Dropship cart abandonment, also called a “abandoned dropshipping cart,” is when a customer adds items to their cart but leaves the page before completing the next step, which in this case is checking out their cart and making the payment. Statistics show that the average rate of cart abandonment in March 2022 was as high as 80% across all industries. This rate is different in different parts of the world. Africa and the Middle East have the highest rate, at 90.8%, while Europe has the lowest rate, at 81.4%.
If you don’t know how many dropship carts get left behind in your store, you could be losing more money than you think. So, if you want to stop people from leaving their carts in your dropshipping store, you’ll need to figure out why they do it in the first place. This article will tell you the most common reasons why customers abandon their shopping carts and show you the best ways to lower your dropship cart abandonment rate.
When shopping online, hidden costs can be a big reason why people leave their carts empty. These hidden costs can be anything from the cost of shipping to VAT and any other extra fees they have to pay. Statista says that 41% of shoppers abandoned their carts because the shipping cost was higher than they expected. This is the most common reason for shoppers to abandon their dropship carts.
This isn’t easy to get around because you have to compete with big companies like Amazon that offer free shipping to their customers. As the postage has to be paid for by someone, you have two choices. The first is to make sure your customers know how much shipping will cost well before the end of the ordering process. If they think your products are unique and you make the extra costs clear, they will buy from you. The second method is the most common because most products are easy to find alternatives for. Because of this, eCommerce stores include the cost of shipping in the price of their products. This way, your customer won’t have to pay extra when they check out, and free shipping is a big draw for all shoppers.
Don’t force people to sign up for an account.
When they shop online, your customers want it to be quick, easy, and as convenient as possible. If customers have to sign up for an account on your website before they can check out, you’re likely to see a higher number of carts that are left empty.
To keep people from leaving their dropshipping carts, you can add a “Checkout as a guest” option that lets them finish the checkout process without making an account. If you still want your customers to sign up for an account so you can reach them better in the future, that’s fine, but it shouldn’t slow down the checkout process. Instead, give them the option to sign up for an account after the purchase. Even better is if you can use the shipping and billing information they already gave you to automatically fill in the corresponding cells. This will speed up the process of creating an account.
Ensure secure payment options
Even though online shopping is becoming more and more common, some people still don’t want to give their credit card information to online stores because they think it’s unsafe. When potential customers worry about the safety of their personal or credit card information, for whatever reason, it tends to have a big effect on their trust in your store and brand. In fact, surveys show that 20% of dropshipping carts are left empty because the preferred payment method wasn’t available on the site.
There are many ways to show your customers that paying through your website is safe and build trust with safe payment options. First, you need to make sure that all transactions are safe by using the SSL protocol, which helps you encrypt all the information that customers enter on your website. Second, make sure you use a PCI-compliant payment gateway to process payments and tell your customers about it. Lastly, use 3D Secure (Three Domain Secure), which is a way for the receiving bank, the issuing bank, and the technology that handles the transaction to talk to each other. So, your customers will have to confirm the transaction with a code generated by their bank. This will add an extra layer of security.
Reduce the time it takes to pay.
As was already said, the main reason eCommerce customers like online channels is because they are easy to use. If your checkout process is long and hard to understand, they might not have the time or desire to go through it, especially if they are on the go and trying to buy something on their phone.
Since mCommerce (Mobile Commerce) is expected to make up 72.9% of all eCommerce sales in 2023, it’s very important to have a simple checkout process that’s also easy to use on a mobile device. This can be helped by making sure your website is easy to use on mobile devices, making sure it loads as quickly as possible, and getting rid of any extra steps that aren’t needed. Also, you can make your checkout process more visually appealing by adding a progress bar so your customers can always see where they are in the process.
Offer ‘Save for later’ option
People who buy from an online store are more likely to do a lot of research on the products they want to buy than those who buy from a storefront. This is because online shoppers have better access to sites like Google Shopping, PriceGrabber, and Shopzilla, which help them compare prices and find the best deals. But on the other hand, they can’t look at the product they want to buy and see what it’s like in person. Because of this, 29% of dropshipping carts are left empty because the customer is just looking up information about the product or comparing prices with another store.
In this case, you should let your customers save their shopping carts for later. This is done to make it easier for them to go back to the process if they decide that your deal gives them the best value for their money. This might seem counterproductive, but if they decide to come back, making the checkout process as quick as possible will lead to a sale.
Give them what they wanted.
The customer’s price sensitivity is another major reason why people stop shopping online. There are a lot of people who want to save money and look online for the biggest discount they can find on a certain product. They usually look for discount codes or other ways to lower the total price of their cart. If they don’t find anything that works, 18% of the time they’ll give up and buy the product somewhere else.
Having an exit-intent strategy can help you add more value to a customer’s purchase when they are about to leave their cart. These can be many different kinds of offers that show up in a pop-up window. You can add a coupon code that they can use to get a discount on their total purchase, or you can add the cost of shipping to the price of the product and then offer free shipping. This strategy can be used on any page or when it’s clear that a customer has looked at more information about a product, which could mean they want to buy it. Even if your customers leave your page and leave their cart behind, all is not yet lost. You can still use remarketing to get back in touch with them and send them a dropshipping cart abandonment email with the same benefits listed above.
Let there be more ways to ship
Piers Steel, a professor at the University of Calgary Haskayne School, wrote in his book “The Procrastination Equation” that 95% of us tend to put things off sometimes, while 20% of the population does it all the time. Think about all the birthdays, anniversaries, and Christmases you’ve been putting off getting gifts for. Since most of us are in the same situation, customers expect to be able to choose from different shipping options and methods and pick the one that works best for their schedule. When the estimated delivery time is too long, 26% of customers tend to abandon their carts. If the delivery takes a long time, 23% of customers would do the same.
Customers don’t like paying for standard shipping, but it’s a whole different story when it comes to express shipping. A study shows that customers are willing to pay more for faster shipping methods 65% of the time when they want to speed up the delivery time. Because of this, make sure your store always has different ways to ship, like standard and express.
Watch out for items that are sold out.
People are arguing about whether it’s better for your eCommerce business to keep sold-out items on your store’s page or to take them down. Both strategies have their pros and cons, but you should be aware that 28% of dropshipping cart abandonments happen because products are out of stock. One item that is out of stock can mess up the whole checkout process and cause people to leave carts with multiple items because one item is out of stock.
On the other hand, showing a certain number of items that are out of stock can be good for your business in a lot of ways. For instance, if you’re just getting started in the eCommerce market, you might not have a lot of products yet. In this case, keeping out-of-stock items in your shop will make it look like you have a much bigger collection. Also, if you show that an item was sold out, you’re basically telling new customers what the old ones bought, which is a good way to get them to act and make a purchase. Also, you can turn the pages where your out-of-stock items were posted into pages where potential customers can leave their email addresses so you can send them a promotion when the item comes back in stock.
Offer an easy-to-understand return policy
Customers often don’t know about return policies or warranties until after they’ve put an item in their shopping cart. Less people will buy from your store if you have strict rules about returns. So, two-thirds of people who shop online say they are more likely to buy from stores with easy return policies.
Make sure your dropshipping return policy is easy to find on your website, like in the footer menu. This will make it more appealing to your customers. Also, make sure your return policy is in line with your dropshipping provider and makes it clear to your customers what they should do if they get a broken or faulty product or if they just want to return it for another reason. For example, if your dropshipping supplier’s return policy is 14 days, you should add the same or a shorter policy, but never more than 14 days because you could cause problems with your partner. You can also try giving free returns and paying the fees to your supplier yourself. Customers would be very interested in this plan, but you should always keep an eye on how it affects your profit margin and keep track of your trials.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are many reasons why someone might leave their dropshipping cart in your shop. As a business owner, the best thing you can do is try to solve as many initial problems as you can for free. Then, try to get into areas where you can add value, such as by offering free shipping or returns. So, you can first improve your checkout process before giving up some of your profit margin. You can also keep track of how many people abandon their carts so you can figure out what to do next.
