Cart abandoned

[animal dreams]

We are seeing over 50% cart abandonments at the first stage of checkout - "Select Shipping Destination". (google analytics)

Anyone seeing similar rates?

Any suggestions?

[Mike Hughes]

This isn't normal and here's the reason why:

For delivery options and charges proceed to checkout.

It looks as if you only give delivery information at the checkout. Changing this will reduce the drop out rate, but it will also mean fewer people starting checkout. At the moment it's likely that up to half the people going to checkout are only doing so to find out what your shipping charges are.

Mike

[animal dreams]

Mike,

Thanks for reply and I understand your point, but these people are leaving the checkout before they get to see shipping charges. The way Actininc works that is not shown until Invoice Details. We only get about 10% leaving at this stage. So I'm looking for something else.

Maybe its the bounce to Shared SSL?
Considering if dedicated SSL will help.

[completerookie]

transparancy is what I want to see.

the moment I see a site that doesn't tell me what its going to cost to deliver the stuff, I walk away.
Why should I go through hoops just to see what the charges are?

people are looking at the "checkout pages", not seeing the delivery charges instantly and can't be bothered to go any further and so drop out.

[RuralWeb]

I see no shipping until late in checkout and then its £19 for a £250 item - YOU MUST BE JOKING with that charge no wonder they are leaving

[Mike Hughes]

Malcolm is right. People want to see what shipping is going to cost without having to go through lots of effort.

The percentage abandoning checkout at the moment is hugely influenced by your policy of not making the shipping charges easy to see. I would say that the way things stand it's probably the most significant factor.

The only way to get a good idea of real checkpout progress and abandonement rates is to fix your shipping charge problem first.

Mike

[Greenmind]

Would someone be kind enough to check my delivery charge visibilty? It's stated on the home page but I noticed when I first tried it out, the delivery charge wasn't added to the total until the last checkout page. Now it's added on the first but I suspect this may just be on my computer. I'd like to know what new vistors see. In fact why not go the whole hog and treat yourself to some ducting

Seriously, could someone have a look for me:

www.ductstore.co.uk

[Mike Hughes]

Your shipping charge is added on the invoice page (the one after the country is selected) which is the right place and it seems to be working OK.

I would though add it to your terms page and the FAQs section once it's up and running. That way it will be easy for potential customers to see what your charges are.

Mike

[Greenmind]

Thanks very much. I'd like the charge to show in checkout from the off really. I mean on 'view cart'.

Good point about including it in Terms.

[wjcampbe]

Thanks very much. I'd like the charge to show in checkout from the off really. I mean on 'view cart'.

Good point about including it in Terms.

To calculate the shipping cost Actinic needs to know where it is shipping to. See 'Request Location Early' for how to set your site up to request delivery location on first add to cart.

[RuralWeb]

There is a tab in t&c specifically for entering your delivery charges.

[jont]

ductstore.co.uk

I get an error when loading the homepage pointing to var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-3687889-1"); not being defined.

[leehack]

I'm getting that also, in IE7 the layout is messed up also, there is a large gap to the left, the left column is squashed and the right column is breaking out of the layout it would appear.

[RuralWeb]

where have the parotts gone

[Ginnys Attic]

To calculate the shipping cost Actinic needs to know where it is shipping to. See 'Request Location Early' for how to set your site up to request delivery location on first add to cart.

This seems a little odd to me. If i go to the site and add something to my basket and then click checkout it does not show the shipping charge as pointed out but if i do the same on my site it does and the standard UK shipping charge then changes accordingly on the next page if the customer has selected a different shipping destination.

Another issue i noticed which could well be causing the problem is the shared SSL takes forever to load (when it loads) and i kept getting the following error: (using IE7)

Error: SSL proxy not configured!

The SSL proxy service is not availabe for the requested domain.
If you are the domain owner, you can enable it through your control panel.

As this error stops me going any further with my order i would guess this has a pretty good chance of being the reason people are not able to complete there orders