One of the biggest problems that bother e-commerce site owners is the cart abandonment rate. All the hard work that you do during the onboarding process and with your product page advertising comes to nothing. A lot of your users abandon your cart, and you don’t have a clear reason behind this phenomenon that’s happening on your e-commerce site.
How can you combat this problem?
One of the better ways is to use web analytics to come to the root of the problem. Sometimes, it’s the page speed that needs improving. In other cases, the cart is just poorly designed, which we can quickly identify with the help of some web analytics tools.
In that regard, we can use almost every type of web analytics tool to combat the problem. As you are an e-commerce site, you’ll want to battle this problem as quickly as possible. Just a small enhancement can provide you with big results for practically little to no investment.
In this article, we’ll take a look at the best ways to reduce the e-commerce cart abandonment rate with web analytics.
More About Cart Abandonment and Web Analytics
According to this study by Baymard Institute, the average cart abandonment rate for e-commerce sites is around 65%. If you’re around that number, then you’re probably already doing a decent job with the cart completion rate. However, if your number is higher than that, then you might want to take a look at some of the ways to combat this problem.
There’s always room for improvement, even if your numbers are already good when it comes to cart conversions. And web analytics present a good option to improve those numbers.
But what web analytics should you use?
Some people throw all sorts of analytics tools at this problem, but you have to be more rational about it. Here are some tools you can use for analyzing cart abandonment.
- Statistical analysis
- Heatmaps (click maps, hover maps)
- A/B tests
As to what analytics tools to use, most of the e-commerce users use Google Analytics for e-commerce. However, there are some more advanced analytics tools, but most of them also tend to command a fee. Tools like Optimizely, Crazy Egg, and others.
5 Ways to Combat Cart Abandonment with Web Analytics
Let’s take a look at some of the best ways you can combat cart abandonment with web analytics.
1. Start Tracking Shopping Cart Abandonment
If you haven’t done this already, and you own an e-commerce site, then you should be doing this.
The best way to measure cart abandonment rates is with Google Analytics for e-commerce. You’ll get to know what the abandonment rates are, but you’ll also learn much more about your customers and measure their behavior.
You’ll get powerful reports from analytics, such as shopping behavior analysis, checkout behavior analysis, and the performance of your sales. That way, you’ll know more about your customers and you’ll also have a clearer idea of what you can do next to combat the abandonment rates.
2. Find the Leaks in Your Funnel
It’s all about finding the leaks and analyzing them. And once you get rid of those leaks, you can expect to see a bigger engagement from your customers, and better conversion rates when it comes to shopping carts.
To find the leaks, you can use Google Analytics’ advanced ecommerce analysis. You can do that with Goal Flow, where the analytics tool shows you where the leaks occur, and where exactly you can boost your cart conversions.
This goes for your cart, but you can also analyze your entire funnel and find where the problem is. If your cart is composed of several stages, then you can also analyze exactly where your users get stuck, and which page on your cart is the most confusing or where the most abandonments happen.
3. Use Heatmaps to Identify Weak Spots
Another way you can analyze your shopping cart is with website heatmaps. If you use click maps for finding out what the weak spots in your cart are, then you will be able to see where you can improve your cart and reduce abandonment rates.
With click maps, but also with hover maps, you will easily identify what parts of your cart get the most attention. Ideally, it should be the CTA buttons that prompt the user to continue. If not, then you’re doing something wrong.
For example, if one of the parts on your shopping cart is getting more attention than it should, then you should consider changing the design of your cart. This includes new CTA buttons that are clearly visible or making a less complicated shopping cart.
Alternatively, you can also use hover maps to get this done. In some cases, the copy of the shopping cart is wrong or too aggressive. You might want to change the copy to something more reassuring to get the clients to click on that CTA button as much as possible and finish the sales.
4. Perform A/B Tests on Your Cart
All parts of your website should be under A/B tests, including your shopping cart. In fact, it’s one of the primary parts of your website if you’re an e-commerce shop owner. And if you are seeing a poor performance of your shopping cart, then you might consider changing something and shaking things up.
It might be just a simple change, such as the positioning or adding a few extra words to get the purchase done. Or, it might be a more wholesale change that includes a completely different cart design. Whatever it is, performing A/B tests and constantly trying out new things should be your priority as an e-commerce site owner.
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But what tests should you be doing?
- Change the copy of the cart. In some cases, you should try changing the copy of the cart to see if the results are improved. As we’ve already discussed, some e-commerce sites use aggressive strategies on their carts, which can ultimately discourage users from getting the purchase done. Be more encouraging and comforting, and maybe provide a link to an FAQ page to make the customer’s decision easier.
- Change the design. Sometimes, it’s the design that’s at fault. Maybe it’s the wrong colors or just some design elements that seem off. Ultimately, you’ll want to experiment with the design, but only if you see the cart perform poorly. Sometimes, it’s the long shopping cart that discourages people from completing the purchase. Or, it can be that you’re not displaying the shipping fees.
- Add a free shipping option. Maybe you can encourage more users to get the purchase done if you offer free shipping. It’s a tactic that some of the biggest companies use but only do this if you can afford it. Test it for some time and see if you notice any improvements in the conversion rates of your cart.
- Offer guest checkout. This might not be a part of the cart page, but it bears direct consequence on how your cart performs, and how many people reach the cart in the first place. If you offer a guest checkout, then more users are likely to proceed to the cart and you’ll make your online checkout experience standout.
- Add security badges. On your cart, you’ll want to reassure your customers that they’re making the right decision as much as possible. And this might include adding security badges that show that you are a trustworthy seller. It might be worthy of a try, but you can easily test it with an A/B test.
5. Use Session Replays for a Better Understanding
With session replays, you can get a much better understanding of how your customers behave on your shopping cart. When you see a big cart abandonment rate, you can easily try out the session replays and see where exactly the users get stuck and leave.
It might be at the completely final stage, where they are ready to make the purchase. It might be due to a couple of reasons – perhaps the shipping rates are too high, or they simply don’t trust you enough to complete the purchase.
You can try some tactics that we discussed under point 4. Session replays can be an invaluable tool for uncovering the problems that just mere numbers don’t tell you.
Successful eCommerce websites have a few things in common. Those things being, a feature to export orders, advanced shipping rules, and direct checkout. If your site is lacking any of these, it is high time to change that.
Wrapping Up
Ultimately, not every e-commerce site is the same. You’ll have to analyze more about your own case in the end, especially if you will want to solve the issue on your shopping cart.
Mending those numbers is absolutely key for an e-commerce site, and only a small change can bring you a lot of success.
Web analytics can play a crucial role in recognizing the weak spots on your shopping cart and improving your shopping cart conversions. You’ll want to use a variety of these tools to get the best results possible.
In some cases, it might be due to poor loading speeds, or just poor design. Web analytics can tell you what the problem is in more detail so that you can come to the root of the problem quickly.
