Online sellers take note -– New study research shows that up to 70 percent of online shoppers will abandon their shopping cart or purchase transaction BEFORE they click the Submit Order button. That’s a 70% Rate of Shopping Cart Abandonment, according to a company specializing in abandonment tracking software (SeeWhy).

Online wholesalers/retailers and e-tailers who face this online seller challenge also need to know that the rate of Lost Sales (abandoned shopping carts or incomplete purchase orders) has increased in 2009 over sales transactions completed vs. abandoned from 2005 to 2008.

Primary Reason? Buyers have more alternatives: Comparison Shopping Sites let buyers move easily between sellers, product sources, and search devices (smart phone, laptop, desktop) to comparison shop.

Top Ten Wholesale thinks every wholesale merchandise seller or online retailer can capture lost sales revenue and stop abandoned shopping cart pile-ups. Here are tips on Trusted Sites, Steps of the Online Buyer/Seller Process and Meeting Online Buyer Needs that say . . .

Don’t Drop That Shopping Cart!!

1. Offer Alternative Payment Plans. A 2009 PayPal Checkout Abandonment Study found 24% of online shoppers did not complete their purchase transaction because they could not find their preferred payment option.

· According to a 2008 report released by PayPal and Jupiter Research, 55% of customers think about payments before they reach your checkout processing page,

· Also, the consumer credit crunch — plus news of data thefts and security breaches at credit card processing centers – now drive customers to search for Alternative Payment Plans.

Ignore it at your seller peril, especially since Javelin Strategy & Research estimates that, inside two years, “Alternative” Payments will be over 30% of all online dollar volume.

· Offer Bill-Me-Later … PayPal Payment … Electronic Funds Transfer . . . and Direct Debit Options to potential buyers.

Bill-Me-Later payment plans, in particular, are important to close the sale on high-price tag and higher-ticket merchandise items.

2. Can You Be Trusted? Usability studies repeatedly point to buyer trust and confidence in the seller’s online site as reasons to either stay or to bail out of the buy transaction.

· Offer “Contact Us” and “About Us” links on your opening pages. Offer buyers the option to call you or request LIVE CUSTOMER SERVICE before they place a single item in their shopping cart. And make sure you list a physical office address – rather than a P.O. Box – at the top or bottom of your main web page and on your Contact Us page.

All increase buyer confidence in trusted sites. A visible, physical local address also helps get you indexed in local search listings … multiplying your other search, display and trade show advertising efforts.

· If your online business has earned Better Business Bureau or eTrust or VeriSign or any other standard of approval in the e-tailing industry, then feature the logo on your top web pages. Burying such industry approval seals on only the purchase transaction pages means they may never been seen at all. What sort of trust-builder is a hidden seal of approval?

· Put clear text links in Home Page footer lines, as well as on every purchase transaction page, to your Privacy Policy and your Returns Policy.

How will personal and contact data you request from buyers be used? How do you keep buyer financial data secure? Do you truly offer No-Hassle Returns? Are you a liquidation reseller who offers clear manifests of the contents of every shipment? Then, make this No Unpleasant Surprises policy accessible from the first web pages a potential buyer sees.

· Just like providing live customer service before merchandise is dropped in the shopping cart, don’t bury Privacy and No-Hassle Returns Policies in small print or only on inside pages. Looks like you’re hiding from the customer.

3. Display Shipping Charges Up Front. The number one reason online buyers gave for abandoning their shopping carts was high shipping costs. (That’s from the 2009 PayPal Checkout Abandonment Study conducted by online market trackers comScore.)

· Don’t leave shipping costs to the end of a purchase transaction as a Last-Step Surprise. The above-noted survey found that giving buyers a specific idea of shipping costs right up front might have resulted in more completed purchases and fewer shopping carts abandoned.

· At the consumer e-tailing level – This excerpt is from a User Comment on Shopping Cart Abandonment.

“… When I close or abandon a cart, it is because the seller is charging a lot more to send me the order. One seller. . . may charge more for the item, but the total is less than the first seller’s total because the shipping is a lot less. Comparison shopping does exist!”

· At the wholesale supplier level – Do you supply Dollar Store Inventory to resellers or Liquidation Merchandise lots for resale? And do you have regional warehouses or drop-shipper facilities?

Then note Regional Warehouses and Dispersed Shipping & Fulfillment Centers … right up front. Nearness of the shipping point to the wholesale buyer is the main shipping cost factor you control (as opposed to fuel costs).

4. Cut Down Buyer Purchase/Checkout Steps to Two or Three, Maximum. Nothing piles up emptied or abandoned shopping carts faster than putting the buyer through too many questions and too many steps.

· Do you require Site Registration First? Then don’t load that into your Checkout Pages. How many online buyers will patiently re-load their shopping cart – or go through all the purchase steps again – after registering with you and waiting to receive an email verifying that they are allowed to shop with you? Answer: Not many. It’s easier for a potential customer to bail out of your site and hit the “Back” button, to see who else is out there selling the same merchandise.

Break up Registration requirements and sign-up forms on a lead-in page to your online sales site. Then direct interested buyers to the Purchase or Checkout or Buy Now pages.

· Seal the Sale with a 3-Step K.I.S.S. That’s an old graphic design principle that certainly works to keep buyers at your company web site straight through to the Submit Button. K.I.S.S. stands for: Keep It Simple, Stupid. That means …

Don’t ask for too much unnecessary information during a purchase transaction. It’s tempting to ask a lot of questions like, How did the buyer find out about your products? What are their personal preferences for recommended products? How can you serve them better in the future? Resist the impulse to collect marketing data. You need to close the sale.

Make the process from “Add to My Shopping Cart” > “Supply Shipping and/or Billing Address” > “Payment Options” > “Shipping and Handling Charges” > to final “Submit this Order Here” no longer than two or three steps.

Break up requests for needed information and streamline the entire checkout process to no more than two or three steps or screens. The longer the checkout path, the higher the rate of Shopping Cart Abandonment.

5. Who Else Likes You? OR What Else Do They Like? Online comments, User/Buyer Reviews and Product Ratings – all social media interactions at merchant sites – are 2nd only to Word of Mouth Recommendations from trusted others to drive a final purchase or sale. (Rubicon Consulting Study of 2008)

· Track Current Customer Opinions. Set up Ratings and User Review input buttons at your web site. With permission, highlight product recommendations and customer comments.

· Personalize Recommendations with Re-Targeting Tools. I receive regular emails from Amazon.com when new books or DVDs are released that are similar to my last order. These re-targeting emails come in two forms:

(1) A call-out from Amazon product pages titled: Customers Who Bought (my last title) Also Purchased (these other titles) … and

(2) New Products That Might Interest Me.

Here’s a sample of my latest retargeting email from Amazon on food safety headlined: Recommended for You: Amazon.com has new recommendations for you based on items you purchased or told us you own.

Note that each re-target suggestion includes:
· Cover art, some labeled “click-to-open” offering a sample chapter;
· List Price, Current Price, My Savings;
· Buttons to “Rate this Item” and click to “Own it.”

Here’s the second part of my personalized Recommendations email.

This facsimile shows my purchase history and the explanation – “We recommended items above because you purchased or rated these items.”

Then it requests my Feedback — Was it a gift? No longer interested?

Then, it states – “If you already own or have experience with the items we recommended, use the link next to these items to continue improving your recommendations.

Finally, there’s the option to opt-out – “We hope you found this message to be useful. However, if you’d rather not receive future e-mails of this sort from Amazon.com, please opt-out here.”