McAfee released results from a study of 163 million online shoppers, and found that the majority of them are “digital window shoppers.” In other words, they start shopping on a site, leave for a period of time, then return later to complete the sale.
According to McAfee’s findings, conversions were 11% higher for digital window shoppers who were shown a security cue, and the longer it took a customer to complete a sale, the more responsive they were to security cues.
“Online retailers who ignore the role security plays in converting digital window shoppers to customers are missing out on billions of dollars they can’t afford to lose in this economy,” said Shane Keats, senior research analyst for McAfee. “Many will take traditional measures to get customers to return, like reducing shipping costs or offering coupons, but more can and should be done.”
A couple more noteworthy findings:
– 65% of all shoppers will wait a day or more to complete a purchase
– The average delay is 33 hours and 54 minutes
Naturally, whether they come back or not, this indicates that shopping cart abandonment is at play. A few months ago, PayPal released results from a survey on shopping cart abandonment, and here are the reasons that were cited:
– High shipping charges: 46 percent
– Wanted to comparison shop: 37 percent
– Lack of money: 36 percent
– Wanted to look for a coupon: 27 percent
– Wanted to shop offline: 26 percent
– Couldn’t find preferred pay option: 24 percent
– Item was unavailable at checkout: 23 percent
– Couldn’t find customer support: 22 percent
– Concerned about security of credit card data: 21 percent
murdok/SmallBusinessNewz writer Doug Caverly recently reported, “One cause of abandonment is ‘couldn’t find preferred pay option.’ Another’s ‘item unavailable at checkout.’ Then ‘couldn’t find customer support’ and ‘security concerns’ kick in.”
Sidenote: Here are some other good tips for optimizing your e-commerce conversions:
McAfee suggests that the abaondoned carts don’t necessarily mean the customers won’t still buy though. “Retailers shouldn’t misinterpret abandoned shopping carts – many of these potential sales return later to finalize the sale,” said Keats. “Understanding this delay is critical for merchant analytics.”
That’s not to say that that if you are selling things online, there isn’t a good chance you are missing out on a substantial amount of money you easily could be making, if you only examined why people are leaving the shopping cart. Just focus on the ones who aren’t coming back.
