Online shopping is undoubtedly the most popular consumer trend. As a result, merchants are constantly looking for ways to differentiate their eCommerce websites and attract more customers to increase conversion rates and revenue. However, few merchants realize that improving eCommerce shopping cart has a significant impact on their aspirations.
Therefore, this article will explain what an eCommerce shopping cart is, why it makes sense, what shopping cart abandonment is, and why merchants had to care about it. Finally, it will provide suggestions for optimizing the shopping cart and checkout flow.
Contents
What Is Shopping Cart And Its Purposes?
Definition
Technically, a shopping cart is an eCommerce software that allows users to add products from a website to a virtual shopping cart.
Accordingly, a shopping cart will be divided into two parts: the mini cart and the shopping cart page.
To begin with, the mini cart is a place where information about the products added by the user is displayed. When the user clicks “add to cart,” this information is updated in the shopping cart.
The shopping cart page is the second component of an eCommerce cart. This page saves the list of all products in the cart and some other parts such as order summary, estimated shipping, and so on. Furthermore, users can edit items (remove, change the quantity, move to wish list, etc.) and add gift cards/coupons.
However, not all eCommerce websites have all these sections. The product list and cart summary are the two most important parts of any online store.
Major purposes of the shopping cart
#1 Ecommerce shopping cart makes the shopping process more convenient
First and foremost, customers benefit from an eCommerce shopping cart because it makes the purchasing process more convenient. Shopping on the internet has received significant attention in recent years due to its convenience and accessibility.
Thereby, thanks to the eCommerce shopping cart, buyers can shop at home instantly without going directly to the store. Accordingly, customers can save a considerable amount of time when compared to traditional purchasing methods.
#2 Ecommerce shopping cart helps customers manage their orders
Secondly, shoppers can manage their orders with the help of an eCommerce shopping cart. The shopping cart will display a list of the products and items that the buyer wishes to purchase. Therefore, they can easily skim through all their picked items and review them.
Furthermore, customers also have complete freedom to edit, delete, or add any product in their cart, including color, quantity, size, and so on. As a result, the shopping cart ensures that customers have purchased the appropriate products and are fully satisfied.
Not only that, but the eCommerce cart also assists customers in managing the total amount they will be required to pay (including the money for each item, shipping, service fees, taxes, or other incurred costs).
#3 Ecommerce shopping cart increases the checkout success rate
Finally, the use of an eCommerce shopping cart greatly enhances the customer checkout process. Shopping carts, without a doubt, make checkout faster, more efficient, and safer than ever before. It enables buyers to fulfill and pay for orders without the use of a third-party service. In other words, the shopping cart includes all the features and processes required to complete the payment with the customer.
Furthermore, your customers will be kept up to date on the status of their orders at all times. The shopping cart will track the shipping process and notify the buyer of any changes (stocked in, parcel delivered to the shipper, successfully received, etc.).
How Does Shopping Cart Look Like?
#1 Shopping cart icon
To begin, eCommerce shopping carts frequently use the same symbol as a supermarket trolley or a shopping bag. The shopping cart icon will be visible on the eCommerce website’s upper right corner. Additionally, there is a number in the top right corner of the icon that indicates the total number of products in the cart of the buyers.
#2 Mini cart
Next, the mini cart is the order summary that appears when you hover over the shopping cart icon. Besides that, it may appear as a pop-up when visitors add a new product to their shopping cart.
This mini cart displays the most recently added product to the cart, with the option to remove or change the quantity. When a customer selects a product and clicks “add to cart,” a clear message appears verifying the addition to the cart and presenting information such as product name, quantity, selected product attribute, and so on.
As a result, shoppers can capture core product information without navigating to the shopping cart page. Moreover, the mini cart automatically calculates the order subtotal so the buyers can estimate the costs and buy items within their budgets.
#3 Shopping cart page
Finally, the shopping cart page provides the most detailed information about the customer’s order before moving ahead to the payment. It is the place where customers go over their products and the overall order one last time. As a result, the shopping cart must showcase all the information that the buyers need to know.
To begin, this page must display full of product information such as the product title, price, product image, quantity, and size. Following that, it must include editing options so that customers can quickly change the quantity, color, or delete any product.
Additionally, the shopping cart page displays the total amount the customer must pay (subtotal and total after adding shipping costs, discount code, etc.). Besides, some stores “tell” their customers that they accept credit cards by displaying the logo of payment gateways and methods on the shopping cart page.
Delivery and return information (including method, time, cost), payment methods; promotion box; link to continue shopping, and so on should all be encompassed on the shopping cart page.
Is Shopping Cart A Must For An Ecommerce Site?
The answer is somehow NO
First, it is no answer because even without the cart, customers can proceed with the normal shopping process by going directly to the checkout page.
When customers know exactly what they want to buy or how many products they want to buy, they often skip the check cart step and move straight to a checkout step. So, in this case, there is no need for a shopping cart.
But 99% is YES
99 percent of eCommerce websites have a shopping cart because it serves the buying habits of the majority of customers. It is undeniable that most buyers hope to double-check their orders to ensure they have purchased exactly what they require.
As a result, if your online store lacks a shopping cart, you are taking a huge gamble. It makes customers feel deeply uncomfortable and causes them to abandon your website. Without a doubt, a good shopping cart system will be beneficial to your visitors and crucial to facilitating a high website conversion rate.
Besides this, Shopping Carts are the best place to remind your customers of appealing offers, discounts, and gift cards needed to stimulate them to place their orders. As a result, the order success rate will shoot through the roof.
To sum it up, an eCommerce shopping cart is a must-have piece of software for your online store.
What Is Cart Abandonment And How To Solve It?
As previously stated, an eCommerce shopping cart is a crucial piece of software for your online store. Relating shopping carts, one problem that online retailer endures is that customers frequently abandon their shopping carts.
Shopping cart abandonment is by far one of the most serious issues confronting eCommerce entrepreneurs today. So, let’s go over what cart abandonment is and why you should be concerned about it.
What is shopping cart abandonment?
When a customer adds items to their cart but does not complete the transaction, it is referred to as cart abandonment. In other words, cart abandonment means the buyer adds the product to the cart without intending to purchase products or deciding not to purchase it anymore.
Before drilling down deeper into the issue, make sure you know how to determine the cart abandonment rate of your eCommerce site. The lower the cart abandonment rate, the more profitable your online store will be.
There is an estimation that 60% to 80% of online shopping carts are abandoned. It means that for every 100 customers, 60 to 80 leave without acquiring anything. It also indicates that you will lose 60 to 80 orders in total.
As a result, you have lost a great deal of money. Consequently, cart abandonment is unquestionably bad news for your online shop. So, to generate sales for your eCommerce website, make sure you understand the causes of this issue.
Common reasons for cart abandonment
Customers abandon shopping carts for a variety of reasons. This article will shed light on the most common reasons that eCommerce websites typically encounter.
#1 Difficult item editing
The choice of shoppers is constantly changing. Maybe first, they choose red. But, when reviewing the order on the shopping cart page, they want to change the color to blue.
It is a prevalent customer behavior during the purchase journey. When they arrive at the shopping cart page, they could want to change the color, quantity, the size of the product and customize the product attributes or remove the product.
As a result, customers will refuse to go to checkout if the editing is complicated and takes time, and they will leave the cart immediately.
#2 Unexpected/ high extra fees
Generally, shoppers will only see the price of the product they ordered in the shopping cart. Taxes, shipping, and services fees will not be displayed in the shopping cart. Instead, these extra costs will appear at the checkout.
Customers will then reconsider their purchasing decision and easily abandon the shopping cart when they discover they must pay unexpected fees.
Furthermore, if they reveal that the shipping or service costs here are too high compared to what the buyer expected, they will quickly abandon the shopping cart and decide not to buy anymore.
#3 Compelled account creation before checkout
It is a fact that many online stores require customers to create an account and log in before they checkout. Meanwhile, customers are becoming increasingly busy and picky, so they expect everything to be as quick and effective as possible.
As a result, buyers will quickly dismiss the website, even abandoning their purchase decision, and head to a store that allows them to purchase without requiring any of these login procedures. It is attributable to the reality that it saves them a significant amount of time.
#4 Slow loading
A lightning-fast eCommerce website always makes customers feel more at ease and satisfied than ever before. In contrast, if your online store takes too long to load, the buyer will naturally abandon the shopping cart.
#5 Unsecure payments
Indisputably, not all customers have complete faith in online stores. They are concerned that their credit card or personal information will be stolen, resulting in account hacking.
When shopping online, all customers are worried about the security of eCommerce websites. As a result, if the buyer is not confident enough about the website or the payment method, they will dismiss the shopping cart.
5 Effective shopping cart abandonment solutions
Cart abandonment and lower revenue appear to be a harsh reality of any eCommerce owner. Hence, keep reading to know about the best solutions that can significantly lower your cart abandonment rate right away.
#1 Showcase up-front total costs
First and foremost, make certain that your eCommerce site informs your customers of the total cost they will be required to pay. This price must include shipping, taxes, and handling fees, and so on.
Simply put, notify the customers of any potential extra charges before they arrive at the checkout. Thereby, customers will be more willing to continue making purchases if this is known ahead of time.
#2 Create an easy-to-go edit option before checkout
Giving shoppers the ability to edit their cart before checkout also helps you keep customers in your cart. Make this editing as straightforward as possible.
The basic editing options that your store should provide to buyers include increasing or decreasing the quantity, resizing, selecting colors, re-selecting product attributes (for example, changing from floral textures to animal textures, and so on), removing the product from the cart.
#3 Enhance overall web load speed
Striving to improve your website’s loading speed is the next solution that can help you lessen cart abandonment. It is a proven fact that if a webpage takes more than four seconds to load, 53 percent of shoppers will give it up.
Consequently, try to make your website and the shopping cart and checkout page as fast as possible. There are countless methods available today to help you drastically enhance web speed.
Above all, integrating PWA technology into your eCommerce website is the most effective and increasingly trendy solution nowadays. After implementing this technology, the online store’s website loading speed increased by 2-3 times. You can discover more about the PWA development solutions.
#4 Include validated payment gateways on the cart page
To address payment security issues, guarantee that your site displays all payment gateways on the cart page.
The most trusted payment gateways that you can consider adding to your shopping cart page are Paypal, Visa, Mastercard, etc.
#5 Allow guest checkout and one-click login
Last but not least, if your site allows for guess checkout, your cart abandonment rate will plummet. In other words, when customers visit your online store, allow them to freely select products, add them to their carts, and proceed to checkout without having to log in.
Because of its flexibility, convenience, and high accessibility, it will eventually empower customers to shop on your website frequently.
Furthermore, if your customers log in to serve product marketing, notify them about special offers, or new arrivals, allow them to quickly register for a new account based on the information entered at checkout.
After the customer completes the payment, the way I frequently see commercial websites use this is to ask if they want to “Get email updates about other special offers? ” or “Create a new account to receive 15% discount today.”
On the other hand, if you still want customers to log in to pay, optimize the login process. Reduce the number of steps and data entry to make the login process simpler and more streamlined.
#6 Send abandoned cart emails
Sending abandoned cart emails is an old but effective way to recover lost revenue. It’s a kind of follow-up email that will be sent to the customers who leave your site and the items they added to the shopping cart without placing any order.
In those emails, you need to remind the shoppers about the products they left on the cart as well as show the spotlight of each item to persuade them to proceed with the order.
It’s worth noting that you might need a cart abandonment extension installed on your website in order to capture abandoned customers’ email addresses. Then, emember to add the abandoned cart email as an essential part of your email marketing strategies and tools.
How To Optimize Shopping Cart To Boost Conversions And Sales
After all, you have probably realized how essential an eCommerce shopping cart is to the success of your online store. The final section provides recommendations on how to optimize the shopping cart.
#1 Include a product slider under the product list
The first method on the checklist for motivating and luring customers to buy more is to include a product slider in the shopping cart page’s product list. The main goal of the product slider is to provide customers with additional offers in addition to the product they have chosen.
It could be recommendations for bundled, upsell, cross-sell products, best-sellers, or products that customers might be interested in. Product sliders frequently include related headlines such as “you might like,” “you might be interested,” or “buy more save.”
#2 Pop mini cart up in few seconds after adding to cart
Popup mini-cart will help customers know that they have successfully added products. Besides, it also reminds them of the products information they have selected.
There are two ways to showcase a mini cart. The first method is to change the number of items in the cart on the mini cart icon. The second method is to show all of the items in the cart. By using that way, the customer can see which products were added and the total amount.
On top of that, the second way mentioned above is far superior and preferred to the first one.
#3 Allow customers to move products to wish list
Adding the add to wish list feature to your online store is the next solution that will undoubtedly aid in optimizing the shopping cart. Customers can add products to their wish list for future purchases using the add to wish list feature.
Customers can use this feature to save items if they cannot dedicate to purchase at that time. Not only that, but it also helps customers find them quickly when they return to your store intending to purchase something.
#4 Enable select certain products for checkout
Next, to achieve better the shopping cart page, enable the customers to select specific products to checkout rather than forcing them to check out all the products in the cart.
Many people habit of adding various products to their shopping cart and then purchasing them gradually rather than all at once. So, if your eCommerce site drives them to purchase all the products in their cart, there is a high risk that they will refuse to make any purchasing decision. It eventually implies that you have lost some of your revenue.
#5 Offer free shipping or lower shipping fee
Shipping costs are another factor that many customers consider when buying a product.
Many people will feel hesitant to pay when they have to pay too much for shipping.
To effectively tackle this problem and encourage shoppers to shop more, it is ideal for offering free shipping or lower shipping costs when a customer reaches a certain total order value.
For example, if a customer spends $100 or more, they will receive free shipping or a 15% discount on shipping costs for orders of at least $50.
#6 Choose prevalent eCommerce platforms
Finally, selecting a trustworthy eCommerce website development platform is paramount. With the rapid development of the eCommerce industry, many developers have emerged to assist merchants in creating their online stores.
However, not every eCommerce website provider has a well-designed and appealing shopping cart and checkout page. As a result, when selecting eCommerce platforms, keep this in mind as well.
Among the rampant platforms/ shopping cart solutions available, Magento was one of the eCommerce platforms with convenient shopping cart pages and one-page checkout. This open source platform is a highly recommended platform by famous brands. Moreover, there are many Magento checkout extensions (e.g.: one-step checkout) that you can apply to optimize the shopping cart and checkout page.
If you want to build a Magento website with an effective shopping cart and checkout flow, Tigren – with a team of 10-year-experience developers can help. Our mailbox ([email protected]) is waiting for your request!
Final Words
As mortal and brick stores are no longer a consumer choice, the top priority of merchants is to constantly strive to create an online store that is increasingly functional and convenient. And, the best shopping cart design is critical to accomplishing this. It will support boosting the conversion rate and sales revenue of your online store.
Hopefully, after reading this article, you will have a more objective understanding of the significance of shopping cart optimization. Most importantly, select a reliable eCommerce shopping cart software immediately to begin unleashing the power of your online store.
Shopping Cart FAQs
What Is The Best Shopping Cart Software?
- Magento Commerce
- Wix
- Shopify
- WooCommerce
- BigCommerce
How To Calculate Shopping Cart Abandonment Rate?
To determine the abandonment rate, divide the total number of completed purchases by the total number of carts created. Then, subtract 1 from the calculated result and then multiply by 100 to get the abandonment rate.
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