Imagine this: a potential customer visits your online store, enticed by its sleek design and array of high-quality products. They add a few items to their cart, envisioning their excitement upon receiving them. They proceed to checkout, eagerly anticipating the final steps of their purchase. But then, frustration strikes. An unexpected hurdle appears, shattering their seamless shopping experience. Perhaps it’s an expiration timer on their in-cart items, wiping out their selection before they’re ready to checkout. In a flash, the shopper abandons their cart, taking their business elsewhere.
Millennial and Gen Z shoppers are more discerning than ever. They demand a smooth, hassle-free online shopping experience, and if your site fails to deliver, they won’t hesitate to find another retailer who will meet their expectations. Even the most attractive inventory won’t save a poorly optimized website from losing customers.
To help you avoid these pitfalls, here are ten specific ecommerce website features that frustrate online shoppers and can lead to cart abandonment, along with strategies to address them.
Top 10 Most Frustrating Website Features
1. Expiration Timers on In-Cart Items: Shoppers hate when websites wipe in-cart items after a brief timer expires, causing them to lose selected items if they don’t checkout quickly.
Solution: Consider extending the timer on in-cart items (or, ideally, eliminating it altogether). If an expiration timer is necessary, clearly communicate it to shoppers and provide options to save their cart for later.
2. Mandatory Account Creation: Requiring users to create an account completing a purchase, instead of offering a guest checkout option, frustrates many shoppers.
Solution: Allow customers to complete purchases without creating an account. Provide an option to create an account after the purchase for convenience.
3. Hidden or High Shipping Costs: Shoppers get frustrated when shipping costs are hidden until the final step of checkout, or when unexpectedly high shipping fees are not shown upfront.
Solution: Display shipping costs upfront, ideally on the product page or early in the checkout process. Offer free shipping options if possible, or provide clear and reasonable shipping rates.
4. Poor Mobile Optimization: If your website isn’t optimized for mobile devices, you’re already missing the mark. Websites that lack mobile optimization often have unresponsive designs, hard-to-click buttons, and distorted layouts on smartphones and tablets.
Solution: Ensure your website is fully optimized for mobile devices. Use responsive design, easy-to-click buttons, and a clean layout that works well on smaller screens.
5. Complicated Checkout Process: An overly complicated checkout process that requires unnecessary information and doesn’t offer auto-fill options can deter shoppers from completing purchases.
Solution: Streamline the checkout process by reducing the number of steps and required fields. Implement auto-fill options and allow users to save their information for future purchases.
6. Insufficient Product Information: Products will never even make it to customers’ carts if shoppers encounter a lack of detailed product descriptions, specifications, customer reviews, and high-quality images.
Solution: Include detailed product descriptions, specifications, multiple high-quality images, and customer reviews on product pages to help shoppers make informed decisions.
7. Slow Website Performance: Long load times for pages, images, or the checkout process lead to an irritating user experience and potential cart abandonment.
Solution: Optimize your website’s speed by compressing images, using efficient coding practices, and leveraging content delivery networks (CDNs) to reduce load times.
8. Limited Payment Options: Not offering a variety of payment methods, such as credit/debit cards, PayPal, and other digital wallets, or failing to support international payment options, can frustrate shoppers.
Solution: Offer a variety of payment methods, including major credit/debit cards, PayPal, and other popular digital wallets. Ensure you support international payment options if you have a global customer base.
9. Lack of Clear Return Policy: Vague, difficult-to-find, or complicated return policies make customers uncertain about processes and conditions for returning items.
Solution: Make your return policy easy to find and understand. Clearly outline the steps for returning items and any conditions or time frames that apply.
10. Loss of Page Position: Shoppers are far more likely to leave your site if hitting the “back” button takes them to the top of the shopping page rather than the item they were previously viewing, causing them to lose their position and place on the page.
Solution: Implement functionality that retains the shopper’s position on the page when they hit the “back” button. This can be achieved through proper coding practices and session management.
Investing in a user-friendly website is crucial for staying competitive in the ever-evolving ecommerce landscape. By addressing these common issues, you can create a more enjoyable and seamless shopping experience for your customers, encouraging them to complete their purchases and return for future transactions.
Implementing Strategies: Beyond Quick Fixes
Implementing these strategies to optimize your ecommerce site and reduce cart abandonment is more complex than simply hitting a few buttons. Retailers must invest in holistic platforms that deliver seamless integration across multiple areas, including user experience design, backend functionality, mobile optimization, and customer support. It requires a comprehensive approach, combining advanced technology with a deep understanding of shopper behavior.
This is where Sophelle comes in. With years of experience in retail consultancy, Sophelle has a proven track record of helping retailers select and implement the right solutions to minimize cart abandonment and boost sales. Our team understands the intricacies of creating a seamless shopping experience and can guide you through every step of the optimization process.
At Sophelle, we offer strategy selection services that help retailers address the unique challenges of their ecommerce businesses. From evaluating and selecting the best platforms to integrating and fine-tuning them for optimal performance, we ensure that your website not only meets but exceeds customer expectations.
Let us help you reduce cart abandonment, increase conversions, and ultimately, drive higher sales. With Sophelle by your side, you can focus on what you do best—delivering exceptional products—while your solution takes care of the rest. Contact a practice leader today to get started.
