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The Power of Persuasion: Utilizing Brain Science to Get Users to Act
Making fact-based, data-driven design decisions (say that five times fast!) is the mantra of Google, and who better to emulate than the Big Kahuna itself, right? That being said, utilizing data for web design isn’t always as easy as it sounds. But did you know there’s a heap of scientific research from the brainiacs at academic powerhouses, such as Stanford, Princeton and Harvard and the like that can help you persuade people to buy your product? I know… it sounds heavy, but let me make it easy. Just read on.
Here you’ll find three ways to design utilizing brain science data that will persuade your users to act. I’ve found word-of-mouth consumer research studies, marketing studies on fluent and disfluent typography, and cost transparency research that can all be applied to your next web design project. My hope is that this will help guide you in the right direction, one smartypants design decision at a time.
The Science & UX Behind Reviews
What does PTSD research, persuasive design and writing online reviews all have in common? Well, not much… except for one little connection that I learned of after talking with Dr. Sarah Moore, a prestigious consumer researcher hailing from the University of Alberta, Canada.
When Moore and her research group looked at past clinical psychology research on how journaling helps alleviate PTSD symptoms, they noticed that journaling helped some sufferers experience amazing, curative results, while others still suffered. Moore explained to me that the difference is people who wrote using what researchers call explaining language, (whereupon they sought to understand and evaluate their traumatic event), recovered better—but when they ruminate and re-lived the experience via journaling, they tended to get worse or stay the same.
Using this knowledge to power her own study, Moore looked at how people felt during and after writing positive or negative reviews. She determined that writing positive reviews using explaining language, words like “I feel because ABC,” or “I think this because XYZ,” made the reviewer feel less positive about the experience. Conversely, writing negative reviews made storytellers feel less negative when using the same explaining language.
Moore explained this phenom with her own experience as a child watching “Jurassic Park” with her sister. “We were terrified of that movie,” she said chuckling, “But then someone explained to us that all those ‘bone-crushing’ special effect sounds were actually created by breaking ice cream cones in toilet bowls and we weren’t really scared anymore. It unpacked the fears for us and made us less afraid.”
Her results are interesting, but you may be wondering, what are the implications for UX design? When businesses use reviews to build awareness, or use testimonials to create positive social proof, there may be a better way to design the review experience guided by her research.
Using Moore’s research as a guidepost, it could be suggested that making reviews available only via desktop could be viable, but what about the effects of negative reviewing on the fly? Those folks seem to self-soothe by ranting, so perhaps let them have their say. So maybe it’s about changing the design.
Changing the paradigm so that people can easily offer a rating will help you maintain social proof without sacrificing the possible post-review apathy that Moore’s study highlights. After all, you want a positive reviewer to remain positive, so although a testimonial on your site is dandy, it’s not worth as much as a heart-felt referral to one of their colleagues. The more positive reviewers unpack their emotions about the experience and explain it thoroughly, the more they feel less attached to the positive emotions they had, and they may even lose sight of their love for your brand, or products, Moore explained.
Another creative approach is to solicit fact-based customer feedback or testimonials. Storytelling may well be the ultimate weapon, but it works best in certain areas of a strategy. So, let’s not inadvertently shoot ourselves in the foot by asking “why,” “how come,” and the like.
Moore concluded in her final study that using explaining language makes reviewers “less likely to retell their experience in the future,” so with that in mind, use your design and copy wisely to make sure the happy campers and the not-so-happy ones walk away thinking and feeling more positively about your business, regardless of the emotions behind their sentiments.
Typography & Background: dO YoU knOW wHAT i WanT?
What is it about Facebook’s Status Update Form that makes people just spill their guts? I mean, you only have to look, here, or here, or here, for some really juicy stuff.
In 2009, Adam Alter, a marketing-focused researcher, best-selling author and professor at NYU decided to study this phenomenon. What he uncovered was quite interesting: “Cognitive fluency encourages self-disclosure.” To put it in layman’s terms: Using easy-to-read typography and contrasting elements persuades users to freely disclose some really embarrassing tidbits. These UI decisions can be made simply, and potentially have a huge impact.
Thanks to Alter’s research findings, we can now see the connection between typography and its effects of readability on user’s behavior.
Alter’s work suggests:
- Simplistic, serif typefaces — which are fluent—encourage people to disclose more information.
- Script-y, fancy typefaces — which are deemed disfluent (hard to read)—encourage people to disclose less personal information.
- Black text on a white background, versus the opposite, has the same effect as fluent typefaces—more disclosure.
The overarching results of these studies “suggested that people are less willing to disclose potentially damaging information about themselves when they experience disfluency,” Alter explained in the study’s introduction. “One likely explanation for this effect,” he went on to note, “is that people tend to experience diminished confidence and greater vigilance when they experience disfluency, which might temper their willingness to disclose self-incriminating attributes.”
The goal then, of all their work combined, was to show that there’s a distinct connection between how you present content and how it engages or disengages users. The implications of this for designers, product managers, and marketers is quite exciting! Let’s say you are soliciting your customers for their personal information—you want their name, address, email address, age, family size, maybe even their banking information. Using these insights to design your form could improve conversion rates.
Or, another use case could be surveying your customers or potential customers. Designing the right survey could be the key to garnering the type of unbridled criticism or praise that your company is seeking. For instance, Typeform uses a minimalist layout and design plus the ol’ black-fluent-font-on-a-white-background formula, too. The ease of which users can see, understand and visualize “the ask,” the more willing they are to give up the goods, so to speak.
Persuade with Pricing Transparency
Harvard Business School (HBS) is ripe with data on consumer research and pricing studies are a hot topic as of late. Bhavya Mohan, a doctoral marketing student, alongside HBS assistant professors, Ryan Buell and Leslie John, researched the phenomenon of pricing transparency in their recent paper, “Lifting the Veil: The Benefits of Cost Transparency.”. The results showed that “when a company selling T-shirts, for example, itemizes what it spends on cotton, cutting, sewing, dyeing, finishing, and transporting each shirt, consumers become more attracted to the brand and more likely to purchase.” In addition, the researchers also noted that whether or not the customer was brand spankin’ new or a longtime brand advocate, using cost transparency surfaced positive buying motivations.
Consumer’s apparently feel so positively about cost transparency because they consider it an “intimate disclosure.” In fact, they discovered that businesses can actually charge quite a lot above the actual cost of production before consumers start getting ticked off.
Dr. Buell interviewed with Working Knowledge, a news organization at HBS dedicated to showcasing their employees’ work and explained this phenom, “We wanted to understand when cost transparency would be harmful,” Buell said. “With a T-shirt that cost $6.50 to produce, it seemed reasonable to us that cost transparency would be helpful [in motivating buyers] if the price of the shirt was $10. But even at $35, we still saw an advantage to revealing the cost of production, which is interesting because the markup was five times the cost.”
What he noted during the research is that the markup could go quite high and consumers still didn’t care, as long as the pricing transparency was there. Surprising, in one of their studies checks-and-balances, they finally informed people in one condition that regardless of the transparency, they were indeed being price gouged. Then, and only then, did the pricing strategy fall apart. Folks needed to be told point-blank that it was a rip-off before they questioned the cost of the goods. Pretty amazing, huh?
To enforce their findings, as we noted, the researchers did look to the “real world” to study retailers that were actually using price transparency as a marketing strategy. Both Everlane and HonestBy augment this strategy. In an interview with Forbes, the CEO of Everlane, Michael Preysman, said of his pricing strategy:
“Before founding Everlane, I worked in venture capital. During my time there, I learned a lot about the astronomical markups in fashion. I really couldn’t understand why a shirt that cost $7 to make was selling at stores for $50 and up. We realized people had no idea of these markups and saw that there was a real need to educate consumers. At that moment, we decided to incorporate pricing and factory transparency with every product we make.”
Other companies are following suit, such as Zady and OfAKind, who show consumers how it was made via the production process to provide transparency in the manner in which it was crafted.
This also helps consumers understand the indirect cost and that cost may be higher because the product wasn’t produced in a “sweatshop” -esque environment.
In this instance, using the power of storytelling to convey the pricing strategy is useful if you have a competitive edge that you would like to remain private, or perhaps is also useful if you have so many manufacturers to account for that creating a transparent price may be too tricky to execute, the study showed. No matter your logic behind your technique, being honest and transparent with consumers seems to always provide big wins, as long as you’re being honest.
Are You Convinced?
Using scientific data and brain research studies to support design decisions isn’t cut-and-dry. But many of these techniques offer high yield for those willing to apply these findings to their business. For example, in one of the experiments on pricing transparency, the researchers noted that there was a 44 percent increase in sales for products with transparent pricing as opposed to not.
Alter’s font research showed up to 20-40 percent increases in disclosure when using content designed fluently.
Lastly, with Moore’s research on word-of-mouth, we can see significant indicators for how and why you encourage or showcase reviews of your products or services. This isn’t brain surgery, it’s brain science. Don’t be afraid to get your neurons a little wet!
About the Author: Lauren Ventura has been researching persuasion, reasoning and its effects on users, customers and everyone else since her graduate school days. Way back then, in her Rhetoric program, she learned the basics—Socrates, Plato and Aristotle—and the not-so-basics—the Toulmin Model. She’s found that there’s not much difference between user experience and those old Greeks—it’s all about convincing the right people with the right strategies in the right place. She currently works at a UX design agency, DigitalTelepathy, as their in-house copywriter. Follow her on Twitter @DoItWriteNow.
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How to Become an Exceptional Writer
A man and boy sit in an old house crowded with furniture, sunlight, and dust.
A guitar rests on the boy’s knee. Tiny fingers grip and pluck the strings. The man is nodding, rocking as the boy plays.
The man is Jack White — of The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, and The Dead Weather fame. The boy is his son. This scene is part of the documentary It Might Get Loud.
As Jack White teaches his son to play guitar, he says:
You have to fight the guitar … And you have to win.
That’s an incredible piece of advice for playing guitar. And it’s some of the best writing advice … ever.
It’s back-alley wisdom. A tip you might get from an older brother in a vacant lot before your first fistfight.
You have to fight. And you have to win.
If Jack would’ve said, “You have to fight the guitar,” and stopped there, then the mood in the room might have been grim.
In other words, there’s no hope. You could win. More than likely you would lose. Yet, he said, “And you have to win.”
In other words, fight until you win. There is hope, but you have to fight.
And yet, it’s not enough to just fight.
Four approaches to becoming a legend
You don’t become one of the greatest living guitarists without a little strategy, technique, knowledge, and flair. These approaches make guitarists world famous. And writers legendary.
Let’s look at how these four approaches will help you win the fight to become an exceptional writer …
1. Strategy
Always start with the why.
Why do you want to become a writer? Do you have what it takes? What does it take?
Here are some signals to look for:
- Drive for supremacy — Exceptional writers believe that they have to be the best. They have a sense of destiny. They will put a dent in the universe. They will be a pioneer, champion, or master. They map out grand visions and risky projects. They shoot for monumental victories, and they are not satisfied with the attention of thousands. They want millions, even billions. And more often than not, they benefit from those big dreams.
- Capacity for solitude — Exceptional writers are comfortable being alone. They prefer the library over the coffee house, the office over the swimming pool. Their involvement in social, political, or religious communities and affairs is low. To be active in these realms is to take time away from work. Work comes before all else.
- Special talent — Exceptional writers can write. It’s often the only thing they do well. It’s natural that they become servants to that talent, seeking ways to express and master it. They look for opportunities to study under top teachers. They read and write obsessively.
Listen, while everyone on the planet can and should be able to write, it doesn’t mean they can do it well. There are reasons why you shouldn’t be a writer.
Perhaps you don’t know if you were meant to be a writer. Perhaps you’re not sure you want to devote your life to the craft. If that is the case, then you could always tackle a writing project for 30 days. At the end of 30 days, evaluate your feelings.
Did you enjoy it?
Did you have trouble staying on track?
2. Technique
Now we’re into mechanics — actually punching the keyboard.
This will probably absorb most of your time since mastering your technique is what has made the greats the greatest.
This is hard work. This is daily work.
If you’re a dandy or a princess, then this lifestyle is not for you. Wrestling with a 2,000-word essay is not unlike birthing a calf. A life is at stake here. Your job is to make sure it survives.
Your job is to sit in the cold and mud and pull until it comes out.
- Park your bottom in front of the keyboard — Do I need to explain?
- Practice — Even when they are not writing, exceptional writers find ways to practice. They write emails, tweets, or Facebook posts. They journal in the morning and in the evening, and whether they are running over hilly trails or lying beneath the clouds, they are writing and rewriting in their heads. Furthermore, their practice involves a clear purpose: they try to improve a certain element of their writing. It could be first sentences or calls to action. And finally, this practice is repetitive. The goal is to make it an instinct.
- Adjust — Exceptional writers are the best and worst critics of their own work. They pull out old letters and blog posts. They re-purpose recent emails after they’ve ruthlessly edited like David Mamet. And they are always asking themselves: “How could I have written this better?”
- Ask for feedback — Exceptional writers scheme their ways into relationships with honest professionals who can give them the kind of input needed to improve. They are willing to adjust based on the feedback they get.
- Experiment — Exceptional writers look for new angles. They study a list of the best first and last sentences. They wonder if an article would be better if they injected humor, shared a racy illustration, or opened with a quote. Anything to break new ground.
There are endless ways to practice and master your technique. You are limited only by your imagination. And if you are an exceptional writer, then that imagination will be deep.
3. Knowledge
There are two types of knowledge: general and specific. General knowledge is three-miles wide and three-inches deep. Specific knowledge is three-inches wide and three-miles deep.
As a professional content writer, my specific knowledge plunges into the depths of writing, persuasion, content marketing, advertising, negotiations, SEO, and social media.
My general knowledge ranges from mountaineering to morality — from Christianity to chess. I enjoy reading about gravity, content marketing, dying, Theodore Roosevelt, and libertarianism. There is no end to my curiosity. And all of it feeds the beast.
So how do you build this knowledge? Here are seven approaches I recommend.
- Build a wicked vocabulary — Words are your currency. Do you know how to wisely invest in words? Read blogs, books, and speeches. Read wide. And read the unorthodox to build that wicked vocabulary.
- Become an anti-scholar — Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan, coined this term. It refers to the person who focuses on the books he or she has not read. It’s not so much how much you know, but how much you don’t know — and how to find out that information when you need it. Ben Johnson, while scanning the book spines in a library, said knowing where to find the information is just as important as having the information in your head.
- Memorize — Recall in writing is critical. I have a pretty good memory. Not photographic, but I can recall most memories in detail. This is why I try to memorize chunks of text, handwrite a compelling page, or listen repeatedly to a line in a speech. I want to impress the cadence, vocabulary, and style into my mind. So pick your favorite writers, and then start.
- Travel — Reading is not the only mode of learning. Actually going through experiences, meeting new people, and seeing different parts of the world will build your knowledge base. It’s what Jeff Goins calls the discipline of travel. And it’s an excellent educator.
- Sit in a classroom — These days, you could take an online course. You don’t have to load your backpack with supplies and roll up to the community college on your bicycle. Many major universities now make their course materials available online. MIT, Yale, or Stanford. My favorite course that I’ve listened to is Shelly Kagan’s Death.
- Educate yourself through writing sprints — In 2011 and 2012, I wrote more than 220 articles in nine months for a client. These weren’t push-over posts. These were technical and an average of 1,400 words per article. I got really good at predicting which article would do well, and where.
- Follow a blog like Gangrey — The guys at Gangrey are on a mission to “prolong the slow death of newspapers.” So they hunt down and share some of the best long-form reporting online. You can trust that each story they find will have this in common: great openings, sublime conclusions, and beautiful storytelling in between. Whether it is about a marathon fraud or the death of a semi-pro football player, these articles rock.
Like technique, the ways you absorb knowledge are only limited by your imagination. What methods do you use to build your specific and general knowledge?
4. Flair
Listen, one of the hardest things for a writer to uncover is her voice, style, and flair. Why? Lack of confidence, which comes from a lack of experience. And the best way to cure a lack of confidence and experience is to practice.
See, churning out page after page day in and day out, you will slowly uncover who you are. You’ll begin to recognize your voice and flair.
But there are other clues you can look for, too. Here are five.
- Find the source of your compliments — Think back to the last time you shared something you wrote with someone. What did they compliment you on? Did they say you were funny? That you have a way of telling a story? When you start to see a pattern in the compliments you receive about your writing, then you can start to identify your voice.
- Find the feeling that is you — For many people, writing is a process of becoming a different person. Joan Didion said, “It’s the only way I can be aggressive.” Didion is a petite woman who wears dark sunglasses. Anyone who’s read her work understands her carnal severity. The confident voice she uses in her work. The courage to catch hell. What type of person does writing allow you to become? Find it, and then dwell in it.
- A personal seal — The work of exceptional writers bears a distinctive seal. Hugh McLeod is the darling of meaningful work. Leo Babauta is the spokesperson for minimalism. Douglas Adams is the skeptical comic. C.S. Lewis, the rational fabulist. Here’s the lesson: identify with what you do. View it as an extension of yourself. Invest a personal stake in your writing. And make it big.
- Be an iconoclast — Exceptional writers are usually at odds with someone. The State. The Culture. A person or process. Their style is confrontational, wild, and sarcastic. Before his death, Christopher Hitchens was one of the most feared rhetoricians. George Orwell noted that his work was lifeless when it wasn’t political. Are you bucking the trend? Or are you intentionally parroting the status quo? Look for ways to stand out. To confront. And make it appear natural.
- Milk your dysfunctions — Regret. Bitterness. Pain. These are the usual responses to awful experiences. But have you ever thought of being grateful for these experiences? That because you have suffered, you are now perfectly suited to help other people cope and fight through those same situations? Flannery O’Connor said that if you survive the first two decades of your life, then you’ll have a lifetime of writing material. However, you can go too far.
I saved the best for last …
I need to come clean with you. After reading this article, you might think I’m a curmudgeon. That I view the writing life as a Spartan affair full of suffering.
Not true.
I love to write. I think it is a joy. A celebration. Yes, it’s a fight. But it’s not work. I love to climb into that ring every morning and manhandle words. It can be painful at times, but it never really feels like I’m suffering.
To quote Ray Bradbury …
The moment it feels like work, stop and do something else.
Have you found your voice? How did you find it? Please share your story with us on LinkedIn …
Editor’s note: This post was originally published on October 1, 2012.
About the author
Demian Farnworth
Demian Farnworth is Copyblogger Media's Chief Content Writer. Follow him on Twitter or The Copybot. In the meantime, subscribe to his podcast: Rough Draft.
The post How to Become an Exceptional Writer appeared first on Copyblogger.
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Solar Panels Efficiency
As of now, there are many ways that can help people cut their spending. First, in order to reduce spending on transportation, by investing in a car it is a wonderful idea. When it comes to the water bill, you can reuse the water for watering plants. And if you are thinking of reducing electricity costs, one of the best options is to opt for solar lighting.
There are many solar lights individuals can choose. But if you intend to install these lights out everything in your yard or garage, it is best to use solar lights. Unfortunately, people often make many mistakes when buying these accessories. To get rid of these errors, below are the most common mistakes when buying sunlamps.
Choosing the right size for solar panels
One of the most common mistakes when individuals who buy these lights do is choose the wrong size of the solar panels. Solar panels are very important in the purchase of solar projectors or cash, as it collects the sun’s energy to power the lights. By choosing solar panel pain, individuals can not use the light if you need more power.
Do not think about food
As for energy, people also overlook this factor when buying solar projectors or cash. Neglecting this individuals can buy accessories that provide little light. Other than that, I do not think that power can also affect your buying solar projectors with a higher power are more expensive.
Neglect of flood lights design
Solar lights also have many designs. However, some people choose simple projectors that can be unsightly in some areas. So it is important to choose projectors with incredible designs to complement their needs.
Opt for cheap projectors
Another mistake people make when choosing lighting fixtures is to buy cheap lights. Of course, cheap solar lights are very attractive. However, these cheap lights make use of weak materials are easily damaged. Therefore, people have to buy another to replace damaged flood light.
The purchase of a bad seller
Finally, buying the wrong supplier can also affect your choice of work lamps. By buying poor sales, there are cases when the lights are low and dangerous, especially if it is not created correctly.
Knowing all this, people can avoid these mistakes can help you find the best solar projectors they need.
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30 Must-Use Methods for Killing Shopping Cart Abandonment
We all know that shopping cart abandonment is big, bad, and pervasive. Baymard’s latest stats peg the average documented online shopping cart abandonment rate at a scary 68%.
In other words, for every ten customers that put an item in their cart, about seven of them will leave the site without completing the purchase.
If you’re like me, you’re sick of reading all the doom-and-gloom stats about shopping cart abandonment.
Why don’t we leave at this? Shopping cart abandonment sucks, and it’s time to lower it. The problem worsens with every passing year, making it even more acute.
With that simple fact in mind, let me give you actual techniques that will slay the monster of abandonment and give you more revenue than you thought possible.
1. Use Email Retargeting
Let’s just say it. If you want to slay abandonment, you need to get on board with email retargeting. Retargeting uses cookies embedded in email messages to display your ads to the user as she browses the web.
Retargeting is the perfect way to win back customers quickly after their abandonment.
2. Display Everything Possible About Extra Costs
The top reason that customers give for abandonment is extra costs.
The easy way to solve this problem is to not give customers any extra costs.
If you absolutely must add in shipping charges, taxes, or other fees, tell the customer so. As early as possible in the process, give them complete information regarding all the extra costs that they will see as they enter the shopping cart.
3. Provide Full Disclosure on Shipping Details
Shipping costs are another big kibosh to shopping carts. Look at this scary graph. High shipping and handling costs were the number one reason Shopify carts were abandoned.
In an age of Amazon Prime and holiday specials, customers have been trained to demand free shipping on just about everything. Chances are, you have some competitors that are beating you because they have free shipping and you don’t.
If you can afford free shipping, great. If you can’t afford free shipping, then be sure to tell the customer everything about the shipping cost. If necessary, provide a built in calculator to determine estimated costs based on weight and quantity of items.
4. Send an Email Immediately After the Customer Abandons
When the customer abandons, you have a few hours to reel them back in. Assuming that you’re using some retargeting technology and email marketing, send an email immediately.
According to Conversion’s data, here’s how likely a customer is to purchase after receiving a reminder:
- 30% purchase in less than 20 minutes
- 50% purchase in 20 minutes to an hour
- 60% purchase in 1 to 3 hours
- 65% purchase in 3 to 12 hours
Those first few hours post abandonment are the golden window of opportunity to regain lost customers. Capitalize on it.
5. Get Rid of Sign-In Barriers
Are you preventing customers from buying based on sign-in barriers? Just don’t.
Forcing users to create an account may work for some products and services, but in most cases, you’re simply setting yourself up for disappointment. A great alternative to clunky sign-up processes is using social sign-in.
6. Make the Check-Out Process 3-5 Steps
The more complicated your checkout process, the less likely users are to complete it. Make the process consist of 3-5 steps. The shorter, the better.
If you do try to shorten the process, make sure you’re not making a single step in the process consist of too many fields.
7. Give the Customer Clear Progress Indications
It will help the customer if you can show them how far along in the process they are. Users like to have a feeling of progress and forward momentum as they reach for the goal of purchasing an item.
8. Use Simple and Prominent Calls to Action in the Shopping Cart
Every marketer knows the importance of calls to action. Are you using CTAs in your shopping cart, too? They are as important as ever. Users want to know what to do next, and it’s up to you to tell them what to do.
I recommend creating a headline-style set of instructions for each phase of the checkout process. For example, tell the user “Where should we send your stuff? Please fill out your address.”
9. Give Them the Freedom of a “Save For Later” Button
Many shoppers abandon their carts for the simple reason that they’re using it as a wishlist or a place to save things that they want. Instead of funneling them into a shopping cart, make it easy for them to create a wishlist with an easy option to buy later.
You get the benefit of lowered abandonment rates, and they get the upside of a wishlist that will easily funnel them into a later sale.
10. Talk to the Customer During the Process
Make the shopping experience conversational and interactive. There’s no need to be harsh and form-driven. Talk to them.
Brief and casual messages like, “Okay, we’re almost done” and “we just need a little extra info here” make the experience more enjoyable. I don’t know many people who love filling out forms, but if you make it less agonizing for the shopper, you’re more likely to gain their completion.
11. Don’t Throw in Extraneous Links
Avoid placing in links that take the customer away from the shopping cart. The customer might leave the cart of his own volition, but don’t make it easy for him!
One of the common ways that ecommerce retailers lose customers is by trying to upsell with related products. Often, when a customer clicks on these products, they never return to the shopping cart.
12. Create Massively Engaging and Powerful Product Pages
We obsess over shopping cart abandonment, but consider what comes prior to putting something in a shopping cart — the product page.
Take a look at your product page. How engaging is it, really? Russ Henneberry recommends that you create “high-quality, interactive product images.”
13. Create a Seamless Continuity Between What the Customer Sees on the Product Page, and What They See in Their Shopping Cart
If possible, display a thumbnail of the image in the shopping cart. The customer wants to make sure that they are actually purchasing the item that they selected. Making the cart items visible and visual is a great way to keep the customer moving through to completion.
14. Create One-Click Shopping
Amazon has probably made billions off of their one-click shopping button. It’s so easy to just click and buy without even deliberating over the pros and cons of the purchase.
You can steal a page from Amazon’s playbook by creating your own easy-to-buy shopping cart process. It won’t work for unregistered customers, of course, but it can work for members.
15. Avoid Surprises of Any Kind
According to CPC Strategy “Bad surprises are one of the most common contributors to shopping cart abandonment.” Don’t surprise your shoppers, whatever you do.
The shopping process can be a nerve-racking experience for some shoppers. The customer’s mind is tense. They’re pulling out their credit card. They’re a bit nervous. What’s going to happen?
And then it does — BOOM! A confusing pop-up. A discount code request. An “error” message. A missing field. Whatever.
The checkout process goes up in flames. You surprised them (or they surprised themselves) and you lost.
Watch carefully for any “surprises” in your checkout process. Make it clear, deliberate, and completely free of pop-ups, unexpected messages, and other factors that could be seen as an interruption.
16. Boost Site Speed
If your site is slow, then customers will leave.
The shopping cart is one of the most critical places to boost site speed. Site speed and conversions are tightly correlated. Faster websites are just plain better.
17. Add SSL
Take whatever steps are necessary to make customers feel secure. In today’s web, SSL is considered a standard part of good design and development. If your site, and especially your checkout process is lacking in security measures, you’ll scare some customers away.
18. Prominently Display Business Contact Information (Footer)
Another way of enhancing the trustworthiness of your website is by adding contact information. Many online businesses display their NAP (name, address, phone number) in the site footer. This is merely one more way of giving your customers the assurance that you are a legitimate and reliable business.
19. Add Chat or Phone Support Options on the Checkout Page
If a customer has a problem, question, or issue with checkout, what are they going to do? In the absence of support options, they may simply leave.
To prevent this from happening, add an 800-number or online chat support to the checkout process.
20. Make the Cart Easy to Edit
Your cart should be easy to change. Deleting items, changing quantities, and adjusting shipping options should be intuitive and simple. Don’t make the mistake of creating cryptic buttons that can accidentally remove everything in the cart.
21. Show Security Symbols on the Checkout Page
Your checkout page is the place to pile on the security. Obviously, you don’t want to clutter up the page with too many of these, but a few well-placed badges can reassure the skittish customer.
22. Display Your Return Policy
Have you ever experienced buyer’s remorse? Some buyers do. Buyer’s remorse doesn’t just happen after a purchase. The anticipation of remorse can sometimes cripple buyers before they purchase.
To prevent this from happening, give customers a clear and easy understanding of your return policy. Make it simple. “Don’t like it? Just return it, on us. No questions asked.”
23. Limit Cross-Selling on the Checkout Page. It Just Confuses Them
As mentioned before, trying to cross sell or upsell customers in the 11th hour may just contribute to shopping cart abandonment, not bigger buys.
24. Add Testimonials Everywhere
Some people put testimonials only on a devoted page. I suggest putting them everywhere — even in your checkout process. A simple callout or sidebar with a customer quote or two can keep the motivation level high as the customer continues to check out.
25. Personally Review the Checkout Process At Least Once a Month
Do you have first hand experience with your site’s shopping cart? Do you know what customers are experiencing as they proceed through the funnel, fill out each form, and complete each field?
I suggest that you personally take the time to test your own shopping cart. As you continually test, refine, and edit your shopping cart process, you’ll be able to iron out wrinkles that may be contributing to abandonment.
26. Be Careful With Coupon Codes
Coupon codes are a double-edged sword. On the one hand, they may motivate customers to purchase. But on the other hand, they could prevent customers from completing the transaction.
If a customer doesn’t have a coupon code, for instance, they may leave the site to look for one, but never return. Statistics show that more than a quarter (27%) of shoppers abandon their cart because they “wanted a discount coupon.”
27. Make Shipping Times as Quick as Possible
Many online customers will want their order to arrive as soon as possible. Make arrangements for expedited shipping if customers want it.
28. Provide Courteous and Helpful Error Messages
If a user gets frustrated with the checkout process, they are likely to quit. As you develop and enhance your checkout process, create error notifications that are as helpful and direct as possible. There are two angles to this:
- Make it easy for them to find the error on the form.
- Make it easy for them to fix the error.
29. Accept Any Currency
If you offer international sales, make sure you are providing clear currency conversion information as well as acceptance of other currencies.
30. Allow Multiple Payment Methods
With the proliferation of the commercial web has come the expansion of payment methods. Open the gates as wide as possible and allow buyers to use any credit card, Paypal, Amazon, or any other forms of payment that are common within your niche.
Bonus tip! Optimize your checkout funnel by measuring what matters. Use the Kissmetrics Funnel Report to identify where you’re losing customers and run A/B tests to optimize your funnel. To learn more about how Kissmetrics can help optimize your marketing, request a personal demo.
Conclusion
As eager as you are to capitalize on abandoned users, let’s be honest. There’s no such thing as 0% abandonment. Some customers will abandon their carts, and you’re going to have to accept it.
But don’t use this reality of life as an excuse to keep you from fighting for as many conversions as possible. You’re going to win some back, and it’s worth giving it all you’ve got.
How have you reduced your shopping cart abandonment rates?
About the Author: Neil Patel is a lifelong evangelist of Kissmetrics and blogs at Quick Sprout.
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