7 Tactics to Expand Customer Shopping Cart

How to boost sales by expanding customer shopping cart

Why do you need to expand the customer shopping cart? Of course there are many ways to increase your revenue, and increasing average order value is one of them. E-commerce opens the door for everyone, hence new market entrants and rising competitors are unavoidable. Due to harsh competitions, attracting new customers is not easy, so why not persuade your current customers to spend more, because they are already interested in your store and your products? Just follow these 7 tactics and you can expand your customer shopping cart and boost sales in no time.

Table of Contents

• 1. On-site product recommendations
• 2. Product bundling
• 3. Product comparisons
• 4. Freeship threshold notifications
• 5. Promotion notifications
• 6. Wholesale pricing
• 7. Simplify bulk purchasing
• 8. Site Speed Optimization
• 9. Visible and clear CTA
• 10. Positive social proof usage
• 11. Multiple payment options
• 12. Benefit from the autofill

1. On-site product recommendations

Best-selling items, best-rated, or similar products are a few types of commonly used product recommendations that can be displayed at any time during the purchasing process. Amazon is the most successful company with this tactic application. They introduced the “Recommendations for you” feature, generating results from customers’ search and purchase history. According to research by Monetate, product recommendation is claimed to increase the average conversion rate of orders by 50% and triple the revenue.

Suggested tools: Automatic Related Products, Product Slider, Who Viewed This Also Viewed, Who Bought This Also Bought

2. Product bundling

You can also create packages containing complementary products and allow customers to buy them at discounted prices. Several companies, including Nintendo, have successfully increased shopping cart conversion with this tactic. It always suggests video game bundles and offers a lower price for that package. Results from a study conducted by Vineet Kumar, a professor from Harvard Business School, showed that Nintendo’s product bundling strategy increased sales by more than a million dollars.

Suggested tool: Frequently Bought Together

3. Product comparisons

Another way to expand customer shopping carts is by increasing the conversion rate of the carts. Before making a decision, buyers have to search for different products, so why don’t you make this process easier by presenting them with more than one choice? When customers click to view a product, similar products will be displayed with feature comparisons. You can highlight the choices that you want to promote or the most expensive choice. In this way, they can easily compare among choices and are likely to upgrade to more expensive products.

4. Freeship threshold notifications

Shipping fees are sometimes regarded as extra fee that customers have to pay because they do not have to do this when shopping at offline stores. This could be annoying for some buyers, leading them to stop the purchase. However, you can take advantage of it by using the free shipping threshold as a motivation to urge customers to buy more. Calculating the amount of money that they have to spend more until they reach the threshold will make them feel like they are not far from achieving that goal.

Suggested tool: Free Shipping Bar

5. Promotion notifications

Sales promotions have always been an effective way to improve shopping cart conversion rates. There are numerous techniques to implement this tactic, including price deals, coupons, free gifts, or giveaways. Store owners can remind customers about these offers by displaying these notifications everywhere on their sites.

Suggested tools: Special Promotions, Promo Bar, Daily Deal, Free Gifts

6. Wholesale pricing

When customers buy more, they will be offered a lower price level. For instance, for 10 items or more, there will be a 30% discount on the unit price. This tactic is the most suitable for B2B (business-to-business) wholesale companies. Other retail companies can also apply it when offering different price levels in the quantity dropdown box. Therefore, this is really an effective way to increase shopping cart conversion.

Suggested tools: Better Change Quantity, Better Tier Price

7. Simplify bulk purchasing

After deciding to buy more in quantity, if the cart editing process is complicated, customers will be likely to stop purchasing. That is why you should enhance the shopping experience by allowing customers to quickly edit their carts and add more items without being navigated to another page. Suggested tool: Quick Order

8. Site Speed Optimization

Customers don’t like waiting, even when loading a website. When a site has a slow loading speed, it will negatively impact user satisfaction.

The negative impact of slow loading speeds on revenue is evident in the case of Amazon. Just a one-second lag in loading time on Amazon’s website could potentially to colossal losses of up to billions of dollars in annual sales. This emphasizes the importance of optimizing website loading speeds. It is not just for user satisfaction but also for increasing your store’s shopping cart conversion rate.

Suggested tools: Speed & Performance Optimization , Image Optimizer

9. Visible and clear CTA

If consumers try to add a product to the cart but cannot find the add-to-cart button, they will feel uncomfortable and abandon your website.

Therefore, a clear and visible call-to-action (CTA) button can help users add items to their carts and increase conversions. The CTA should be placed in a prominent location on the page and easy to find, such as under the product price or at the end of your email. It should also be clear and concise, such as “Add to Cart” or “Buy Now.”

For example, you can use a color that contrasts with the color scheme of your website for your CTA button and place it at the end of your email.

Suggested tools: Exit Intent Popup

10. Positive social proof usage

Typically, the customer will check out an average of ten online reviews before purchasing. An impressive 88% of customers believe that an internet review carries a level of trustworthiness equivalent to a personal recommendation.

This statistic shows that social proof really is a great tool that can help improve conversion rates by users adding items to their cart because it builds trust with your customers. You can use social proof through customer reviews, ratings, and testimonials to display that your products are high-quality and worth buying.

11. Multiple payment options

Offering various payment options on your website is vital for optimizing conversions and minimizing missed sales opportunities.

Diverse preferences among consumers emphasize the need for flexibility in payment methods. While some customers may prefer to pay with a credit card, others may prefer to use PayPal or another payment method.

By providing multiple payment options, you can serve a wider range of customers. Therefore, incorporating this adaptability into your website is a strategic move toward staying ahead in the competitive digital context.

12. Benefit from the autofill

Everything your business should do to make the sales process easier for your customers can increase your conversions. A common pain point during checkout is the time-consuming task of shipping and billing information.

By enabling autofill, you can make the checkout process faster and more convenient for customers. A typical example is to use Google address suggestions in Magento 2 One Step Checkout ; this extension can help increase the chances of successfully completing their purchases.

Take the above 7 tactics to expand your customer shopping cart as recommendations to change your online store today. Feel free to share with us your own success stories after applying these tactics!