SmallBizResource Blog -- Business Know-How

Singing the E-Shopping Cart Blues

Posted by Janet Attard, Courtesy of Business Know-How Thursday, Jul 31, 2008, 12:23 PM ET

Are you getting people to hit your online shopping cart, but aren't getting many sales?

A lot of marketers blame that type of problem on bad copywriting or bad "landing pages" (the page peope "land" on after they click through an ad or other link to your shopping cart).

But sometimes the problem is totally different. Sometimes the reason people don't buy is because your shopping cart makes it very difficult to complete a purchase. One common and frustrating problem (to the shopper) is that some shopping carts don't show you what's in your electronic basket automatically. Instead, if you want to see a running tally of what you're putting in your shopping cart, you have to find and click on the shopping cart icon. Good luck. (Often it's a small icon toward the top right of the page).

Finding shipping costs is often impossible without checking out, too. Finally, some shopping carts require a shopper to register contact information before making any purchase.

In any of those situations, the shopper is likely to abandon the cart out of frustration and make a purchase from another online store selling the same or similar products.

To be sure your shopping cart doesn't make your customers feel annoyed, ask some friends to place an order while you're watching. Tell them what to order, but don't tell them where to find it or how to place the order and complete it. Watch how long it takes them to get all of the information they need and complete every step of the order up to the point they enter their credit card information and hit the Submit button. If they seem confused or have to ask questions about what to do at any stage in the order process, you should consider making changes in the way your shopping cart functions or changing shopping cart providers.

For six other ways you could be losing out on online sales, click here.

Business Know-How | Internet | Retail | SmallBizResource