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6 Ways to Reduce Cart Abandonments With PhonePe Payment Gateway

4 min read

With evolving online trends and customer behaviour, businesses face the challenge of cart abandonment. Globally, approximately 70.1% of online shoppers abandon their carts before completing a purchase. This is often due to unexpected shipping costs, lengthy or complicated checkout processes, and limited payment options. Although businesses may not be able to completely eliminate cart abandonment, they can reduce the number of customers who disappear after adding products or services to their cart.

What is Cart Abandonment?

Cart abandonment occurs when a prospective customer visits a website or app, adds the product/service to the cart but leaves without proceeding to the payment process. This has caused many businesses to lose customers.

Reasons for Cart Abandonment

Lack of Payment Options: Nearly 11% of online shoppers globally abandon their carts due to the lack of payment options. When customers opt for online shopping, they also seek convenient payment methods. Users tend to abandon their carts if their preferred payment method is unavailable.

Complicated Checkout Process: A long and complicated checkout process, or lack of clear guidance and direction, can lead to decision fatigue for customers. Over 18% of online shoppers abandon their carts due to long or complicated checkout processes.

Security Standards: A buyer’s sense of security can vary and is shaped by factors such as poor design, suspicious domain names, and lack of secure payment options or protocols. The fear of online fraud often prompts users to reconsider their purchases.

High-Shipping Costs: Research reveals that 49% of online shoppers leave their cart due to high shipping costs. When a potential customer is ready to make a purchase but notices expensive shipping, they are likely to abandon their cart.

Technical Glitch: 14% of buyers vanish after adding products to their carts due to technical issues such as website crashes, errors, payment downtimes, or failures. 

Site Speed: A slow site speed may cause customers to abandon their carts, either out of frustration with the purchase or due to trust-related concerns. 

6 Ways to Reduce Cart Abandonment

Simplifying the Checkout Process: Buyers tend to be impulsive when ordering their favourite products or services online. Therefore, businesses need to offer a quick and easy checkout process. With PhonePe Payment Gateway’s QC Lite feature, customers can experience a one-click checkout, simplifying their buying journey. 

Offering Multiple Payment Options: Businesses need to offer multiple payment options to their customers to reduce cart abandonment. When customers have various payment methods available, they are more likely to complete their purchase. Businesses can provide options such as Pay on Delivery, QR codes, Net Banking, UPI, and more. 

Enhancing Security & Trust: When it comes to online payments, security is a crucial concern for buyers. Therefore, businesses need to prioritize safety and security standards for their customers. Take, for instance, the PhonePe Payment Gateway implements a two-fold approach to online security: encryption and fraud prevention to mitigate any fraudulent activities. 

Being Transparent: Businesses can display all the costs such as product price, discounted price, taxes, and delivery charges (if any) to customers during the purchase process. It is advised to maintain transparency regarding costs throughout the entire process. 

Providing an Easy One-Step Payment Option: Buyers who are eager to purchase a product often prefer to complete the transaction promptly. PhonePe Payment Gateway’s Fast Forward feature provides a one-click checkout experience that minimizes the number of steps in a buyer’s payment journey. 

Building trust: Businesses should prioritise building online trust, as nearly 77% of shoppers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Trust-building elements are a great resource for turning prospects into customers. Businesses can showcase customer reviews, testimonials, and case studies to help in building trust.

Online buyers exhibit different behaviors, for instance, 38% of online shoppers will leave the website if it looks unattractive and 22% leave the cart because of the long and complicated checkout process. This is how consumer behavior works. Online businesses should provide a positive experience to customers to avoid cart abandonment. Knowing how customers behave can be a great start to acquiring prospects. 

How can Businesses Recover from Cart Abandonment?

If a prospect abandons their cart, businesses can retarget them by providing payment links, which can be sent to customers directly via  SMS or email. PhonePe Payment Gateway’s Payment Links help businesses receive payments easily by generating and sharing these links with customers.

Concluding Thoughts

Cart abandonment is a perennial issue that causes businesses to lose prospects. However, this can be addressed by providing a hassle-free experience, adapting to changing trends and reducing consumer fatigue. PhonePe PG provides various payment options for customers, creating a win-win situation for businesses and customers.