User Experience / 8 best practices tips for ecommerce shopping baskets

8 best practices tips for ecommerce shopping baskets

Andy Thorne
8 best practices tips for eCommerce shopping baskets

Abandoned shopping carts are an eCommerce nightmare. Cancelling out your investment in building website traffic and leads. This guide explores best practice for shopping baskets to turn this around and grow your sales.

Finding ways to boost ecommerce UX success must focus on the effectiveness of your digital shopping basket. Abandoned shopping carts are a massive problem for online retailers. Different reports on the topic quote differing averages, but the general consensus is that well over half and possibly as many as 81%of website visitors place items in their basket, only to click away without completing the sale.

Consumers using mobile phones are even more inclined to abandon their shopping cart!

However, there are numerous ways to mitigate this and improve your lead conversion rate. Many of which hinge on using best practice for eCommerce UX basket design.
We are happy to share eight ways to improve your website’s completed sales ratio.

1 – Editable online baskets

eCommerce Editable Basket

Allowing users to edit their basket gives customer the choice before final decisions are made at the checkout, keeping customers on the checkout page is key for achieving those conversions

Responsive websites are vital for ecommerce UX success , enabling consumers to interact with pages on all browsers and devices. There are other ways to make your eCommerce ux website easier to engage with too, including creating a shopping basket that users can edit.

How does this avoid abandoned shopping carts? Customers can easily and quickly make last minute changes to their order. This includes removing products with a click or increasing or decreasing item amounts.

If that looks complex or not even possible, then chances are they will click off your site.

2 – Clear pricing and discounts

eCommerce UX Clear Pricing Discount

Being transparent with your pricing will helps customers gain trust with you. When it comes to discounted prices, showing the original RRP will reiterate that saving your users are getting.

One of the main reasons people abandon shopping carts is that they lose trust when they get to the payment process. This is especially true if you use promotional discounts and multiple purchase deals for example.

Your pricing and any discount code systems you employ must be transparent and easy to understand in your shopping basket. You certainly need to match customers expectations established on your product page.

3 – Transparent shipping and returns information

eCommerce ux Shipping and Returns

Shipping and Returns queries are some of the most popular your support team will receive, if the relevant information has not been made clear from the start and within the basket.

This is another trust-related issue linked to strong lead conversion. Internet users want clarity on purchasing decisions, including when they are likely to receive goods and whether they can send them back.

You must make delivery details and your returns policy clear to decrease abandoned shopping carts.

4 – Shopping basket product links

Product Links

eCommerce ux comes with allowing customers access to the product listing when in the cart allows them to amend sizing, quantities or even research more into the chosen product.

One of the reasons users hesitate to click on transactional pages is that they experience a momentary doubt about the validity of their purchase.

It helps if you include links in shopping basket product lists. Consumers can click back to the original product description, to double-check things like colour, size and discount codes. Then, they return to the basket to complete their purchase.

5 – Provide product images and snippets

Provide Product Images and Snippets

A short description and thumbnail reminds customers what they have added to their basket

This tip for effective online shopping baskets links to the above. Giving customers thumbnail images and a short description of the items in their shopping cart provides confidence to progress to payment.

6 – Shopping cart navigation

Checkout Navigation

Making those buttons clear to users will help guide to the final process or checking out

The best ecommerce UX shopping baskets also include easy to see navigational aids to move around your site. Examples include an essential ‘Continue shopping’ button to encourage them to add more to their basket. As well as a prominent ‘Proceed to checkout’ button that makes it seamless to get to the payment page.

7 – Security for digital shopping baskets

Secure Website checkout

Ensuring your site has an SSL certificate will reassure users that it is safe and secure to enter their bank details

This is a particularly crucial way to reassure customers and avoid abandoned shopping carts. Your commitment to keeping their details private and safe most be vividly flagged.

This includes having an SSL certificate for your eCommerce site, adding that lock symbol to your domain name.

Make your location, staff team and company credentials crystal clear too, illustrating that you are a credible and secure online retailer.

8 – Offer payment options

Payment Options

Giving users payment options will keep those conversions up with personal trust and connection. Your users must feel safe when entering banking information.

Providing eCommerce customers with safe ways to pay runs alongside offering them a choice of payment methods. There are now many ways to make digital transactions, so you must welcome card payments or such options as Paypal, Stripe, Klarna and Clear Pay.

Better lead conversion and marketing ROI

Having invested heavily in such things as website design, content management, SEO, UX and advertising, losing customers at the final hurdle is hugely frustrating.

Making simple improvements to shopping baskets can make a significant difference to your lead conversion rates, optimising your spend on getting them to your pages in the first place.
For more insights – and help – on boosting eCommerce sales, feel free to contact Factory Pattern.

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