'Shopping Cart Abandonment' has become a huge point of concern for online businesses, and recent activity indicates that people are slowly beginning to recognise the importance of recovering lost online sales and increasing online conversions. The amount of revenue lost from cart abandonment can be monumental, and will only get worse if companies fail to address the issues. Recent studies have shown that as much as 70% of online shoppers abandon their sale rather than follow through with the transaction.

What are the solutions?

The majority of online activity has talked about top tips for recovering abandoned shopping carts, highlighting the main reasons why people abandon online sales, in order for us to think about improving the way we do business online. Forrester Research lists the top five reasons for shopping cart abandonment as follows:

1. Cost of shipping
2. Not ready to purchase
3. Price checking
4. Price is too high
5. Saving products for later

Therefore, a lot of research suggests that shopping cart abandonment can be resolved through online alterations and improvements. The following tips are commonly noted throughout a number of current articles:

• A good website, better page designs and navigation
• A fast, reliable, savvy shopping cart program
• Clear shipping information, to ensure there are no hidden costs
• Displaying strict safety measures to make online shoppers feel comfortable
• Offering promotional deals on the "view cart" page

But what happens when we have improved our website, invested in a sophisticated shopping cart program and resolved our other online obstacles? The majority of businesses will find that simple tips may not be significant enough.

Remarketing, the modern concept.

Remarketing is a fairly new, innovative concept that involves reconnecting consumers with their shopping carts, after they have abandoned online. The most common form is email remarketing or "abandoned shopping cart emails", where triggered emails are sent out to customers to remind them about the contents of their abandoned shopping cart. Often these emails assure the customer that they have kept a record of their shopping cart in order to encourage the customer to come back and buy. Businesses may also offer promotional incentives to consumers, in the hope of recovering an online sale.

Another smart technique has recently evolved from Google Ad Innovations, which involves the placement of clever remarketing ads that are displayed to users who have previously visited a website, as they browse the web. If you are a regular online user, you may have noticed recently that everywhere you browse, you are constantly reminded of a website that you have previously visited, and if companies are really clever, they will personalise their ads as accurately as possible, targeting the distinct pages you accessed and the products you viewed. Online conversions have shown significant improvements with the advancement of Remarketing.

What's next for shopping cart abandonment solutions?

Scott Reid, Director of marketing telecommunications company, Leadcall has established what he sees as the distinct formula for shopping cart abandonment. Leadcall has developed a remarketing concept through the use of telecommunications, where the primary objective is to contact the consumer by telephone, in real-time as they abandon a website transaction. Scott Reid, Director of Leadcall said: "This way companies have the opportunity to try and recover the customer within seconds of them abandoning a sale, but if unsuccessful they still have the opportunity to find out what the problems are, and where they are going wrong. Results have not only proven significant increases in online conversions, on average 20-30% and often higher, but many of our clients have praised us for providing them with a new mechanism for providing superior customer service."

Leadcall captures customer data as they enter it online along with information about their query or potential purchase. It detects when a consumer abandons a website and automatically relays this information to an available agent at the company's call-centre. Within seconds of receiving the consumers online query information, the agent can call the customer at the simple click of a button, in order to recover the sale, or offer further assistance and help.

Dealing with a number of large companies in the Insurance, Retail, Travel and Airline industries, Scott Reid explained that his clients are experiencing tremendous increases online conversions, along with hefty revenue boosts and an excellent reputation for customer service. He said "Remarketing has revolutionised the way forward for shopping cart abandonment. The main problem is that most businesses are unaware of the products, services and solutions that are available to them, and are therefore missing out on notable benefits. It will be very interesting to see how remarketing capabilities evolve in the coming years."

About Author / Additional Info:
Kimberley Shadbolt
Marketing Communications Executive at Leadcall
www.leadcall.co.uk
info@leadcall.co.uk
08000 776 078