Bobbi Leach is General Manager at RevenueWire and has extensive experience with launching and growing new software and e-business ventures on a global basis. We invited Ms. Leach to submit a guest column for today's AuctionBytes Newsflash to share her perspective on maximizing conversions and revenue and minimizing shopping cart abandonment.

Get Your Shopping Cart on Track
by Bobbi Leach
Now more than ever, online retailers must focus on smoothing out the rough spots in the transaction process. No one can afford to lose sales.

While the heavy hand of the recession doted kindly upon online retail sales (up 26.5 percent in December 2009 according to the British Retail Consortium), the success of individual online retailers in 2010 will depend heavily on how much weight each business puts on squeezing inefficiency and confusion from their ecommerce platforms.

Got the shopping cart blues? Across all facets of online retail industry, shopping cart abandonment, transaction analysis, and charge backs represent three key pain points that all retailers should look to address in 2010. But what strategies are the most effective in combating these pitfalls?

Minimize Shopping Cart Abandonment
According to a recent PayPal and comScore study, approximately 45 percent of U.S. online shoppers abandoned shopping carts multiple times over a span of three weeks. What's more, the study found that the average cost of the goods abandoned in the carts was $109. The statistics represent a large portion of the consumer population that many retailers are effectively engaging and then losing due to poor check-out service.

The first step towards developing a better shopping environment for your customers is to provide clear and strong calls-to-action. These should appear above the fold and clearly communicate what it is you want your customer to do. The next step is to create consistency in the purchase path. From your PPC ad/sales email to landing page to cart, the content of your sales materials has to be relevant, targeted and compelling to the consumer. Remember: closing the sale starts as early as the very first step in the sales process. When you avoid customer confusion and keep content targeted, customers are fully qualified and ready to buy by the time they reach the cart.

The importance of simplicity and trust in reducing customer abandonment cannot be overstated. According to a Forrester Research study, fifteen percent of participants cited complicated check-out processes as the reason for shopping cart abandonment. To make the most of simplicity, you should only require your customers to fill in the minimum number of fields, steps and pages to complete the purchase. The longer it takes to complete the form, the more frustrated the shopper becomes.

Make sure to add clearly visible trust badges and safety certifications. From a consumer perspective, this helps build confidence in your brand. Also, you can bolster your cart with powerful fraud prevention functionality (such as Accertify) to build additional trust with your customers.

Analyze and Test Sales Data
Continually testing and improving your customer's purchase path is critical. Diligent testing and analysis of the different steps your customer takes in getting to and completing the sale will give you the detailed insight needed to optimize your cart's sales conversions. Since customers can get lost at any point in the process, you should isolate each step along the way and determine how different versions of it perform against one another.

Some of the most important components of the purchase path to study are impressions, click-through rates at each stage (e.g. pre-cart, cart, thank you pages, etc.), and conversion rates. While conversion rates are the focal points for monitoring, you will also want to monitor sales by region or source. Watch the rates and assess the effectiveness of your purchase process. Wherever customers are dropping-off, use rigorous testing to figure out what element of that step is causing them to abandon the cart.

Post Sale Consumer Retention: Minimize Chargebacks and Refunds
Chargebacks and refunds often occur due to a lack of trust. That's why it's so important to be honest and transparent in all of your sales materials. Don't over-promise anything to your customers, and make sure you promote high-quality products that deliver on the promises you do make.

Also, make your purchase information clear and easy to read so consumers understand what they're buying. If everything is outlined in black and white, customers can't blame indiscretions on missing or unclear information. For consumers who do have legitimate concerns or problems, always provide dedicated technical (self-service and live) and customer support to deal with inquiries and complaints. This step empowers the consumer further, giving the merchant the opportunity to handle problems directly or, in some cases, defend the product or brand coherently enough to help the customer justify his or her purchase.
---
Bobbi Leach is the General Manager of RevenueWire, a comprehensive e-business platform for affiliate marketers and merchants of digital products. RevenuWire offers clients a proprietary online shopping cart to use on their websites and landing pages to maximize conversions and revenue. Ms. Leach has over 20 years of experience in sales and marketing, and has extensive experience with launching and growing new software and e-business ventures on a global basis.