Mobile commerce can be both thrilling and frustrating at the same time – for companies and customers alike. It’s been estimated that at least 68% of smartphone and tablet owners have tried to purchase an item from their mobile device over the past year. More often than not, however, the customer’s most likely end result is not a sale.
For some reason, these shoppers are just disappearing before completing the purchase. So what can retailers do to combat all these abandoned shopping carts?
The first thing to consider (and quite often the most common reason for abandonment) is that many mobile customers just aren’t ready to make a purchase. They’re “just browsing” as they say in the brick-and-mortar stores. But there are some who are ready and willing to buy when they reach your cart. Unfortunately, however, studies show that about two-thirds of these shoppers abandon the transaction because the checkout process is too cumbersome on a mobile device.
So is there a solution to reducing the mobile cart abandonment rate? Well, there’s a good way to get started. And that’s by addressing the four factors that every mobile checkout experience needs to be successful: Simplicity, Speed, Screen Experience, and Security.
1. Simplicity: Streamline the process
According to a recent Mobile Consumer Insights study conducted by Harris Interactive, nearly half (47%) of online shoppers fail to complete a purchase because the checkout process takes too long, primarily because of the number of pages.
Mobile customers are literally mobile. If they’ve decided to make a purchase, they need to do so efficiently.
They only want to provide information that is relevant to the unique sale – delivery details, name, address, billing information. If your company wants to track customer behavior and gather more information, there are far better ways to do that across the site to avoid impeding the sale. And once your process is streamlined, you should consider installing a progress bar for multi-page processes to let customers know where they are in the process.
2. Speed: Accelerate the pace
According to Econsultancy’s Best Practice Guide for Mobile Websites and Apps,74% of mobile visitors abandon a site if it takes more than five seconds to load. Sometimes the slowdown can be blamed on the speed of the site’s back-end. In fact, 23% of the customers surveyed said their purchases wouldn’t complete due to server issues.
The mobile commerce experience must always be tested on every platform a customer might use – from the first experience on the front page, through the entire checkout process.
3. Screen experience: Design for mobile
If you want mobile sales, design for mobile. Think small form factor. Think gestures. Think simple.
According to the Harris Interactive survey, 41% of customers will abandon a cart if the process for entering credit card data is too difficult.
The more fluid your experience, the better your results. Many customers who find a mobile interface too difficult eventually switch to a PC or even a brick-and-mortar store to complete a purchase. Providing a universal cart that lets customers save items and then access them on another device – or share with an in-store associate –may help you ultimately retain the customer, and save their opinion of your brand.
4. Security: Give customers confidence
Many Harris study respondents also claimed they were uncomfortable entering credit card information into a mobile site. Companies are losing up to 51% of their mobile customers simply because they aren’t proving the information or options customers need to be confident. In fact, Delta Air Lines was recently sued in the state of California over its mobile app’s lack of a link to a privacy statement.
Companies can instill customer confidence in mobile security by playing-up the measures they take to ensure a secure mobile checkout process. Companies should also make sure that their privacy policies are consistent across all channels, and that appropriate and required security measures are implemented. If a customer is not comfortable providing financial information to your mobile site, there are alternatives that can be considered such as PayPal and Google Wallet.
In the end, a mobile checkout experience should be designed from the mobile perspective and not as an adaptation of your current web-based checkout process. Doing the latter is essentially taking a shortcut, that may lead your potential buyers to an option other than completing the transaction.
