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It’s no surprise that more consumers prefer online shopping this year. With transactions moving from brick-and-mortar stores to digital shops, the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated consumers’ shift to e-commerce by five years.

Businesses that have had to quickly extend their offerings online may be facing issues with cart abandonment: when shoppers with items in their cart leave the web store before completing the transaction. In today’s impatient world, cart abandonment is a common occurrence, even for businesses with refined e-commerce processes.

So what leads to cart abandonment? There are several contributing factors, most involving shoppers’ frustrations throughout the buying process. A recent study found that at least 62% of shoppers who struggle to complete purchases abandon their carts.

If shoppers experience delays at checkout, unexpected shipping charges, or too many steps to complete a purchase, they are likely to leave the website. What’s more — rather than contact customer service, they are more likely to leave for good and shop with a competitor instead.

The good news for businesses is that they have the power to reduce their own cart abandonment rates and boost conversion. Here’s what works:

  • Use autofill functions and stored credentials. Shoppers do not want to painstakingly type in their personal information every time they make a purchase, especially when they are checking out on their mobile devices. Autofill functions for addresses and stored credentials for billing and payment information make checkout much easier for the consumer, and also reduce the chance for errors.
  • Allow for guest checkout. If shoppers must create an account to complete a purchase, many won’t follow through. Even regular customers with an account may not want to deal with the hassle of remembering their username and password, instead opting for the ease of guest checkout.
  • Reduce the amount of information you need. Asking shoppers for too much information or having them click through too many pages will tempt them to ditch their cart. Look at what you’re asking them to enter and remove anything that is not essential.
  • Enable Apple Pay within your website. Make sure to leverage a payments provider that can enable Apple Pay so shoppers can use their stored credit card when shopping on their mobile device.

Payments are a huge part of the solution here. The online checkout tools merchants use will not only determine how easy it is for their customers to make a purchase, but whether they come back.

Heading into 2021, businesses will continue to transform the way their customers shop – reducing your cart abandonment will translate to more sales and happy customers!