Abandoned carts are a huge problem in ecommerce and it’s a major issue for apparel businesses. Here are some proven ways that apparel sites can reduce their abandoned cart rates and boost revenue.  

Why customers abandon their carts

It’s estimated that more than 75% of online shoppers abandon their carts online. They do this for a variety of reasons:

• The shopping experience is too hard: When you buy from a clothing store, it’s relatively simple to find clothes and pay for them. When you’re shopping online for clothes, it can be a bit harder: you’re unclear if the clothing will fit you and when you’re ready to buy, you have to go through multiple forms to give the store your money.
• Additional fees and taxes: Your shoppers may be eager to finalize their purchase but they could be turned away at the last minute with additional shipping and taxes. Nobody likes having sticker shock and that’s a major reason why shoppers abandon their carts.
• They were just window shopping: Just like shoppers go into stores with no intention of buying, some people add items to their online carts with no real intention to complete the purchase. Some of these shoppers may also be using your online cart as sort of a wishlist.
• They got distracted or changed their mind: The beauty of online shopping is that you can buy clothes in just a few minutes. But that ease also means your shoppers can quickly abandon their carts and forget about it. They could get distracted by a notification on their phone or just decide that they don’t need that piece of wardrobe.
• Not enough options: For apparel in particular, it’s vital to have the right sizes or colors available. Your shopper may get to the checkout stage but then abandon because you don’t offer their preferred color or size.

How online apparel brands can reduce abandoned carts

Here are some proven ways that online apparel brands can reduce their rates of abandoned carts.

Use services like SafeOpt to recover more shoppers who abandon

SafeOpt works with over  apparel brands to recover 3-5x more shoppers who abandon their websites through verified offers through email. Typically, if your shoppers are logged in and abandon their carts, you can send them an abandoned cart email. These are wildly effective at nudging shoppers to the purchasing finish line. But, you normally can’t reach the majority of those who abandon their carts.

Thanks to SafeOpt, you can now reach those customers in a way that’s compliant with all privacy and email regulations. Once your apparel brand adds the SafeOpt script to your website, it can identify shoppers who abandon their carts. You can then send them a verified offer that will get them to finalize their purchases.  

How SafeOpt helps online apparel retailers

SafeOpt helps online apparel retailers stand out from the increasingly-crowded marketplace. Thanks to a database of 175M+ shoppers SafeOpt is able to identify and email 5-20% of visitors on any U.S. website. The best part is these shoppers are just waiting for deals from brands like yours.

One women’s apparel brand used SafeOpt to generate more than $1 million in revenue in just seven months. This brand used SafeOpt to send over 2 million emails, which had a staggering 24% post-click conversion rate.

It’s not just apparel brands, though, as SafeOpt has helped more than 1,000 brands recover more than $100 million in lost revenue. Sign up for SafeOpt today.  

Simplify the checkout process

We’ve all been shopping online and were ready to buy but then faced a cumbersome checkout process. Maybe the store requires you to sign into your account before you can buy or maybe you left your credit card in another room and don’t want to walk over there. The harder you make it for shoppers to buy, the more your abandoned carts will go up.

That’s why it’s critical to simplify your checkout process. This means offering as many payment options as possible like debit card, credit cards, Apple Pay, PayPal and more. You should also move the store-account-creation process until after the purchase has been completed.

Offer free shipping and returns (if you can)
Multiple studies conclude that free shipping is very important to online buyers. This is especially important when it comes to apparel retailers and when you factor in returns — online apparel businesses have a much higher rate of returns than many other ecommerce businesses.

Thanks to Amazon, many shoppers have become conditioned to expect free shipping. This can be expensive but your brand must try to find a way to make this work. You can do it by raising the overall price of your clothing to account for free shipping or only offer free shipping once your shoppers have hit a threshold for order value in their cart.  

Boost trust with symbols and reviews

Another reason why shoppers abandon their carts is that they may not fully trust your brand yet. You can mitigate this by adding trust badges and providing social proof with reviews.

Trust badges are symbols you can put on your site to build customer trust. This includes things like the types of payment you accept, as well as symbols for things like the Better Business Bureau. Research suggests that adding trust badges to your site can boost conversions.

Similarly, people want social proof that others have purchased your apparel and been satisfied with it. This is best shown with reviews. You can put these on the product pages, as well as include pull-quotes on your homepage or during the checkout process.

Cut your abandoned carts

By following these tips, your apparel business can increase sales and reduce the amount of abandoned carts you see. That sounds like a good fit to me.

‍