Why do people bother to click “Buy”, only to flee away from it seconds later?
It may depend. Some tend to change their minds at the very last minute. Some have an emergency that they forget the incomplete purchase. Some get annoyed with your tedious checkout process. Some mistrust your security or shipping method. And on and on…
But whatever the reason is, if you choose to do nothing about fixing this abandonment rate, you sure are in trouble. Since an alarming number of roughly 70% of shoppers tend to be cart abandoners.
Cart abandonment sucks, but you don’t have to suffer. Check out 4 tricks below to save abandoned carts with live chat and you can go all out “bulletproof”.
1. Proactive chat during “Add to cart” phase
When your customers have been nudged all the way down the buying funnel to the “Add to cart” phase, don’t let them bail out on you.
People may opt to abandon their added items for many reasons. There are better prices elsewhere, better models elsewhere or their guilty kicks in before their shopping craze can take control and start spending too much. But before those potential buyers have the chance to click away, chat agents can jump right in to save the sales.
Set a trigger, let’s say, after people have reached a certain cart value and send them a chat invitation. You can start off by offering them some gift. It can be anything: a discount, a free shipping option, a free one-year membership, etc., anything that can make it harder for your “almost buyers” to leave.
Even if the cart value is small, chat agents can still set triggers and reach out to those who leave and kindly ask for their reasons. May be they are just confused with your product and need more time to consider. No problem. It’s time chat agents learn about their demands and nudge them into buying the more suitable items.
2. Real-time support during checkout process
When customers spend too much time on your checkout page, beware of cart abandonment. Something is confusing them and they may think twice about their purchase. Don’t wait until they dump their shopping carts and quit. Be ahead of the game.
Here is what you can do with the help of live chat.
From the site analytics, find out the average amount of time it takes for your customers to finish a purchase. For anyone who takes more than that time, let’s set a trigger to send them some chat messages and offer to help.
Such real-time support can clear up many misunderstandings. People may be struggling to understand your refund terms, not happy with your shipping methods or even having doubts about your payment security or privacy statement. This is when chat agent step in to “educate” and “enlighten” the customers so that they can rest assured before opening their wallet.
Good timing is crucial when initiating chat during checkout process. Don’t jump in too early with ill-timed questions. You may be deterring the checkout process itself.
3. Quick response to payment issues
Your customers fill up their carts, go through all sort of steps to the final checkout, and now they are willing to pay. They are at the very end of the buying funnel where the conversion happens. But watch out, you may lose them just in a blink.
Payment issue is responsible for 2% of site purchases lost. This may sound like a small figure. But imagine you are selling luxury goods with an average value of $10,000 per order, that 2% is too much too lose.
When there is something wrong with the payment process, chat agents should automatically be informed at once. This may need some complex technical setup in your system. But it’s critical. Don’t wait until hours or days after to send a retargeting email.
Your “almost buyers” may never bother to read them. The keyword here is “prompt”. Chat agents need to talk to the customers and deal with their payment issue right away. The goal is to close the sale as soon as possible.
Some customers may initiate chatting with you when their payment doesn’t go through. But some never do. They run away from issues. So you’d better reach out to them first.
4. Keep track of cart abandonment feedbacks
If your shoppers are determined to ditch their carts and leave, sometimes you just need to let them go. Don’t pester them. It may harm your reputation.
But this doesn’t mean you can do nothing to save similar abandonment cases in the future. Just learn from your mistakes. Nicely ask those who leave to give you some feedbacks. If they are too busy to fill in a full-length survey form, chat agents should talk to them directly. The goal is to identify all conversion pain points and figure out ways to tackle them.
Those feedbacks on cart abandonment should be stored and marked into the customer’s information, so that next time they come back, you are well prepared to retarget them.
If you don’t want to drive your hard-earned traffic away without securing any deal, start using live chat solution today and see how it can cure your shopping cart abandonment.
