Based on the exponential growth of the ecommerce industry, experts estimate that the total number of global online buyers will reach an impressive 2 billion by the end of 2019. With that many people ready to spend their money on the Internet, it would be wise to make sure that your online business’s shopping experience is as painless as possible.
One ecommerce feature that sometimes gets overlooked is the ever-reliable shopping cart. While it sounds fairly straightforward—a digital version of the traditional shopping cart—it’s surprising how many businesses fail to utilize it properly, if at all.
That’s because shopping carts act as the bridge between the act of shopping and actually purchasing a product. Without it, you might just wind up losing customers due to a frustrating, unintuitive shopping experience.
If you want to start your own ecommerce business profitably, it’s crucial to understand why shopping carts are so important to your e-commerce business.
It Makes for a Seamless Shopping Experience
Nothing is more frustrating for a customer than having to jump through several hoops just to get an item that they really want. If they have to click through several different pages or fill out dozens of fields, they may decide it isn’t worth the trouble and close the window instead.
The good news is that a shopping cart can eliminate most of that extra work. Buyers can freely add and remove items from their cart, making it easy to keep track of the products they’re interested in. They can also pay for everything in one go instead of having to pay separately for each individual item, too.
It Allows for Easy and Instant Payment
For many online shoppers, it can be frustrating to try buying an item, only to discover that the rest of the process has to be done manually. If the customer has to go out of their way just to deposit payment, it’s likely they’ll abandon their purchases instead of going through all that extra effort.
With a shopping cart, though, you can simplify the whole process, as it can as the link between different payment gateways and your online store. Thus, your customer can complete their purchase without ever having to leave your website, much less their chair.
It Lets You Measure Your Sales Metrics
One advantage of doing business over the internet is the ability to collect data on your customers’ buying habits. With this information, you could make changes to your ecommerce store to improve their experience. You could even put out strategically-timed sales, give out discount coupons, or craft targeted marketing campaigns based on different segments of your customer profiles.
The best way to gather this information is, of course, through the implementation of a robust shopping cart software. With each purchase made, you’ll be able to see, at a glance, how well each of your products are doing. For example, you can immediately identify what your best-sellers are so you can boost their reach further with ad campaigns. You’ll also know which offerings need a little bit of a boost, perhaps by optimizing the product’s keywords or photos.
It Helps You Keep Track of Your Inventory
It can be a hassle to make a sale, only to discover that you don’t actually have that item in stock anymore. Besides making for a very unhappy customer, it could lead to a drop in your business’s reputation, too.
Fortunately, shopping carts also come with the ability to keep track of your inventory. They can even send you e-mail notifications to alert you when you’re running low on a certain item in your store. That way, you can immediately re-order and restock on your best sellers, ensuring that you’re less likely to lose out on potential sales.
Because of how ubiquitous shopping carts have become, it’s easy to take for granted just how many benefits they actually bring to the table. However, you can’t simply pick a shopping cart tool, implement it, and leave it to run without making some improvements here and there. As the ecommerce industry is constantly evolving, so, too, should you keep experimenting and improving the overall shopping experience for your buyers for the long haul.
