25 Surefire Ways to Improve Your Ecommerce Shopping Cart

Shopping cart abandonment is every online merchant’s worst fear. After all, with all that you put into marketing your website, it’s painful to leave money on the table when potential buyers don’t convert into sales. In this article, I’ll share some ways to improve your shopping cart that I’ve used or seen used by other savvy online retailers.

1. Add product thumbnail images: It’s easy for visitors to forget what they added to their cart. Remind them by displaying a small image of the product next to the name. Remember, visitors don’t know product names as well as you do, so they need a visual reminder.
2. Your only X dollars of free shipping: Most eCommerce sites offer free shipping at a certain level. Remind your customers of this by displaying a prominent message letting them know how much more they need to spend to receive the promotion.
3. Buy X Get X Free: If you offer Buy One Get One (BOGO) promotions, the shopping cart is a great place to display a message like “Buy 1 more, get 3rd FREE.”
4. Show shipping prices: For me, the thing that frustrates me the most is when websites require me to enter my shipping information to calculate the shipping price. Simplify this by displaying shipping prices as soon as possible. If your website calculates shipping prices based on destination zip code, let visitors calculate the cost without having to enter all their personal information.
5. Show Estimated Shipping Time: UPS, Fedex, and USPS offer different service time commitments to different parts of the country. Show a map of these estimated shipping times to assure your customers that they will receive their order on time.
6. Show which method(s) the order will be shipped: For many, the shipping method is just as important as the shipping price. Some customers may have reservations about certain shipping methods. Also, the customer with a rural address may only be able to get service from UPS or Fedex. Customer with PO Boxes will only be able to receive US Mail deliveries.
7. Cross-sell items: The shopping cart is a great place to suggest items similar to those already in the cart. Just make sure the hints don’t interfere with the checkout process.
8. Additional Sale Items: The shopping cart is a great place to tell customers about another product that might better meet their needs. Again, remember to sell softly so you don’t confuse the checkout process.
9. Link to product page: It is very easy to forget the features or other details of the products in your cart. Make it easy for your buyers to return to the product page by providing a link from the shopping cart.
10. Feature Comparison: Show as much detail as possible on the cart page to allow shoppers to compare features. If you can’t include all the relevant information, include a “compare” link that allows them to compare all the features at a glance.
11. Progress indicator bar: People want to know that their checkout process is quick and easy. Display a progress indicator to let them know where they are and how much further they need to go.
12. Make your cart button highly visible: Above anything else, the “Checkout” button should be the most prominent feature on the shopping cart page. Make it big and bold enough to reach out and grab the user’s attention.
13. Add the word “Checkout” to the cart button: Most sites have a ubiquitous “View Cart” button on every page of the site, usually located at the top right of the page. Consider including the word “Checkout” as well, as not everyone knows that “View Cart” is the first step to checkout.
14. Quick check: Make repeat purchases just as quickly by letting returning customers log in from the shopping cart page.
15. Email customers with abandoned carts: An extremely effective way to capture missed sales opportunities is to send an email to those customers who abandon their shopping carts. Better yet, offer them a coupon or some other discount to come back and checkout.
16. Show available stock: There’s no better way to emphasize urgency than to let customers know how much product you have in stock. While you may not want to display the exact quantity in inventory, you should definitely warn them when a product is about to run out.
17. 1 Click Orders: Surprisingly, a great way to increase your conversion is to skip as much of the shopping cart/checkout process as possible. Started by Amazon, 1-click ordering is a great way to speed up the checkout process.
18. See more items like the ones in your cart: Give them an incentive to spend more by suggesting other items similar to those already in the shopping cart.
19. Live chat link: Don’t let customers abandon their order because of a nagging question. Provide an easy way to get instant response to your query.
20. Featured phone support number: Again, always provide an easy way to talk to a live person.
21. Show payment options before: Customers will be curious about what payment options you accept early in the process. Let them know by displaying credit card logos, the Paypal logo, and an e-Check representation. To see an example of this, check out the shopping cart in C28 Jesus T-shirt Shop.
22. Auto Submit Form Changes: It is common for customers to change the quantity of an item in the cart and then click “checkout” instead of clicking the “refresh” button first. You can avoid confusion later by updating the quantities in your cart automatically if it changes.
23. Save button for later: Let’s face it, not everyone will complete the purchase the same day they add the item to their cart. Reassure them that the items will stay in the cart by allowing them to save them for later. Better yet, send them an email after a certain period of time to remind them.
24. Security and privacy reminder: Make sure your website visitors are secure and trustworthy. Display emblems such as the Hacker Safe logo or the BBB Online logo. Also, let your visitors know that their personal information will be kept private by linking to your privacy policy.
25. Link to your return/exchange policy: One of the biggest questions when shopping is worrying about returning a product to an online retailer. Take on your customers’ fears by linking your “Hassle Free Return Policy”.

I sincerely hope that some of the above ideas are useful for your online business. Remember, each
shopping cart feature that helps improve or simplify the checkout process
will become a competitive advantage and another memorable reason for your
customers to return. For more conversion tips, visit my
website marketing blog.