Many visitors never check out. They lose their interest at some point during the process and specialists indicated this happens nearly 60% of the time. Find out how to defend yourself against shopping cart abandonment and increase your sales.

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To view this and other helpful articles on Search Engine Optimization, Internet Marketing and Development available both in audio and video format, please visit www.Site-Reference.com. How to reduce shopping cart abandonment? An article by Adriana Iordan, a web marketing manager for avangate.com. What is shopping cart abandonment? Shopping cart abandonment is a reality of today's e-commerce. It is a concept that denominates the ratio between the number of people who go through all the steps of online purchasing and the number of the prospects who leave the e-tailers' site at some point, without checking out. Sadly, the abandonment rate, as shown by many specialists in the field, is somewhere close to 60%. Reasons for shopping cart abandonment. Many explanations have been given trying to state why buyers abandon shopping carts. Most of the reasons are similar to the ones in the real-world shopping process. The top four reasons for shopping cart abandonment have been identified as Impatience. In today's world, where everybody is on the run and the governing principle of purchasing is, "I want it NOW," there's little chance that a prospect will be willing to spend more than a few minutes in front of the computer screen in order to fill out an order form and wait for your site's pages to load. This is similar in choosing the shortest line in a supermarket, Confusion, if it's not clear how to make a purchase and you leave your prospects on their own assuming that, "They'll just figure it out," you're in for a huge disappointment. Also, if they are suddenly presented with some extra cost that they didn't expect, it's as if you were pointing to the door yourself. Caution, this can easily translate into fear. Most Web shoppers are cautious about disclosing their personal information, especially when it comes to the credit card details. They will easily become suspicious if too much information is requested from them. Indecision, as with real-life shopping, not any visitor is necessarily a customer. Most of them are window-shopping, testing prices, added taxes and shipping fees just to compare various e-tailers to see where and who can give them a better deal. It is possible that a visitor might return later on and make a purchase from your website. Tips to prevent shopping cart abandonment. The following suggestions are some steps to be taken in order to prevent this phenomenon. Check the number of steps required to make a purchase. Keep this number as low as possible preferably somewhere between one and seven. Make the process short and sweet and as easy to use as possible. Implement security measures for credit card transactions and make sure to communicate them with your customers. This will make them feel more secure about performing transactions on your website. Reassure them that any personal information will be handled in the most secure way possible and that they will not become victims of any fishing activity. Be cautious about the registration process. Many e-tailers lose at this game because they make their customers register before allowing them to place an order. Try to use the information they enter during the ordering process to register them. They don't even have to know until the end, when they'll be prompted to enter an e-mail address and a password. You can even allow them to make purchases without registering, but do point out the benefits of spending some time to register, for instance order tracking, personalized notifications for special discounts or preferred products, incentives, etcetera. Make tax and shipping information easy to notice. Offer this information from the start. Customers should not have to navigate though the whole process in order to find out the final price of the item or items they are about to purchase. Don't make them enter their address twice If the shipping address is the same as the billing one, provide an option usually in the form of a checkbox to automatically complete the second. Offer incentives. It is common and usually a good practice to offer free shipping for orders exceeding a certain value. Make this clear to your prospects. While they will be mesmerized by the idea of not paying for shipping, you will gain by having them try to reach and even surpass the specified value by ordering more items. Allow them to choose the payment method. If you can handle more than one payment method, let the customers know. Some feel more comfortable paying with plastic, others prefer cash on delivery, while others feel safer to pay by money order. Make it clear that you can handle everyone's preferences. Show them you are a real company. Make sure your contact information is as visible as possible. You will thus gain their confidence and allow them to call for information or even place orders. Let them know how far they've gone. Use graphic indicators on each page so that they know where they are. Online shoppers can easily get disoriented, so help them. Refrain from cross-selling until the last moment. Don't be pushy and don't try to sell them other items right from the start. Keep it until the customer is ready to place the order and suggest other items that they maybe of interest. Give them a choice and give yourself a chance. Allow them to save their selections. Provide a "Save cart" function, along with a corresponding button, that will allow them to resume their shopping later without having to look again for what they were interested in. Keep the customers focused. Don't distract their attention with unnecessary flash movies or banners. There is no place for them on the order pages, unless they are directly related to the initial purchase. Make the "Next" and "Checkout" buttons visible. There are many case reports where customers have mistaken "Delete" or "Clear" buttons for the ones mentioned above. Place them in such a way so that they are completely visible. Use colors that are more prominent for them, even if they go somewhat against the whole theme of your Website. Be consistent. Use the same format or look and feel for each page or step of the ordering process. Let the customers see that every step is part of a whole and not just a bunch of patches stitched together in an attempt to achieve a goal. Handle errors constructively. Make it sound like it's your fault, not the customers'. Try to use a tone that will determine them to check and re-enter the erroneous information, do not make them feel frustrated and leave your site. Conclusion: Preventing shopping cart abandonment is quite at hand for most e-tailers. After all, it's only about putting themselves in their prospects' shoes. Although this might require a significant amount of finances and effort, it is worthwhile. Always keep in mind that even the smallest detail can make the difference between a conversion and an abandoned shopping cart. Get to know the reasons for which your prospects leave your site, and make improvements accordingly. The benefits resulting from the reduced shopping cart abandonment will undoubtedly, be easy to notice. This article is provided by Adriana Iordan, a Web Marketing Manager for avengate.com. To view this and other helpful articles on Search Engine Optimization, Internet Marketing and Development available both in audio and video format, please visit www.Site-Reference.com.