to a separate page with this information, try to indicate at least the minimum shipping cost on the product details so that your customers can get an idea of the costs. 
• Provide the option of delivery to collection points or automatic boxes.
  Many people are not at home when couriers deliver parcels.
• List on the page the options for returning goods or exchanging them for another item.
  Merchants who are confident in the quality of their products often allow exchanges beyond legal obligations.
• Display the stock availability of products and ideally the most accurate date or at least a time estimate of when the ordered product will be delivered to the customer.
• If the nature of the products you sell requires it, offer the user the option to add products to a wishlist/shopping list without requiring a login.

Related Products

• Consider when, what, and how many products you display as related or similar.
  Some forms of cross-sale and up-sale lead users into a paradox of choice - the inability to choose from too many options, or the inability to navigate a complex offer.
• If you offer complementary goods during the purchase (e.g., batteries for a device), make sure you offer compatible goods, and that these goods are not already included in the product.

Purchase Conditions

• If your store has a minimum order value, display this information visibly and as soon as possible (ideally on every page).
• Make sure that the conditions for applying discount coupons are not set so that it is not possible to use the coupon (e.g., inability to combine with a discounted product but all products on the page are discounted).
• If you charge additional fees (e.g., handling, packaging, etc.), state this information as soon as possible in the cart (not just at checkout) and explain why you are charging this fee.

Checkout

• Do not require user registration or login to make a purchase.
  Registration can be offered during the process of filling in personal details, but not insisted upon. Exceptions are stores that provide special prices or conditions to a specific type of customers (e.g., B2B, etc.)
• If you display shipping types only based on the address (for calculating postage), do not hide this section in advance, but display it with the inability to choose until the address is filled in.
• Provide users with some form of support contact during the purchase.
  The ideal form is a phone line or online chat with a live person. Outside of working hours, this can be replaced by leaving a message in the chat, or automated chatbot responses.
• If you have a simple purchasing process and do not provide many options or settings, consider a simple one-page checkout. For more complex processes, divide the completion of the purchase into smaller, logically related parts.
• Allow users to choose their preferred payment method and do not forget about Apple Pay/ Google Pay, which are increasingly in demand, especially for purchases via mobile devices.
• If you use discount coupons and codes, make sure that the field for entering the coupon is sufficiently visible.

Website Trustworthiness

• Pay attention to a professional and high-quality visual design of your website. In addition to appearance, focus also on spelling or typos and inaccuracies.
• Regularly update the content of the page so it does not appear "dead".
• Ensure communication between the server and the browser through an HTTPS certificate.
• Provide sufficient information about the operator of the e-shop. It is good if the operating company is not just a "mailbox" company but has a real address, telephone, and email contact.
• If other websites write about your e-shop, add links to this information on your website.
• Be present and active on social networks and refer to them on your e-shop. 
• Display "badges" on the page that you have earned for the quality of products or services provided (e.g., Heureka Verified by Customers and others).
• Display ratings of the e-shop as well as products by customers. Ratings must be from real people, ideally from platforms that you as the site operator do not manage (i.e., Heureka, Google, Facebook, etc.). Do not hide negative ratings, but add your response.
• Carry out card payments through a trustworthy payment gateway.
• Allow payment on delivery (upon receipt of goods), especially if you are a lesser-known / starting e-shop.
• Do not require users to provide (sensitive) information that you do not need (e.g., date of birth, etc.)
  If you want to collect them, state the purpose and allow these details to be left blank.
• Write general terms and conditions and other legal documents in a form that is easy to understand.

Technical Issues

• Regularly check the functionality of your website.
  Technical issues (something can't be clicked on, payment doesn't go through, etc.) are a common reason for not completing a purchase.
• When validating data entered by users, make sure that
  - you have correctly set validation rules
  - you do not have overly strict criteria (e.g., min/max length of name, inability to enter a foreign operator's phone number)
  - you display meaningful error messages
• Remember the data that users have filled in during the purchasing process - if they go back a step to correct some information, do not force them to re-enter information they have already provided.
• Provide the option to report an error on your website.
  Errors can be technical in nature as well as incorrect descriptions or photographs and other content parts. Make reporting an error as simple as possible so that people have the least obstacles to send it.
• If your e-shop uses customer accounts and it is possible to register/login to these via social networks, make sure you have the same networks available both at registration and at login.
  Also remember that sometimes people leave social networks, but would like to access their customer accounts. Allow access to be gained, for example, via an email linked to the account on the social network.

Measure and Test

• Make sure you have well-set analytics.
  Apply changes to the e-shop gradually so that you can correctly evaluate the impact of changes.
• Regularly test the website with real users. Usability of the website can be negatively affected by new features, development, and any interventions. Read more about usability testing in this article.