etailology

We’ve all got one, but why? Some reasons are quite clear: our hands aren’t big enough. Yes… a shopping cart makes it easy to collect an order before hitting the POS, but it has more functions as well. Let’s explore them:

1. Memory. Many consumers use their carts to collect items that they don’t wish to forget. While there’s obvious utility to the customer in this regard, this process can really mess with your cart abandonment statistics. For stores where lots of actual “shopping” occurs (the searching, selection, comparison, and discarding of items… as opposed to the actual “buying” of them), the cart serves a major function in this regard. And if the site designers are focused on reducing cart abandonment (or item reneg) rates, then they may well be making choices which are directly at odds with the customer. Want to change this behavior? Provide a list, a “save for later” cart, comparison engines, scratch pads, notes fields, and easily referenced product pages and URLs. Or, simply adjust your sensibilities as to what percentage of items added to a cart should end up leaving the warehouse.)
2. Confirmation. The cart serves a strong purpose online in the form of confirmation. It provides the critical visual feedback required to confirm that “the site is working” and “I clicked in the right spot.” Etailers who ignore this function do so at their peril; in usability studies I’ve seen customers click “add to basket” over and over, waiting for the system to respond, only to find that they just added 10 copies of the same item to their cart. Frustration ensues — which is the last feeling you want customers to have before they enter your checkout process. Recipe for abandonment.
3. Order Assembly. Don’t confuse assembly with comparison. Comparison allows a customer to answer the question “which one?” whereas order assembly is about answering the question “what else?” For stores which sell multiple complementary items, a shopping cart which enables order assembly can be a huge asset; it can make it clear that you bought two tops but only one skirt. That you bought two new suits, two new ties, but no shirts. A toy but no batteries. And that kind of structure in a cart not only helps the customer, but enables strong upselling opportunities as well.
4. Upselling. What is a stronger upsell… one based on something the customer saw on your site, or one based on something in their cart?

Other thoughts?