So, lets admit it! We have all been guilty of shopping cart abandonment at one time or another. You get a great deal or coupon in your inbox and then the next thing your know your shopping online adding EVERYTHING that catches your eye to your shopping cart. All of a sudden you panic and just ditch?Why? Well, during a recent survey over why consumers are most likely to abandon their shopping carts, had most people list more than one reason. Here are the top reasons why and how you might correct this from happening on your site:

- High shipping prices (72%) ? This is a biggie! All shipping charges need to be presented to the buyer before they have to give you their information. This allows buyers to see everything up front without the intimidation or worry over what the next page may reveal.

- Comparison shopping or browsing (61%) ? Every good mom does this, so this is something that is beyond your control and not worth losing sleep over.

- Changed mind (56%) ? While this is also beyond your control, you may want to test your ?cart steps? to see if this may be attributing to why your consumers are changing their minds.

- Saving items for later purchase (51%) ? If you offer this feature, you need to get their name and email address so that you can drop them a reminder. If you don’t, data shows that shoppers, who choose this option rarely come back to purchase what they saved.

- Total cost of items is too high (43%) ? The best way to help this is to evaluate how your products rank compared to other similar products in the market? If your costs are still higher, can you justify the difference to your shoppers?

- Checkout process is too long (41%) ? Every mother knows that time is valuable! We?ve all perfected the 30 minute get ready routine in the morning and how to get your child to eat in less than an hour, so you should know that your customers time is also valuable. You should have as few steps as possible in your checkout process. Maybe you could investigate some other sites and their checkout process to see how you can improve this.

- Site requires registration before purchase (34%) ?People probably didn’t understand this question, because if they did this number should have a t least doubled! This goes back to shortening your check-out time. Maybe you could make it wear when they purchase an item it automatically registers them to your site. If not, most consumers probably just see this as a waste of time.

- Site is unstable or unreliable (31%) ? No one likes an ?if-ey? site! People want to shop at places that are reliable and protected, so if this is your site, then you need to fix it!

- Checkout process is confusing (27%) ? How do you know if your site has this problem? Well you would probably be getting calls from customers saying, ?Your site was too confusing, so I just decided to call.? Just like you get annoyed when the directions to assemble your kid’s latest toy are confusing, that how people feel when they are trying to purchase something, but aren’t too sure about the ?directions? on how to do so. If you are getting these calls then your staff needs to be giving you this feedback so it can be corrected. They should also be mindful to ask, ?Would you mind telling me briefly what you found confusing so we can fix it?? You should also consider rewarding your customers for helping you correct this problem, maybe you could offer them free shipping or a free gift with purchase. A great bit of advice is this line from Bo Bennett, ?I like to think of sales as the ability to gracefully persuade, not manipulate, a person or persons into a win-win situation.?

So as you can see from these statistics, shopping cart abandonment is a significant problem for any website owner or affiliate. In some market verticals between 65% and 75% of online shoppers abandon their shopping carts before completing the checkout process. What is even more amazing is the numbers are basically the same as they were in the late 90’s! This just shouldn’t be because technology has come a long way since then and people should be finding their online shopping experience as a convenience and never as a hassle. So here’s what you?ve been waiting for! Here are seventeen tips to decrease shopping cart abandonment on your site.

Please login or register for a PRO Mom or PRO Mom or PRO Mom - Annual Membership membership to view the rest of this content.