Customer dropout at checkout stage?

[4children2enjoy]

Hi. Our new Actinic site www.constructionkits2enjoy.org.uk went live at the beginning of August, hosted by 1and1. We are getting a steady flow of orders coming through, but the 1and1 webstats indicate that many 100s of visitors are accessing os000001.pl, without going as far as placing an order.

Can anyone advise if this is due to something wrong/off-putting with our website at the checkout phase? Our prices are quite low, and delivery charges are average. Or might 1and1 be flagging up os000001.pl visits caused by spidering of the site?

Any other comments on improving the site would also be most welcome.

Many thanks,

Andy

[jont]

Hi Andy,

there are 1001 reasons why people drop out at the checkout stage - though this is often due to not knowing the cost of delivery upfront - people either testing the cost or seeing the cost and refusing to pay it .. always best to be upfront about the costs and if low making it a feature.

Just as a note about the site... the section images are launching a larger view of the image and not through to the product proper .. this is done by a text link beneath which is a little annoying from a navigation point of view.

May also be worth checking some of the text sizes in place ... I was squinting at some of the text... including the cart area

[pinbrook]

I agree with Jont, there is no info re delivery cost available until you go to the checkout. (checkout triggers the os script)

Ideally this should be in the FAQ.

[oldhasbeen]

What, you mean there are actually people who read FAQs?

[acompton]

I recently added a specific 'Delivery & Returns' page to the site and I'm surprised at how often this gets read. I don't think people bother to wade through the T's & C's for this information.

Alan Compton
www.greenknightgames.co.uk
Great board games and cards games you won't find in the High Street

[pinbrook]

What, you mean there are actually people who read FAQs?

I always read FAQs (or similar) to find out delivery charge, before searching a site. There's no point finding a product to buy if they then stick an unacceptable delivery charge on top. If i can't find delivery info within 2 clicks I move on.

Although it is better to have delivery info as acompton describes

[acompton]

I also have a basic "Delivery Charges" box clearly visible on the front page, along with "Payment Methods" and "Security" boxes. This is common practice on most e-shops.

Alan Compton
www.greenknightgames.co.uk
Great board games and cards games you won't find in the High Street

[Neilo]

We show delivery charges underneath the 'view cart' and 'checkout' links therefore they are shown on every page. They are also in in our T&C's and FAQ pages as well as having a page devoted to delivery time, method and charge.
Yet still we had a customer whom answered our 'How can we improve our site?' question in the checkout with 'Make delivery charge clearer'!

There's just no pleasing some people!

Cheers,

Neil.

[jxm28788]

I also have a basic "Delivery Charges" box clearly visible on the front page,

Unfortunately, this doesn't tell the customer how much it will cost - other than it will be some amount less than £5.00. It's possible you give some more detailed cost examples elsewhere, or even specify it per product - but I am long gone...

We show delivery charges underneath the 'view cart' and 'checkout' links therefore they are shown on every page. Yet still we had a customer whom answered our 'How can we improve our site?' question in the checkout with 'Make delivery charge clearer'!

I recently ordered from a site where I couldn't find the price anywhere, I had to go into the checkout before it displayed it. I subsequently ordered, but when I didn't receive an e-mail confirmation I pressed the 'back' button on the browser to check I'd entered the correct e-mail and went back to the basket where I saw the delivery cost was clearly printed under the basket. But for some reason I didn't see this going through the basket the first time, possibly because...

1) It's not the sort of place I'd expect to see it so I didn't look there
2) It may have been off the bottom of the window

SO just because you put it somewhere that 'seems' noticeable, doesn't mean that people will actually see it. People who regularly shop online get used to where it normally is and look there first...

[acompton]

Unfortunately, this doesn't tell the customer how much it will cost

I charge postage by weight. It would be difficult to give examples owing to the wide variety of the product weights. I agree, it would be ideal to indicate the cost with each product, but that would be a huge maintenance headache.

Alan

[jxm28788]

[veering slightly off topic for a moment, but still under the general heading of 'why do customers do that']...

Green Knight, hope you don't mind some unsolicited advice on your site - While I was checking out your delivery box I decided to see if you had the game 'go' on your site. You didn't, but I did find another that looked interesting ('Attack!). However there was really not enough info on there for me to fork out £20 (+'upto' £5 postage) - so as an interested customer what did I do? I left your site, googled on some appropriate terms and quickly ended up at another site with much more info - and more important pictures of all the peices and the board (though not necessarily easy to find on the page). As it happens the site was a US one (http://www.eaglegames.net/products/ATT/att.shtml) because I forgot to tick the 'uk' box, but it wouldn't take long to find a uk seller - and unless there was some price difference I would always go with the 'new' site where I found the info I needed, rather than the original site where I 'discovered' it.

Hope that helps understand a bit more customer physcology, and improve your site...

[acompton]

jxm28788

Thanks for the feedback - its always welcome. I don't stock 'Go' as I don't stock any 'traditional' games. I try to show as much info as possible on the products. I always try and show a photos of the pieces/board layout, and a list of contents where I can obtain it. I agree that this is important when asking people to layout £20+. Most of my UK competitors show less than me.

The site you found for Attack! (Eagle Games) is the manufacturer!

Returning to the original topic, I shall be modifying the Postage Box to show examples. I also try and deliver a game (2nd class) for the same total cost as the RRP, and I don't make this clear on the site. Thanks for the useful advice.

PS. I just put Attack! into Froogle and found (as I expected) that I'm the cheapest.

Alan

[jxm28788]

PS. I just put Attack! into Froogle and found (as I expected) that I'm the cheapest.

But you are on page 3! Everyone else is on page 1 (with irrelevant crap in between). I only went as far as page 3 because I was looking for you, otherwise I wouldn't have known you existed!

And back onto the main subject of having to go to the checkout to find the postage cost... I went to the checkout and the postage cost is £5.00 standard parcel or £8.99 1st class - which bears no relation to the 'upto £5.00' by 2nd class displayed on your homepage...

This is precicely the sort of thing the others are talking about above - difficult to find the exact cost in the first place, having to go through to the checkout to find the exact cost, then balking at the cost when they see it and dropping out of the checkout... In this particular case I was optimistically hoping it would be somewhat less than £5, or at the very most £5 - but when I get to the checkout I find it is in fact £5, but for an inferior service (standard parcel is 3-4 working days, 2nd class is 2-4 days inc Saturday).

If I was a customer I would be back at froogle right now checking out the delivery costs on the other guys...

So how about an 'actinic buddies' discount...?

[acompton]

But you are on page 3!

Yes. Why is that? I'm usually higher up than that. Often page 1.

balking at the cost when they see it

The cost is not unreasonable. These are heavy items.
I take the comment about SPS v.s 2nd class. I shall make that clearer.

So how about an 'actinic buddies' discount

Sorry. As you found out, my prices are already heavily discounted.
Besides, I don't have the right version for discount coupons

I don't get many abandonded shopping baskets. Most people's "reason for buying" is: "cheapest".

Alan

[jont]

Yes. Why is that? I'm usually higher up than that. Often page 1.

Searching on single words is very hit or miss as the Froogle results page shows... looking at the product page Attack! is only mentioned twice on the page and in the page title (that I could see) ... stuffing some more keywords in there would help