New Zealand Post’s ecommerce report shows online spending hit $5.8 billion last year. That’s up more than $1.2 billion on 2019. More than 2.17 million people – over half the population – shopped online.

And retailers with a friction-free checkout process and a savvy retargeting strategy are likely to take a larger slice of that cake because they’re better able to combat cart abandonment.

Recent research reveals that although cart abandonment rates dropped in Australia and New Zealand over the past two quarters, the abandonment rate on mobile is still 87% – representing a strong opportunity for ecommerce businesses to convert a large proportion of customers who are a fair way through the shopper journey.

Here are four ways to help you get started – two that could make checkout easier and two that could help lure back those distracted shoppers.

1. One-click checkout

Make it quick and easy to buy. The ultimate goal is one-click checkout, like Amazon’s game-changing ‘buy now ordering’.

A good stepping stone for those looking to ditch the multi-step traditional checkout process is reducing the number of clicks.

  • Prepopulate previously captured information (such as predefined address details and credit card numbers, with careful data management). An ecommerce platform such as Shopify can simplify this.
  • One click between product and checkout pages reduces click fatigue and creates fewer places for shoppers to drop off.
  • Guest checkout option speeds up the final steps – consider including the option of creating an account post-checkout.

2. Multiple, easy payment options

Remove obvious barriers to purchase (“I don’t have Paypal”) and give shoppers the option to choose their preferred payment method by staying up to date with the latest payment options. At the very least, consider offering:

  • Credit and debit cards
  • PayPal
  • Buy now, pay later (BNPL) options like NZ-founded Laybuy, Afterpay and Zip
  • Mobile wallets like Google and Apple
  • Bank transfer options like POLi

Hot tip: In New Zealand, consumer spending via buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) is expected to soon surpass the amount customers spend on Marketplaces. BNPL makes up 11% of all domestic online spend. It’s seen a 49% increase in customers and is the payment option of choice for under 45s. Women tend to use BNPL more, but there has been a significant surge in male BNPL users. The upshot? BNPL options are becoming a must-have consideration for ecommerce businesses.

3. Retargeting ads

You could also consider retargeting potential customers with ads that speak directly to them about the specific items they left in the cart.

Why? Retargeting ads have 10x the clickthrough rate of regular display ads, at 0.7% versus 0.07%.

When you’re setting up your retargeting ads, consider the marketing adage: ‘right message, right place, right time’. Here are some tips for each.

Right message:

  • Add a personalised message. For example, think “That party dress could arrive tomorrow” instead of “You left item/s in your cart”.
  • Consider using dynamic ads, which change to offer content relevant to a specific user. They get twice the click-throughs of static ads, which present the same content to each user. They’re essential if you’re looking to feature the specific products the shopper left in their cart or looked at on-site.

Right place: Consider whether your products are best suited to run across Google and other websites as users browse, such as on the Google Display Network, or on a social platform like Facebook.

Right time: Always-on retargeting can help your ads reach your users in a timely manner once they leave your site.

4. Cart abandonment emails

In 2020, cart abandonment emails were the second highest converting automated messages at 33.9%. Emails that can bring customers back to their carts:

  • Highlight the benefits of one of the products left in the cart
  • Showcase positive product ratings or reviews
  • Make it easy to buy with fewer clicks
  • Sweeten the deal with free shipping or a discount code
  • Offer support in case there was a difficulty during checkout