Are you looking for ways to reduce abandoned carts in your WooCommerce store? Don’t worry; you’re not alone! Abandoned carts are a common problem for all eCommerce stores, especially those using WooCommerce. Because of this, there are steps you could take to reduce the number of abandoned carts in your store. In this blog post, we’ll discuss 10 tips to help you instantly reduce abandoned carts in your WooCommerce store.
What is the Reason for the WooCommerce Abandoned Cart?
People might abandon their shopping carts on a WooCommerce site for many reasons. One common reason is that the customer is still waiting to purchase the item and wants to save them for later. Another possibility is that the customer had some difficulty with the checkout process and got frustrated, leading them to abandon their cart.
Similarly, it is also possible that you attracted the wrong audience due to a recent marketing campaign or promotion. They were interested but needed more time to be ready to purchase. There might also be some technical issues on the site that are causing problems for the customer. Whatever the reason, it is essential to address the issue so that it does not happen again.
- Offer Multiple Payment Gateways
- Use Urgency and Scarcity
- Using Exit-Intent Popups
- Create a Sense of FOMO
- Offer Incentives
- Provide Free Shipping
- Offer Guest Checkout
- Use Remarketing
- Offer a Solid Return Policy
- Showcase Clear Pricing for Your Product
- Send Cart Recovery Emails
- Implement a Free Shipping Progress Bar
- Use Live Chat
- Offer a Limited Time Offer
- Try A/B Testing with Your Forms
- Make the Cart Noticeable & Prominent
- Streamline the Checkout Process
- Improve Site Speed
1. Offer Multiple Payment Gateways
One major reason why customers abandon their carts is that they don’t see their preferred payment method listed. To combat this, make sure to offer a variety of payment gateways so that customers can choose their preferred method.
Offering multiple payment gateways gives your customers the freedom to complete a purchase. The great part is that with WooCommerce, you can install various payment gateways, including the most popular ones like PayPal and Stripe. The more payment options you offer, the more chances you have to reduce the WooCommerce abandoned carts for your store.
2. Use Urgency and Scarcity
Have you ever been browsing online and noticed that an item was only available for a limited time or quantity? If so, you may have felt some pressure to take action and make a purchase right away. That’s because stores often use urgency and scarcity tactics to encourage customers to buy.
Creating urgency and scarcity can greatly reduce abandoned carts in your WooCommerce store. By creating a sense of urgency, you can remind customers that items won’t be available forever and encourage them to complete their purchases.
You can add urgency and scarcity to your WooCommerce store in several ways. Here are a few ideas:
1. Feature countdown timers on product pages. If an item is only available for a limited time, feature a countdown timer on the product page to let customers know how much time they have left to take advantage of the deal.
2. Offer limited-time discounts. Give customers a deal if they complete their purchase within a certain timeframe. The value could be a percentage off or free shipping.
3. Promote limited-edition products. Let customers know certain items are only available in limited quantities or will only be restocked once sold out.
4. Show stock levels. The product page includes a message such as only x left in stock! So customers know the item won’t be around forever.
Adding urgency and scarcity elements to your WooCommerce store can significantly reduce the number of abandoned carts and increase your sales. So, take advantage of these techniques today!
3. Using Exit-Intent Popups
Another common reason for abandoned carts is that shoppers need more time to commit to a purchase. They may still be deciding about the product, concerned about the cost, or looking for a better deal elsewhere. This is especially true for big-ticket items or items requiring much consideration before purchase. For example, shoppers may want to research a high-end PC before making such a large purchase, or they may want to compare prices on different websites before committing to a purchase.
Exit-intent popups can effectively reduce abandoned carts, as they provide a last-chance opportunity to engage with the shopper and convince them to complete their purchase.
Here are 10 tips to make sure your exit-intent popups are as effective as possible:
- Keep the message clear and concise.
- Focus on the benefits of the product.
- Use a strong call-to-action (CTA).
- Offer a discount or other incentive.
- Make the popup easy to close.
- Use a targeting strategy to ensure the right audience sees the popup.
- Test different popup designs and placements.
- Segment your audience and customize the message for each group.
- Use social proof to build trust.
- Review your results and make changes as needed.
4. Create a Sense of FOMO
One of the highly effective strategies is to create a sense of FOMO (fear of missing out) for customers. Doing so can encourage them to complete their purchase before they lose out on an offer or special deal. Here are some tips for creating a sense of FOMO in your WooCommerce store:
- Show how many other people are interested in that product by using social proof such as a bestseller or sold out, and then show this product has one item left;
- Offer discounts at certain times, like 10% off during lunchtime when most people are eating;
- Use urgency tactics like making it clear that only 24 hours remain until this offer expires;
- Highlight that there’s a limited quantity available, especially if you have only one unit left;
- Inform visitors that the promotion ends soon with a countdown timer rather than leaving it vague about when it will end. It might be wise to run a discount campaign throughout the week, so visitors know when promotions will expire each day and when they need to make purchases fast!
5. Offer Incentives
One of the best steps to reduce abandoned carts in your WooCommerce store is to offer incentives. Adding incentives like discounts, free shipping, or promotional codes can encourage customers to complete their purchases and prevent them from leaving your site.
If you’re offering discounts, consider adding a pop-up or banner that appears when someone is about to leave your store, this is also called adding an exit-intent popup. It can incentivize customers to finish their purchase and be tailored to fit their interests on what items they were considering buying. You can also use targeted emails to remind customers of items left in their carts.
In addition to discounts, offering free shipping incentivizes customers to finish their purchases. Consider setting up different tiers based on how much a customer is spending, and make it clear what the free shipping threshold is for each level. This way, customers will feel encouraged to spend more to qualify for free shipping.
Finally, promotional codes are another great incentive to help reduce abandoned carts in your WooCommerce store. Providing special codes to customers can encourage them to purchase something and generate new leads. Try offering a coupon code to customers that sign up for your newsletter or follow you on social media.
Incentives like discounts, free shipping, and promotional codes can be powerful tools to reduce abandoned carts in your WooCommerce store. By providing these incentives, you’ll encourage customers to finish their purchases and increase sales in your store.
6. Provide Free Shipping
One of the biggest reasons customers abandon their carts is the shipping cost. Providing free shipping is a great way to reduce abandoned carts in your WooCommerce store instantly.
Offering free shipping encourages customers to complete their purchases, as it removes one of the biggest barriers to buying. You can also use free shipping to increase the average order value, as customers may be more likely to add extra items to their cart to take advantage of the offer.
When offering free shipping, consider your product prices, margins, average order value, and customer demographics to determine what would work best for your store. You could offer free shipping on all orders above a certain amount or only on certain products or categories. You can also offer free delivery for a limited time as part of a promotion or special event.
By offering free shipping, you can make it easier for customers to complete their purchases and help to reduce abandoned carts in your WooCommerce store.
7. Offer Guest Checkout
Offering customers the ability to checkout as guests is an easy way to do just that. By allowing customers to complete their purchases without creating an account, you can significantly reduce the number of abandoned carts and increase your revenue.
Here are some tips to assist you in setting up guest checkout in your WooCommerce store:
- 1. Go to the Settings tab and select the Checkout option.
- 2. Click on the Checkout Options section and make sure the box next to Enable Guest Checkout is checked.
- 3. Click on the Guest Checkout Settings section and configure the settings.
- 4. Make sure that the box next to Allow customers to create an account is unchecked.
- 5. Finally, click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.
By following these steps, you can easily set up guest checkout for your WooCommerce store and reduce the number of abandoned carts. It will help you increase your revenue and keep your customers happy!
8. Use Remarketing
Did you know you can reach people who abandon carts on your store via ads on various platforms? People may add products to their cart and leave without purchasing due to multiple factors. Remarketing is an effective way to target those potential customers and encourage them to return and complete their purchase.
Remarketing is online advertising that allows you to target people who have visited your website but didn’t take action, such as completing a purchase. We can do this through email campaigns, display ads, social media ads, and more.
Here are a few tips on using remarketing to reduce abandoned carts in your WooCommerce store:
1. Use Google Display Ads to reach your target audience on websites they visit to remind them about the products they left in their cart.
2. Use social media ads like Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Snapchat to reach potential customers who may have visited your store but still need to complete their purchase.
By taking advantage of these strategies, you can drastically reduce the number of abandoned carts in your WooCommerce store and increase conversions and revenue.
9. Offer a Solid Return Policy
As a store owner, you should maintain a clear return policy page. It eliminates the fear factor of the buyer purchasing from the new store. Ideally, mention a few points on your return policy page, like what items are eligible for return. Mention the time duration to initiate the product return. And, also mention there should be a cut-off required wherever applicable.
A clear return policy also protects the store in case of customer disputes. If the store clearly outlines its return policy, it is less likely to be taken advantage of by a customer unhappy with its purchase.
10. Showcase Clear Pricing for Your Product
Nothing is more frustrating than the hidden fees that appear during the checkout process. Besides, if there are additional fees, mention them on the product page. Don’t misguide the users.
Having a set price also allows customers to budget for their purchase, which can prevent them from feeling overwhelmed and ultimately discouraged from completing their purchase. The great part is that with WooCommerce, you can install the shipping calculator that helps you to avoid such issues. Be specific when it comes to the shipping cost.
11. Send Cart Recovery Emails
These emails allow you to reach out to customers who have left items in their carts and remind them about their incomplete purchases. You can customize these emails to include special offers or discounts to entice customers back to your store to complete their purchases. Not only does this help reduce abandoned carts, but it also provides an additional marketing opportunity for your business.
To start, use a plugin such as Abandoned Cart Pro for WooCommerce to create and send recovery emails. This plugin allows you to customize the look and feel of the emails and track conversions to measure your strategy’s effectiveness. You can even set up automated follow-up emails if customers still need to respond to the initial message.
When crafting your cart recovery emails, it’s important to be personal, friendly, and helpful. Make sure to highlight the benefits of completing the purchase, such as discounts or free shipping, and remember to include a clear call-to-action. It will increase the chances of customers returning to your store and completing their purchases.
12. Implement a Free Shipping Progress Bar
A bold yet effective strategy is to implement a free shipping progress bar. It will allow the customers to see how far they are from receiving free shipping. The progress bar can keep them motivated, and they are committed as soon as they hit free shipping. At this point, customers are more likely to continue their carts.
With Subscription Force, customers can easily integrate the progress bar and significantly reduce their abandoned carts while adding more orders.
13. Use Live Chat
One way to instantly reduce abandoned carts in your WooCommerce store is to use live chat. Live chat is a great way to engage customers in real-time and build trust. It also allows us to upsell and cross-sell products, offer discounts, or help customers who may need help with the checkout process.
Live chat allows customers to ask questions without leaving your website, immediately giving them the support they need. It helps ensure that customers keep their carts open due to confusion or a lack of knowledge about completing the checkout process. Plus, it provides customers with a more personalized experience, which can help increase customer loyalty.
In addition to providing helpful customer service, live chat also gives valuable insights into why customers abandon their carts. You can then use this data to make changes to your checkout process, such as simplifying steps or offering more payment options.
Live chat on your WooCommerce store effectively reduces abandoned carts and engagement rates and improves customer satisfaction. So, if you still need to start using live chat, it’s time to try it!
14. Offer a Limited Time Offer
A high abandoned cart rate can be a real bummer for any WooCommerce store. Shopping carts are abandoned due to a variety of reasons, but one of the most productive ways to reduce your abandoned cart rate is by offering a limited-time offer.
Giving shoppers a limited-time discount or promotional offer is an excellent way to get them to complete their purchases. It incentivizes them to act quickly and can increase the number of sales you make. You can create special discounts for a specific product, a special deal on shipping, or even a percentage off the total purchase amount.
You can also combine offers and create combos that give customers even better deals. For example, you could offer a 10% discount on a specific item, plus free shipping, when they buy two or more of the same product.
To ensure your promotion works, you must let customers know the offer is for a limited time. It will create a sense of urgency and motivate them to take action now instead of waiting for a better deal.
Finally, remember to set an end date for the promotion, so customers know when it will expire. It will help you plan your promotions more effectively and create more successful campaigns in the future.
15. Try A/B Testing with Your Forms
In a digital world, we must believe in the process of test, test, and test! It doesn’t mean that if option “A” works for some other store owners, the same option will also work for your business. Every website is unique, and some have niche audiences, so you have to figure out what works best for you. with the help of A/B testing.
After you test the potential options, you can check the results on different analytics tools like GA, MixPanel, Heap, etc. It becomes easy for you to make choices with a data-driven approach and track user behaviour. Besides, you can apply the split testing and divide the traffic by sending them to “Form1” and “Form2”.
16. Make the Cart Noticeable & Prominent
It happens to most of us when we add items to our online shopping cart. However, we should have retained the focus that we had performed some activities within the store. So the cart icon should create an action that allows the user to complete the checkout process.
With WooCommerce, you can have multiple themes that come up with intuitive and clear dedicated shopping cart icons at the top of the page or in the navigation menus.
17. Streamline the Checkout Process
If your checkout process has too many steps and is time-consuming, your customers will get annoyed, leading to more carts being abandoned. You might lose potential customers. Try to maintain a single-page checkout process, where all the relevant checkout information, like personal details, delivery, and billing address, are neatly structured.
18. Improve Site Speed
Online shoppers have very short attention spans, so you need a WooCommerce store that loads under two seconds and is very responsive while your visitor navigates from page to page.
Improving the speed of your WooCommerce store is one of the best ways to reduce abandoned carts. Slow-loading websites can be a major deterrent for customers, leading to frustration and often a quick abandonment of their shopping cart. Here are some tips to help you make sure your store loads quickly:
- Use a CDN (Content Delivery Network) like Cloudflare or Akamai
- Host on a fast server (Google Cloud or Amazon Web Services)
- Keep files sizes as small as possible (less than 100KB)
- Enable browser caching (add expires header)
Final Thoughts About WooCommerce Abandoned Carts
Abandoned carts are an unfortunate reality for many WooCommerce stores. Luckily, there are several strategies and tools that you can use to reduce the rate of abandonment and increase your store’s revenue. From using abandoned cart notifications to offering coupons and other incentives, these tips should help ensure your customers keep coming back for more.
Remember, the key is to make it as easy as possible for your customers to make a purchase, so consider implementing some of these strategies today!