How Empathy Drops Your Abandonment Rate

For many online businesses, brick and mortar shops are the enemy. But while that element of competition is certainly an understandable one, perhaps it's time online businesses took a page out of the old floor salesman's book. In particular, it could help drop the abandonment rate so few online businesses seem to be able to deal with.

 How does it feel? 

 Perhaps the biggest difference between online businesses and brick and mortar shops is the fact that during the customer's experience, there isn't a computer as sophisticated as a store clerk that can detect their likely contribution to the overall abandonment rate.

 Without the knowledge of what it feels like to go through the user's online journey, it's impossible to discover where the moments of friction that increase your abandonment rate are. To put a serious dent on the abandonment rate, the internal stakeholders of the brand need to experience their own conversion funnel to discover the moments they might abandon themselves.

 Don't just personalize. Be personable. 

Considering the massive uplifts in click-through rates recorded by just about any email campaign that includes personalization features, it's amazing how little the feature has evolved to holistically influence abandonment cart. While it certainly helps to drop the abandonment rate when remarketing emails are sent out, there are more proactive uses of the feature.

 By using the data collected about the customer throughout their journey to create a dynamic memory of their choices, users derive greater value from your store than any new store they might consider. Dropping the abandonment rate proactively does imply greater vigilance and engagement, but will go a long way towards establishing a more loyal customer base.

 Meet them at the problem 

 For customers, the ability to walk up to somebody and ask if these shoes come in a different size isn't a privilege, it's a necessity. In an online environment, there aren't any store attendants, the customer probably isn't feeling secure about payments and they probably don't understand their device. A high abandonment rate is bound to follow.

 Using solutions like live chat agents that can respond to customers in real time can go a long way towards reducing that abandonment rate. When the chat agent is sophisticated enough to be able to answer questions about product details, recommend different options and even collect contact details for later use, then the customer can be reassured.

 Phone a friend 

 For most customers, the decision-making process when shopping must appear to be a rational one, but must still fulfill important emotional requirements. As much as the value, the style and the color of a dress matter, does it make her feel as confident and comfortable with her body as she'd like? In order to reduce abandonment rate, a store must answer these questions.

 Tools that offer social proof such as sharing via social networks and customer review systems are critical in the bid to reduce overall abandonment rate. The insight of a comment from someone who used the product is a valuable piece of information and the equivalent of a store clerk saying, "the one in blue suits you more, miss."