Transactional Customers - Make it easy for them to buy!

Transactional customers often seem pretty clear cut. The customer wants it so they buy it off you because you stock it at a competitive price... But is it really that simple? Are your customers dropping off because the process you have in place for your customers doesn’t make it easy enough for them to buy?

I’ve come across this many times when trying to order products online, often online stores over complicate the process in turn forcing me to abort the process leaving me frustrated and annoyed. In my opinion the saying “Keep it Simple Stupid” is alive and well! This is backed up by recent statistics showing that up to 75% of all shopping carts are abandoned before completing the sale.

Imagine if you could turn this around? Here are the top reasons for a highly transactional customer not completing the sale are:

1. High shipping prices (72%)
2. Comparison shopping or browsing (61%)
3. Changed mind (56%)
4. Saving items for later purchase (51%)
5. Total cost of items is too high (43%)
6. Checkout process is too long (41%)
7. Checkout requires too much personal information (35%)
8. Site requires registration before purchase (34%)
9. Site is unstable or unreliable (31%)
10. Checkout process is confusing (27%)

As you can see from the list above a few factors are out of our control, but once you get further down the list you will see these complaints stem from poor system design.

Investing a little time correcting what annoys your transactional customers could significantly increase your sales. By removing barriers you are adding value in the customers eyes. It will increase the chances of the customer coming back at a later date and they might even recommend you to others.