From Shelf to Checkout: This Is What You Should Avoid To Prevent Cart Abandonment at Your Store

Customers who abandon your cart end up killing your store’s chance of generating sales as they do not make it to the end of the checkout.

Cart abandonments are a common occurrence in both online as well as offline stores. However, the rate is 1-2% in physical retail customers, which is way less than on e-commerce sites which lose 70% of their sales through cart abandonment.

Most customers leave their cart at the checkout process when shopping online as they incur high shipping charges or are asked to sign up or probably realise that the overall cost is more than what they expected. There are many other reasons why online shoppers abandon their cart. However, these reasons may not apply to offline customers as they are well-aware of the product prices and don’t have to do sign up formalities.

When shopping at a physical store, customers invest a lot more time and energy and have psychologically committed to the purchase. But then there occur certain situations sometimes which persuade shoppers to abandon their cart.

What are those situations?

After spending so much time in a store finding a specific product and finally adding it to their cart, what makes buyers change their mind?

Let’s familiarise you with some common factors or situations that induce customers to leave their cart full of products behind and probably leave the store itself to visit another.

POORLY MERCHANDISED SHELVES

Many customers experience a situation where their desired product is in front of their eyes, but they still can’t locate it. Reason? The product has been placed on the shelf in such a way that the customer can’t reach it. Moreover, no store staff in proximity, makes the situation even worse. Situations like this upset the customer to the point that they walk off the store to purchase the similar item at your competitor’s.

NOT INSTALLING POS SOFTWARE

According to a study, nearly 80% of customers expect some sort of personalisation from brands in a way that they are feel indeed valued and remembered. This could be done by sending personalised emails to customers with a list of products specific to their interests or a special offer designed only for them.

For this, it is necessary to have in place information about personal details, shopping behaviours and past purchases of customers. However, for a big store retailer, it is not possible to remember each of their customers’ preferences.

This is where POS comes in to perspective. POS systems are only designed to help retailers create seamless customer experiences, no matter the size of business. POS software allow you to feed the customer’s phone number, email id and other personal details and fetch the information. So, the next time an existing customer makes a purchase, you can start a conversation about their last purchases and ask them about their experience with the products, based on the information you have saved in your POS system.

Another advantage of installing an advanced POS system is that it reduces the checkout time. Also, having more checkout counters integrated with POS technology will reduce the length of customer queues at the point of sale while preventing customer frustration and cart abandonment. Moreover, when there are too many items to be processed, using a barcode scanner connected to POS Software can significantly improve the checkout speed.

NO CHANGING ROOMS

A retail store without a changing/trail room can be a big turn-off for customers. In fact, stores that have changing rooms happen to generate more revenue than those with no changing rooms.

One of the reasons why some customers still prefer to shop clothing at physical stores instead of shopping online is that they get to try it immediately and decide whether the product is suitable or not. So, it becomes a necessity for retailers that deal with clothing to have changing rooms in order to facilitate their customers.

IGNORING STAFF TRAINING

There is probably at least one employee in every store who doesn’t care about their customer requirements and are unhelpful or impolite to them. Such employees are another reason why cart abandonments happen. That said, it is advised to provide proper training to all staff members. Also, ensure that they treat every customer with equal respect and are always ready to assist them with everything they want.

CONCLUSION

Once a customer has added products to their cart, doesn’t mean you are sure to generate revenue. You need to ensure a hassle-free and quick checkout to persuade customers to make a purchase.

While avoiding the above-mentioned things will help you create a better experience, integrating POS technology into your business will take your retail operations to the next level. Do not forget to invest in quality retail supplies as well like cash drawers , paper rolls, retail labels, cash drawer accessories etc. which will only enhance your point of sale speed and customer satisfaction.

Tanuj Rastogi has been working in the point of sale industry for last 15 years. Tanuj is passionate about using his industry knowledge and expertise to help retailers and restauranteurs with their Pos hardware.