By Rieva Lesonsky
If you have an ecommerce website, there’s good news and bad news. Good: The percentage of people visiting websites with the intention to make a purchase is on the rise. Bad: The number who actually manage to complete a purchase is declining, a new survey from iPerceptions found.
In the fourth quarter of 2011, iPerceptions’ study shows, 22 percent of people who visited ecommerce sites did so with the express intent to buy—up from 16 percent during the fourth quarter of 2010. But just 58 percent of those shoppers were actually able to complete their purchase, down from 60 percent during the same time period in 2010.
“While a drop-off in task completion is expected as visitors near the bottom of the purchase funnel, the fact that almost half of buyers were unable to complete their purpose of visit is somewhat alarming,” said Claude Guay, president and CEO of iPerceptions. “For a business that already earns $10 million in online sales, a 58 percent task completion among buyers means that an additional potential $7.3 million in qualified business is walking away from the table.”
What was keeping visitors from completing their purchases?
- Couldn’t find the product I was looking for – 34 percent
- Found product, but it was unavailable/out of stock – 32 percent
- Site’s pricing information was unclear – 18 percent
- Product information was lacking – 7 percent
- Shipping policy/final price were unacceptable – 6 percent
- Technical problems prevented purchase – 4 percent
How can you prevent these issues from costing your ecommerce site sales?
Ensure your search function works correctly and that products are easy to find. Allowing users various ways to categorize, sort and search products can help. For instance, a women’s clothing site could categorize by pants, tops, blouses, skirts, dresses, etc., as well as by size, color and fabric. The more options you provide, the more quickly users will be able to find what they’re looking for without getting frustrated.
Keep products in stock. Use online inventory management tools to alert you when stock is running low. Offering to order out-of-stock products for consumers and giving them an estimated delivery date can help capture sales that might otherwise be lost.
Put prices front and center. Price information should be clearly displayed. Try using larger type or bright colors so customers don’t have to search. Make sure discounts, sale prices or bulk purchase discounts display right away so customers don’t have to go through multiple steps to calculate a price.
Include detailed product information. This could include dimensions, material content, photos that can be manipulated or viewed from several angles, or even videos of the product in use. The more details you provide, the better.
Make it easy to calculate shipping rates. Don’t make customers wait until the checkout process to find out how much shipping will cost. Make links to your shipping policies and costs easy to find, and post them in multiple places. Include charts and make it simple for users to figure out shipping on their own so there are no surprises.
Image by Flickr user Robert Couse-Baker (Creative Commons)
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Tags: ecommerce, Marketing, sales process, small business, Technology, Web Design
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