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Why Are Shoppers Leaving Your Online Shop?

01.06.2018, 5m

All business owners love to see traffic to their website, but that love is dependent on one other factor: conversions. If people are visiting your site, but leaving without buying anything, then you might suspect something may be wrong with your website. Today, let’s look at an infographic produced by Performance Card Service, which looks at eight possible reasons shoppers are leaving your website. They’ve also provided some “quick fixes” on how to remedy this problem. 

You can see the entire infographic at the bottom of this page.

shocked man in office clothes

shutterstock.com/Master1305

Ugly page design

ugly page design

We’ve covered this topic before. The psychology of design is very important when it comes to getting visitors to finalise their purchases. If your website looks like something out of the 90s, you can bet that not only will people leave your shop without buying anything; they might even be laughing at your website. Modern design doesn’t necessarily have to be fancy or complicated. In fact, minimalistic designs can be very effective, too.

Happy business people laugh near laptop in the office

shutterstock.com/Prostock-studio

When your website looks really old, you’ll make a lot of people very happy… for all the wrong reasons.

Boring product descriptions

unappealing content

Not only should you have interesting, original content to get customers to convert, but having your own product descriptions can really help you from an SEO perspective. Do some keyword research and figure out what the most important keywords are for getting your products discovered through Google and try to get those words into your product descriptions.

The same goes for product images. If you use the stock images provided to you by the manufacturer, you can be sure that every other client of theirs is using the same image. If your competitors are using original images, then they’re one step ahead of you. Search engines appreciate original content, and that goes for images as well as text. Do yourself a favour and get creative with your product pages (or hire someone who is!).

Download the Perfect Product Page whitepaper

Confusing Navigation

confusing navigation

Sure, you know your way around your website. You’ve been there since Day One and your website is probably like a second (virtual) home to you by now. However, it’s important to get feedback from people outside your company once in a while. Ask them if they found it easy to navigate your website.  Could they find everything without clicking around too much?

Check out our blog article for 5 tips on how to make your website easier to navigate.

Design not optimised for mobile

mobile optimised

If you haven’t done this to your website yet, I don’t think we can be friends anymore! I’m sorry to sound so dramatic – I was just kidding. Seriously though, have you been on a metro lately? People are shopping on their smartphones more than ever before.

People want to have a smooth experience on their mobile devices, so having responsive design is important. If they sense that the mobile version is buggy or untrustworthy in any way, you can be sure that they will not complete the transaction on their mobile devices, all but destroying your chances at converting them.  

Trusted Tips: Converting on mobile is more important than ever! Optimise your  designs with our whitepaper!

Some quick fixes

I haven’t touched on every issue mentioned in the infographic, but let’s look at a few of the fixes for these common problems.

Ask for less personal information

Remove one field

One thing that might be keeping your visitors from turning into shoppers are the forms. Perhaps, it’s the new GDPR regulations or the Cambridge Analytica scandal, but it seems people are a bit more wary about giving away too much personal information.

You should definitely consider minimising the amount of information you collect from your shoppers. Besides, this will get them through the checkout process even faster, increasing the odds of a completing the conversion.

Be transparent

transparency

One of the most important things we believe in, here at Trusted Shops, is transparency and that is why it’s a big part of our Trustmark certification process. Yes, some people like surprises, but I’m willing to bet that no one likes seeing extra fees late in the checkout process. Make sure that nothing about your website and checkout seems deceptive, even if unintentionally.

Conclusion

Remember that there are a lot of elements of your website that could be off-putting to potential customers. Though it might not seem like a big deal, a lot of these “little things” are in fact conversion killers. Get input from your friends and family, and do whatever it is you need to do to update your online shop, so you can get turn traffic into conversions.

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