At Mediarun we often tell our fashion clients that “If the internet were a supermarket it would be a nightmare getting to the tills through the sheer number of shopping carts abandoned just before purchase”. It seems the vast majority of internet shoppers – more than 70 per cent suggest some surveys – get cold feet at the point of payment and make a run for it. It’s a uniquely internet phenomenon and one which will continue to lose a lot of money for sites that fail to explore why it is happening and what they can do about it. Here are a few lessons that all fashion retailers should keep in mind when looking to see improved conversions.

Identify the Problem

Start by identifying where those could-be customers are abandoning their shopping. Tools like Google Analytics will help determine whether it is on the pay now page or the shopping cart page. This page should be the first to be checked for glitches that might be putting customers off and to be optimised to ensure it offers a smooth and straightforward shopping experience. Publishing a customer service number prominently on your pages, or using live chat technology to intervene when someone is having problems, can also help reduce the number of people who would otherwise simply give up and leave.

Transparency

Researchers have found the single biggest reason for ditching a shopping cart is the surprise of a high delivery cost, often not revealed until a customer gets to the check-out. Transparency throughout the process, with delivery costs and times listed clearly alongside the product, will help enormously in saving the sale. If the delivery options are too complex to list prices, offer help through live chat so a shopper is aware of the total cost from the start. The same goes for product information – any surprise about manufacture specifications or quality of finish that the shopper discovers late in the process could be the deal breaker that has them running for the door.

Usability

Once a shopper has decided on their purchase it is human nature that they will want to pay and get out of there as soon as possible. A check-out process with too many steps or too much form filling is a big turn-off – figures show a quarter of all customers give up when asked to register – so keep it as easy as possible and offer a simple guest check-out for those who don’t want to sign in. Ideally you want the checkout done on a single page with easy-to-follow navigation taking the customer smoothly through the process – and make sure it is optimised for mobile which is where a lot of people do their shopping these days.

Trust

No one likes handing over credit card or other payment details so it is important to create an obviously safe and secure check-out environment. Display security seals such as SSL prominently, publish customer testimonials, offer trusted multiple payment methods and make your refund procedure clear and easy to follow. And don’t give up if you still lose them after all this work – follow up with an email or use ad remarketing to keep their interest alive and encourage them back for a second look.

What were you doing on Saturday April 9^th 2011? Yes, last Saturday. “I was using my internet-enabled mobile device to browse the internet, Paul,” you say? Well I didn’t expect that to be the first answer I got, admittedly, but it does help to conveniently underline the message of this post, so I thank you. Mobile internet traffic is increasing rapidly, particularly in the UK. On top of that, there are a series of external factors that are influencing the volumes on any given day. Looking at our client’s analytics data, as I do, I have been seeing several new patterns and rules emerging for marketers to deal with. Mobile traffic behaves differently to desktop traffic. The details of that are perhaps left to another post but take a look at your own web traffic and you’ll probably see shorter visits, fewer pageviews and if your site is well designed for mobile, possibly higher conversion rates. But I only bring that up to emphasise the fact that we all need to adapt our sites and marketing quickly to the mobile visitor.

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For years we at Mediarun have been aware of the relationship between an increase in non-brand organic search visits and a direct correlation increase in brand search visits. Using standard tools such as Google Analytics this relationship in terms of traffic is relatively easy to establish and to get a handle on. Often convincing clients of this relationship has proved challenging but on the whole most informed client side marketers are happy to take this on board. Attributing a value on conversions however has traditionally proved a lot trickier. Writing on Econsultancy last week Paul Cook founder of Tag Man highlights some interesting points. The thesis of the article was that organic SEO and social media channels are being chronically undervalued. Based on ‘attributed conversions’  he identified that SEO should be credited with 14 times more value in terms of conversions and that social media is being undervalued by eight times.

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