Anyone use any really decent programs for this? Our numbers are getting better and better, but I think I could basically double our conversions tomorrow if I had a good shopping cart abandonment program in place.
Shopping Cart Abandonment
- Thread starter samgeneric
- Start date
SeeWhy is pretty awesome. Dont talk to Listrak unless you want to be stalked and called everyday for all eternity.
Do you do dynamic re-targeting? That can be pretty huge.
IE someone leaves with product A in cart you show the ads for product A that lead back to product A on your site.
IE someone leaves with product A in cart you show the ads for product A that lead back to product A on your site.
Custom code it.
Here's what I do.
Buyer submits email address, but doesn't buy...
First, they get an email address asking if they had a problem, 24 hours later... (That serves several purposes, one being to identify problems in their process.)
2 days later, they get an email with a discount...
2 days later, they get an email explaining that the discount has 24 hours left.
I keep stats for every step of that, removing buyers from each stat so I have an accurate picture of what will make people buy.
Also, no bullshit coupon codes. Their link is their discount, and their email is their identifier.
I typed all of this out to tell you that it absolutely doesn't work. That, and you mostly have to innovate these things, yourself.
I do 0 retargetting right now. The site has been built entirely on SEO. We have done nothing to optimize the checkout experience yet, retain dropped purchasers, or get lost shoppers back to the site.
We don't do any discount codes and our product is more expensive than competitors. We're selling commoditized products and service right now, so we're trying our darndest to really distinguish the company as a brand. So, when it comes to "deals" our internal philosophy is, "you wouldn't be able to negotiate a better price at McDonald's for your hamburger, you can't do that with us." Right now, all I want to do is start recovering abandoned carts.
Question for you: why did you code it yourself? Why didn't you use one of the many companies out there that have built a product for it? Did you ever try them? What was your experience if you did? If you didn't, why didn't you even try them? Was there something problematic you saw form the outset?
I suppose we all have different philosophies when it comes to building businesses. At my company, we spend a lot of money getting our "shit" together. The next "shit" we are getting together is improving the shopping cart experience. I don't believe in doing everything at once. First we proved the concept, now we're improving it. We are generating leads faster than we can convert them at the moment. If we too many leads coming through the door, we hurt the brand.
So one thing at a time. But I appreciate the sentiment.
We are best if we control the experience, from beginning to end. And I actually think we are good enough to make that claim. But either way... I don't code things... I make specs.
I have not tried outside vendors for such. The problem is that everyone out there will shark you, if given the chance. Ok, that's rude, let's say 10%.
It sounds like you have a reasonably protected market for whatever reason, and you should keep that for as long as possible.
We also have self hosted livehelp, calls, etc.
If you have serious IP, like a giant patent for turning silver into gold, then outsourcing those sorts of things will make more sense. Otherwise, you should work on your conversion process. The more people you invite into that, the faster profits will become average. You'll unknowingly invite competition from someone who has a nephew in a call center, etc.
They may not be able to beat you initially but I'll say it like this... enough ants turn into a problem, and it's better if you don't accelerate that issue. After the ants, come things that eat ants, and next thing you know, the things that eat anteaters are taking large chucks out of your leg.
I have a business in that stage right now. My leg hurts.
i use it, but im not selling the products directly so have little to lose. If I were trying to build trust or a relationship, i might not do it as it's probably annoying for some.
According to my stats only about 10% of those that get squeezed convert
According to my stats only about 10% of those that get squeezed convert
make the checkout 1 page... person enters all info to buy and then clicks 1 button. If you want to make it a 2-page so you can get the contact info before they buy then the only way to convert leads is to do a follow-up sequence with email or phone.
I've also seen people offering instant discounts when they try to close out the shopping cart. Example: a pop-up appears offering the discount and if you want to stay or leave. If they stay the cart reloads with the new price.
I think your Mcdonalds philosophy is the wrong mindset. You're trying to get the highest dollar amount out of your customer as possible. Would you rather drop your price and take what they are willing to give you or take absolutely nothing from them?
I've also seen people offering instant discounts when they try to close out the shopping cart. Example: a pop-up appears offering the discount and if you want to stay or leave. If they stay the cart reloads with the new price.
I think your Mcdonalds philosophy is the wrong mindset. You're trying to get the highest dollar amount out of your customer as possible. Would you rather drop your price and take what they are willing to give you or take absolutely nothing from them?
Maybe you should do a better job convincing your visitors to believe that you are as awesome as you believe you are, so they should pay more just because of your awesomeness.
Your customers could care less about your internal philosophy and that shows a serious flaw on your part. Customers dont care what they can do for you, they care what you can do for them.
Stick to retargeting, but setup lists and target people who reached your checkout page with a custom message.
Your customers could care less about your internal philosophy and that shows a serious flaw on your part. Customers dont care what they can do for you, they care what you can do for them.
Stick to retargeting, but setup lists and target people who reached your checkout page with a custom message.
Pop-ups are against our philosophy. Anything annoying is not on-brand. Our McDonald's philosophy is exactly correct; we are trying to provide excellent service at a moderate cost in order to create incredible brand loyalty. We are not trying to get the highest dollar amount out of our customers. We are also not trying to start a race to the floor on price. We make it very clear to our customers, and they see our value-add. Our customers really are incredibly loyal. If you want to have further conversation on how to build that sort of customer base, I'd happily engage you in that discussion. What we're working on now, though, is how to get a hold of abandonments specifically.
That said, I think you're right about a one-page conversion. We have been debating how to go about implementing this. We are going to be adding a one-page conversion form to the service side of the business. But we are probably sticking with a multipage checkout for the product side... at least for now.
Thanks for the words. Yeah. I certainly don't want more competition. What else do you do that's unique experience wise? We tyr to do the same. We have optimized everything at the beginning of the funnel. We have conquered longtail search, and have it pretty well hammered out in the middle bits of the funnel. Checkout is our next big project, so any advice would be very helpful.