How to reduce shopping cart abandonment

Shopping cart abandonment refers to a scenario where shoppers put items in their online shopping carts but then leave before completing the purchase. It is one of the biggest nightmares for everyone involved in online business because it is a great hindrance to their success. Cart abandonment needs to be eliminated so as to profit from the business. Here are the most effective tips for reducing the shopping cart abandonment to a large extent:
Offer live chat feature:
Visitors may be there on your site to make a purchase, compare certain offers on products or they may be just browsing through various websites. Whatever the case be, there is a probability of having queries about products or services offered by you. Now, in the absence of any online assistance, they may just abandon your site due to unanswered queries. On the other hand, if you have a live chat feature enabled on your website, visitors and customers would be able to get their queries resolved in real time. This would help increase the conversion rate and reduce shopping cart abandonment.
Provide free shipping:
According to a research, 44 percent of online shoppers who abandon their carts do so because of shipping and handling costs. Though shipping is a matter of just a few dollars in many situations but the cost of shipping is enough to lose a potential customer. Thus, you can consider offering free shipping in order to reduce shopping cart abandonment. It can actually act as a major selling point and an incentive for customers to shop with you versus your competitors.
Offer multiple payment options:
You should aim at offering as much convenience to your customers as possible during checkout. You can do this by providing support for services like PayPal and Google Wallet. These services reinforce the ease of payment and increase the possibility of impulse purchases.
Include comparison pages, social proofs, and security badges:
Customers never want to regret spending their money. Instilling a sense of trust in your customers is quite important in order to make them buy from you. You can make them feel confident about purchasing from you by allowing direct feature comparisons of various products and brands. You can also consider offering clear price comparisons, providing social proofs and security badges. This would help alleviate their insecurities by showcasing how your products have helped others. Moreover, this would help convince them about trusting the business with their credit card information. Apart from instilling confidence and exempting the fear of buyer's remorse, this would help reduce cart abandonment.