There can be a number of factors affecting cart conversion, so identifying the main reasons why your site visitors leave without checking out can pose a challenge. Luckily, we have some recommendations.

Here are some tips to increase conversions and how EcoCart might help raise your conversion rates by as much as 22% or more.

How To Calculate Cart Conversion Rates

Cart conversion refers to the percentage of online shoppers who complete a purchase after adding items to their shopping cart.

Cart conversion is calculated by dividing the number of completed purchases by the number of shopping carts created, then multiplying the result by 100 to get a percentage.

What Is An Ideal Cart Conversion Rate?

The ideal conversion rate depends on your industry. Here are the average conversion rates by industry, according to Oberlo: 

• Food & Beverage: 14.7%
• Beauty & Personal Care: 9.4%
• Multi-Brand Retail: 9.32%
• Consumer Goods: 8.67%
• Fashion, Accessories, & Apparel: 7.68%
• Pet Care & Veterinary Services: 6.9%
• Home & Furniture: 4.64%
• Luxury & Jewelry: 2.72%

If your ecommerce store is close to these numbers, then you’re doing pretty well. 

What is the average conversion rate for ecommerce sites?

A few ecommerce platforms, such as Shopify and Bigcommerce, have published the average cart conversion rates for brands using their platforms. While they report slightly different averages, we can get a good idea of the average conversion rate in ecommerce.

According to Shopify, the average conversion rate for their ecommerce stores is 1.4%. As long as your online store only has a cart conversion rate of above 0.5%, you’re doing alright. If your conversion rate is above 3.3%, you’re doing better than 80% of Shopify stores.

Bigcommerce has found slightly different numbers. They say that the average conversion rate for an ecommerce site is 2%-3%, and 3% should be the target. 

Improving your shopping cart conversion rate is all about understanding why customers are abandoning their carts in the first place.

Why Do Online Shoppers Leave Their Shopping Carts?

If you want to increase your cart conversion rate, then you first need to understand why your customers abandon their carts. According to a study by Baymard Institute, the top five reasons for cart abandonment were:

1. Extra costs (taxes, shipping costs, etc.) were too high: 47%
2. The site wanted them to create an account: 25%
3. Slow delivery: 24%
4. Didn’t trust the site with credit card information: 19%
5. Long, complicated checkout page process: 18%

Other reasons for cart abandonment included a lack of transparent upfront costs, an unsatisfactory return policy, website errors, and not enough payment methods.

Key takeaway: Ecommerce companies must prioritize a seamless and convenient buying process with transparent fees on a website that is secure and trustworthy.  

How To Increase Cart Conversion Rates In Ecommerce

Now that we’ve covered broad ways to increase cart conversion, we can get into the nitty-gritty. 

Improving shopping cart abandonment is all about understanding your customers’ pain points and determining why they leave your site without a purchase. 

Let’s take a look at some of the most common areas of interest so that you can reduce shopping cart abandonment. 

1. Provide carbon positive checkout

Many brands have enjoyed higher conversion as a direct result of our carbon neutral shipping option, and we integrate with loyalty programs like Yotpo so that you can offer points for sustainable practices. Hundreds of brands trust EcoCart to boost cart conversion and increase average order value. On average, brands that use EcoCart to offer carbon neutral orders see a 14% lift in cart conversion, meaning customers are more likely to complete checkout when they see that the brand they are shopping with cares about their carbon impact.

Nuzet, a nutrition and supplement company, has seen a 22% lift in cart conversions since including the EcoCart add-on. On top of this, they’ve discovered that many of their customers prefer to buy directly from the Nuzet site rather than purchasing through Amazon because of the carbon neutral add-on.

They’re not the only ones who have seen a boost. Tribe Kelley, a sustainable clothing store, has seen a 19% rise in conversion rates, with 10% of its customers opting for carbon neutral shipping. Customers have sent direct messages expressing their gratitude for the sustainable shipping option. This is a great example of a company taking steps to align itself with its customers’ values so that it could improve cart conversion.

Fairtrade shop The Little Market is an ecommerce site that has enjoyed a 9% boost in conversions. Around 17% of their customers opt for the carbon neutral option because it’s so easy. All they need to do is click an add to cart button, and they can feel good about their sustainable choice.

While these three case studies illustrate how fulfilling consumer demands in a seamless system can improve cart conversion, they are far from the only ecommerce companies that have benefitted from EcoCart’s offerings. 

2. Work on your loading time

The average customer will leave a site if it doesn’t load instantly. According to Google, 53% of mobile users abandon a site if it takes more than three seconds to load. That doesn’t leave a lot of wiggle room. Make sure that both the mobile and desktop versions of your website have near-instant load times for higher conversion rates.

Here are a few of the biggest ways to improve your page load times:

• Optimize Images: Compress and resize images without compromising quality.
• Minimize HTTP Requests: Reduce the number of elements loaded per page, such as scripts, images, and CSS.
• Enable Browser Caching: Store cached versions of static resources, speeding up page load for repeat visitors.
• Minify and Combine Files: Reduce the size of CSS, HTML, and JavaScript files.
• Use Content Delivery Networks (CDNs): Distribute site assets across multiple servers to reduce server load.
• Prioritize Above-the-Fold Content: Ensure content at the top of the page loads first.
• Reduce Server Response Time: Optimize your server’s performance and consider switching to faster hosting if necessary.
• Optimize for Mobile: Ensure your site is responsive and optimized for mobile devices.
• Limit Redirects: Each redirect can add to page load time, so minimize them.
• Review Plugins and Extensions: Deactivate or uninstall any unnecessary plugins that may be slowing down your site.

Not sure how to get started? Here are a few page speed guides from top ecommerce platforms:

• Shopify: Improving your online store speed 
• Bigcommerce: Guide to Site Speed
• WooCommerce: Ten Ways to Improve the Speed of Your WooCommerce Store  
• Wix: Site Performance: Best Practices
• Squarespace: Reducing your page size for faster loading 

3. Skip the required registration

A quarter of all shopping carts are abandoned because of required registration. Instead of forcing your customers to make an account in order to complete their purchase, provide incentives to do so, such as knocking 5% off of their purchase if they sign up.

KAIBAE snags registration details by offering 15% for submitting your email address.

Face the Future incentivizes registration with its loyalty program, teasing rewards for being a loyalty member.

4. Use autofill

Website visitors want a seamless experience when making a purchase online. Make it quick and easy by utilizing autofill on the checkout page. This will shorten the buying process, fulfilling the customer demand for convenience. Autofill works best if you have established loyalty among customers and already have their information, making subsequent purchases easier.

Want help creating loyal customers? Lifecycle marketing can help you cultivate loyalty and establish long-term relationships with your customers. 

5. Simplify your cart page

Customers want to make online purchases with a few simple clicks. They don’t want to have to provide pages of information just to buy a t-shirt. Offer toggles that allow them to use their shipping information as their billing information, request as little personal information as you need to complete the purchase process and sale. 

KAIBAE skips the multi-step checkout process and instead opts to put everything in a single page, making it a frictionless experience for its customers.

And if they want to opt-in to a service, like carbon neutral checkout, don’t make it any more complicated than a checkbox.

Tribe Kelley automatically added carbon neutral shipping to the customer’s shopping cart to make it as easy as possible for customers to add this option to their checkout. The outcome? Adding carbon neutral shipping to customer shopping carts resulted in a 19% increase in cart conversions.

6. Make your CTA visible and clear

Customers ready to make a purchase shouldn’t have to look for a Buy Now button. Make sure that your shopping cart and purchasing buttons are prevalent, and use clear instructions to guide buyers through the purchasing process. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Use established purchasing frameworks that customers are already familiar with.

7. Use rewards

Rewards and loyalty programs are a great way to encourage a purchase and cultivate a long-lasting relationship with customers. Offer a reward for first-time purchasers, such as 10% off their first order or a free gift as a thank-you for their order. You can also offer rewards for immediate purchase so that they are incentivized to complete the order rather than abandoning their cart. 

Tribe Kelley offers 100 points for joining its rewards program and 2 points for every $1 spent.

Face the Future displays the number of points a customer can earn for a product right next to the product price.

8. Include reviews

Customers are more likely to purchase an item that has trustworthy reviews. You can either automatically include reviews that customers post on your site, or manually choose the best ones. 

Wildway includes reviews on every single product page, ensuring that customers know just how good its products are.

Read more: Using Customer Reviews in Marketing

9. Offer free shipping

The top reason why customers leave a checkout page is because of extra costs. Avoid this by offering free shipping for every order. When you offer free shipping, make sure that delivery times aren’t too slow. Slow delivery times are the third most common reason for leaving an online shopping cart. 

With free shipping costs, you can also offer a post purchase upsell of carbon neutral shipping. Because shipping is already free, customers won’t mind spending an extra dollar or two to offset the carbon footprint associated with shipping. This will make them feel good, and when they feel good, they’re more likely to return. 

Face the Future entices customers with free shipping once they add a product to their shopping carts while they’re still shopping.

10. Offer multiple payment options

Online shopper behavior shows that 11% of customers have abandoned carts because they didn’t offer enough payment options. Integrate your site with online payment methods like PayPal, Buy Now Pay Later options, credit cards, debit cards, and more. Customers want to pay for items their preferred way, and if you don’t accept their payment method of choice, they’ll go to companies that will.

Nomad Goods offers four popular payment methods right without express checkout.

11. Provide live chat assistance

Even though customers love the convenience of online shopping, they also want the assistance that they’d receive at a brick-and-mortar store. Providing live chat assistance helps bridge that gap. You don’t have to have a real person answering every query.

Sophisticated AI chat systems can answer questions at any time of day, providing the convenience that customers crave without the labor. Then, you can have customer service agents available for the more complicated questions that a bot can’t handle. This is especially useful if you offer products with complicated specs that customers may need guidance for.

Nomad Goods has a chat bubble on the bottom-right corner of the screen. When clicked, answers to the most common questions appear. If your answer isn’t there, then you have the option to send a message to the Nomad Goods team.

12. Fix any technical hiccups

Not only will technical hiccups increase your bounce rate, but customers are less likely to trust a site if it has technical issues. After all, why should they trust you to handle their credit card information and delivery if you can’t even provide a usable website?

Constantly keep an eye out for any technical problems, optimize every landing page, fix broken links, and ensure that your site runs seamlessly. This may mean hiring a contractor or a team dedicated to your site’s functionality.

13. Remind them with cart abandonment emails

Sometimes, customers add things to their carts because they are “window shopping” and plan on making a purchase later. In these cases, they might abandon their carts simply because they forget.

A gentle reminder with an email may be enough to attract customers to clinch their purchase. According to Moosend, 40% of cart abandonment emails are opened, and about half of those result in a purchase. If you aren’t following up with an email, then you could be missing out on a pretty big chunk of sales.

14. Convey safety and security

The fourth biggest reason why people abandon their carts is because they don’t feel secure purchasing from the site. Make sure that your customers feel safe by conveying safety and security. Use language in your marketing strategy showing that security is your top concern, share your security goals on a landing page, invest in cybersecurity platforms that protect your user’s data, and include your privacy policy on your site. Integrate PayPal and other payment services so that your customers don’t have to share their credit card or bank information to make a purchase. When they feel safe making a purchase, they will happily support your business. 

15. Make it mobile-friendly

According to VentureBeat, 68% of Gen Z shoppers shop on their mobile devices at least four times a week. This is not a number to ignore as Gen Z spending power is on the rise. By making your site mobile-friendly, you open your market to not just Gen Z shoppers, but Millennials and older generations who are on-the-go and need to make a purchase now.

Ideally, your cart fits nicely on mobile with all of the buttons big enough to press with a finger and the text big enough to read. Tribe Kelley is a great example of this:

16. Use ecommerce apps to your advantage

There are loads of ecommerce apps available to track data, lower the shipping cost with discounts, collect reviews, and more. These tools can automate processes so that you can identify the best ways to improve cart conversion, analyze your customers’ habits, and offer a seamless shopping experience, from the product pages to checkout pages. Automation is huge in the ecommerce business, and your company should take advantage of the plethora of offerings.

Read more: Bigcommerce apps

Conclusion

Improving cart conversion is all about understanding the customer’s experience and addressing their pain points. EcoCart offers a solution that aligns with your sustainability goals and improves the customer experience.

Ready to take responsibility for your carbon footprint while improving sales? Reach out to our team for a demo today.