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The Ugly Truth about ecommerce

Frustrated web shoppers are
abandoning on-line orders
before completion more often
than you might think!

Since the late 90’s various news agencies and technical related web sites have reported big problems with ecommerce. Web sites are racking up lots of visitors but are reporting less than exciting sales figures. Everyone from BusinessWeek to ZDNet all agree that on-line shopping is not what it could be.

What is the problem?

Why aren’t people buying more on-line? Why isn’t on-line shopping more profitable? The problem is that shopping on-line is too difficult for the vast majority of Internet users. They cannot figure out how to complete a transaction so they abandon their order before completion. Don’t take our word for it. ZDNet said it best in a March 2001 article titled: “Top 5 Reasons Your Customers Abandon Their Shopping Carts”.

There are several stories in several different publications that all say similar things. A good number of these stories do not pinpoint how to solve the problem like the article Stacy Perman wrote, but they all agree that shopping could be, and should be easier on-line. Here is a list of 3rd party stories regarding the difficulty of most e-commerce systems: (A new window will open for each link below. Close the new window to return here)

TWO out of THREE On-Line ORDERS are ABANDONED!!!

That means that for every 100 people that come to your site that WANT to order at least 66 of them leave your site without completing the transaction. THIS IS AN ALARMING NUMBER OF LOST SALES! If you don’t think that this is happening to you we would strongly encourage you to try our product. All of our users report increases in orders after installing RealCart on their web site. The statistics do not lie. All of the stories below basically agree that between two thirds and three fourths of all web site orders are abandoned. Several of the stories below blame this on shopping carts that are either HARD TO FIND or DIFFICULT TO NAVIGATE. Need proof? Read for yourself:

1. Business 2.0: The Power of Persuasion
"A new Stanford University study finds that persuasion, customer service, and a simplified checkout process will keep online shoppers from abandoning their shopping carts." (7/25/00)

2. BusinessWeek: How To Get Websites Shop-Shape
"Give users predictability, and make going online as much fun as going to the mall, says a retail guru." (11/22/99)

3. CIO: Uncarted Territory
"If your site is strewn with abandoned shopping carts, equipping your call center to handle e-mail and online chat can help. Of course, that's easier said than done." Offering tips and tactics of three veterans in Web/call center integration. (7/7/00)

4. E-Commerce Times: Study: Most E-shoppers Abandon Carts
"'Imagine if your local store had aisle after aisle of shopping carts filled with unclaimed goods. It's a disturbing problem, but represents the reality facing many online merchants today...'" (10/24/00)

5. eCompany Now: E-tailing Survival Guide: OK, Forget the Whole Damn Thing
"Online shoppers routinely abandon their shopping carts in frustration over website glitches. Here's what smart e-tailers are doing about it." (12/00)

6. Redherring.com: Shop Talk: Shop Till You Stop, Then Drop
"The ugly reality of electronic commerce comes down to this: two-thirds of Web shoppers abandon their shopping carts." (6/13/00)

7. Web Developer's Journal: Shopping Cart Dirty Little Secret
"There's a dirty little secret about shopping carts no one likes to talk about: most shopping carts are abandoned before they ever get to the checkout counter." (1/10/99)

8. ZDNet: Stop Shopping Cart Abandonment
Here you can find the "Top 5 reasons customers abandon shopping carts (and what you can do about it)." (2/13/01)

Why all the confusion?

Confusing buttons. Difficult to find checkout. Products that aren’t easy to find. There are a multitude of things that frustrate your shopper to no end. You can guage your own shopper frustration based on how many emails or telephone calls you get each month from someone who is trying to buy from you but, for whatever reason, cannot figure out how to buy on their own. You can bet your bottom dollar that for every ONE person that contacts you there are 20-30 others that simply gave up and found what they wanted elsewhere.

While the buttons on the right may seem harmless enough to you they result in baffled and bewildered web shoppers. Don’t believe us? Try testing your current shopping system by putting someone in front of your computer that isn’t all that “computer smart”. Open up your web site to its main page and ask them to place a test order on your site. Instruct them to stop when they get to the page where they put in their credit card number. DON’T HELP THEM! Keep your eyes and ears open and keep your mouth shut. Take notes. Pay attention. Chances are good that your ecommerce guinea pig will squeal for mercy before even REACHING the credit card entry page. If this happens with most of the people you have test your web site, just think of all the orders you are missing!

RealCart is the answer

RealCart doesn’t use any of these buttons on your on-line storefront for this very reason. RealCart is simple. RealCart stays visible so there is no need to force your customer to find a “View Cart button”. RealCart knows when you remove something from it and recalculates on its own. On the cart itself there are only two buttons. Remove Item and Checkout. When you take something out of RealCart it is not necessary to “recalculate anything” or “modify the cart” or “update the cart”. RealCart simply handles it for your customer so they can concentrate on buying what they want while spending ZERO time figuring out how to buy it. Buying things online with RealCart is a no-brainer for your customer. The easier it is to buy, the more sales you will make. Makes sense doesn’t it? Get RealCart today!