Shopping cart abandonment occurs when a consumer places items in an online shopping cart and then leaves the e-retailers website before completing the transaction. It is estimated that there will be over $4 trillion worth of abandoned carts in 2015, according to BI Intelligence estimates.
Furthermore, a 2014 study released by UPS and comScore, illustrates that shipping costs account for five of the top eight reasons for abandoned shopping carts. As you can see, shipping costs represent the greatest source of shopping cart abandonment. The good news? There are numerous strategies available to you to help reduce shipping cost related cart abandonment.
Here is a real-world example of cart feedback submitting from the InkSoft Cart Feedback system:
5 Ways to Reduce Shipping Cost Related Cart Abandonment
Offer free shipping option(s)
The easiest way to offer free shipping is to set minimum order values. InkSoft can support this strategy with automatic discount rules. How do you contend with the hard costs involved with offering free shipping? You may consider slight pricing increases or rely on that fact that you will be converting more prospects into customers. Think of free shipping as a ‘new customer acquisition’ cost.
Example: All orders over $75 ship free.
Offer fixed rate shipping
Fixed or flat rate shipping is a very popular shipping strategy. Overstock.com popularized this methd with their $2.99 flat rate shipping on all products. Charging a low flat / fixed rate helps to ‘subsidize’ shipping costs slightly.
Example: All orders ship for only $5.99
Charge real-time rates
The nature of real-time rates allows and empowers the consumer to make a decision about which option is more suitable. Real-time rates are the actual shipping costs without any shipping mark-ups. Generally, these rates have very distinct values that look very purposeful. $8.23 is a much different presentation than $8.99.
Offer discount AND premium shipping options
Comparison is a powerful tool. By allowing a consumer to select from shipping options with varying costs they can select the method that is most palatable. By presenting low cost discount shipping options alongside premium options help to showcase the relative value.
Use coupons, discounts and promotions
Make your free and flat rate shipping options meaningful by using coupon or discount programs in order to redeem the freemium. Also, consider building urgency with your free shipping programs to help accelerate conversions.
Example: April special: Orders over $75 ship free
