Shopping cart optimization can result in easily measurable, lucrative results, mainly because:
- there is clear buying intent for the users that get to the shopping cart;
- the goal of the optimization is very clear and straightforward: increase revenue.
I always say that if you are not continuously optimizing your eCommerce shopping cart, you are leaving money on the table. Lots of money, most of the time!
So, if you are new to the ecommerce game and you want to start optimizing right away, here is where you should start from: Shopping cart best practices whitepaper.
If you are not new to the game and want to go a few steps further, here are 3 of the methods of optimization that will do you a great deal of good.
Custom language optimization
Let me tell you an insider tip from Avangate: languages can generate large conversion rate differences when compared. Translations of the cart are regularly checked and improved and payment methods are added to make sure all user needs are covered. However that is not enough to get the most out of each language.
But maybe I am not saying anything new to you. You already know that just translating your website in different languages won’t get you the same performance for each language. If you want better results you need to think of each language as being more than just just a translation.
The same goes for the shopping cart. Each language should be treated as a standalone optimization target. This way you optimize independently for each language, because the optimizations for English won’t produce the same conversion rate results for other languages as well.
If you use Avangate, treating each language independently is easy. You can have radical designs based on the user behavior of any of the 30 languages we offer our cart in:
Customize the cart flow
For some website, the purchase funnel starts on their website while for others the purchase funnel is included in the 3rd party shopping cart. In both scenarios you need to treat the whole funnel as a whole.
If after clicking the Buy now or Upgrade buttons on your website, people are redirected to another page (e.g. to select options or versions of the product they’re buying, to create an account, etc.) you need to make sure that when they get to the 3rd party cart they won’t have to go through a large number of steps.
For this we launched inside Avangate the “One step cart without review” purchase flow. In other words, people get to the 3rd party cart, fill in billing and credit card data and they are done.
If they already have an account on your website and you know part or all of their billing data, make sure they don’t need to fill it again inside your 3rd party cart. If you want to do this with Avangate, just write to your account manager.
Switch to custom domain
If your website is an established one in the market and you own a brand that your visitors trust, make sure that your 3rd party shopping cart loads on a secure subdomain of your choice. Make sure to get in touch with your account manager and ask for it.
I’m a big advocate of custom domains. They offer a flawless experience to your visitors: from their point of view, since they never leave your website. That adds to the trust and feeling of security, which are crucial when it comes to buying online.
Custom domains make the tracking of visitors behavior in Google Analytics much easier and more accurate. And you know, without accurate data, you’ll just be optimizing blindfolded.
As the saying goes: Keep optimizing, my friends!
