Increase your profit and simplify shipping

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What percentage of shoppers do you think browse an online store, select products and then get to the checkout process and abandon the shopping cart? Thirty-percent? Forty?

On average more than 67% [i] of shoppers abandon their cart before purchase. This means that you might be missing out on two thirds of your potential sales.

To be able to do something about these figures you need to first understand why people are not following through with their purchase. Around 44% of users abandon their carts because shipping rates are too high and a further 22% because shipping costs are not clearly explained[ii].

You can combat confusion regarding shipping costs by providing clear information on your site. Set up a dedicated page which explains how shipping costs are calculated and include information on individual product pages.

The next step is to ensure that your shipping costs are accurate. Depending on the products that you are shipping your costs can vary significantly. If you don’t have a process for determining the price of shipping you may be over charging some customers and under charging others.

There are a variety of tools that you can use to get this calculation correct. Through using an e-commerce shipping extension you can ensure that your costs are accurate and simplify your shipping process.

These plugins provide you with a variety of customisation options such as setting up custom boxes and through providing dimensions of products the API can determine how many products can fit within a box. By using these tools you can accurately quote shipping costs and reduce the chance of cutting into your margin. You can also add handling fees or provide shipping discounts for the purchase of multiple products.

A shipping plugin can be customised to the look and feel of your site to ensure seamless integration for the customer.

While there is often a starting cost to purchase these plugins the shippings savings and increased sales will often outweigh the initial outlay. Many sites that provide these plugins will provide you with ongoing customer service and support to ensure that your service continues to run smoothly.

Through providing clear shipping information and accurate shipping costs you will not only increase your sales, you will increase the chance of creating return business.