It oughta be a law, or something. As a simple condition of their continued existence, internet merchants should be required to buy all of their material needs online. I’m talking everything: from toilet paper to shoelaces, and from DVDs to food (Omaha Steaks serves up an absolutely delectable Chocolate Lover’s Cake). In my opinion, it’s an idea that’s been way too long in coming.

Think of the positive implications. First of all, it’s never a bad idea—always a great one, in fact—to support the local economy. And if that “local” economy just happens to be the world wide web, so be it. Same principle, right? But there’s actually an even better reason for it. It’s something that could be easily filed under “educational purposes” but would really be more of a “public service” issue. Because maybe (just maybe) if online merchants really knew what it was like to live a day in the shoes of us cybershoppers, life would get a lot easier for everyone.

Believe it or not, shopping cart abandonment is a serious deal. And it actually comes as a surprise to some online merchants that upwards of 75 percent of their shoppers are walking away (clicking away is more appropriate) before finalizing their transactions. It’s become a point of controversy so severe that some have even hired help to try and figure out why their shopping cart abandonment rates are so high. They should have asked me. I’d only have charged them $20.

The secret? Don’t give me an opportunity to change my mind! If your checkout process is so long and tedious that I actually have time to get buyer’s remorse before finalizing the sale, your process needs a serious overhaul. A smart merchant compares their checkout process against all others, and wastes no time making improvements.

Vince Font is a freelance writer available on WriterAccess, a marketplace where clients and expert writers connect for assignments. WriterAccess is powered by ideaLaunch, a full service content marketing agency serving hundreds of clients and thousands of writers since 2000.

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This entry was posted on Monday, February 8th, 2010 at 3:12 pm and is filed under Content Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.