Why Customers Spend More When a Store has a "Save for Later" Option

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builtmighty

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Built Mighty Customer Experience Series

Our Customer Experience Series applies user experience research and design methods to improving eCommerce sales. By focusing on the person shopping on their eCommerce store, owners can make continuous improvements to improve the shopping experience and increase sales numbers.

The average abandoned cart rate is between 60%-80%¹ for eCommerce stores. With numbers so high, store owners have several options to bring customers back to their stores to complete those purchases. One of those methods, though it may it may seem counterintuitive, is allowing customers to save items in their carts to purchase later.

Many eCommerce stores do not provide users a method for saving an item in their cart for purchase later. Magento and WooCommerce do not have this functionality by default. For sites without this option, customers are limited in the decisions they can make when they aren’t ready to purchase an item immediately. The user must either:

Abandon the cart completely
Remove the item from the cart without saving it anywhere
Remove the item from the cart, find it again on the site, and to save to a wishlist (if a wishlist is available)

None of these choices help the customer get what they want or help the store sell more products. Looking at the cart from the customer’s perspective can help guide what options a store should have.

How customers use shopping carts

Customers don’t only add items to their cart to purchase immediately. Customers also add items to:

Save many items they like and keep shopping for more
Adjust their cart to fit a certain budget
Make product comparisons
Add and remove products to qualify for discounts such as free shipping

Key do’s and don’ts to improve a store’s save-for-later feature:

When a customer chooses to save an item from their cart to purchase later, don’t redirect that user to a new page of their saved items.
Instead, do keep them on the cart page so they can remain in the checkout flow.
Don’t neglect to provide feedback that the customer has moved an item from their cart to their saved items. If the item disappears without any notification, the customer might think they accidentally deleted the item.
If the saved items list is displayed on the same page as the cart, don’t create confusion between the cart items and saved items.
Do create clear separation and distinction for any product lists on the cart page including: cart items, saved items, related products, etc.
Do allow customers to save for later, even if they aren’t signed in. A site can prompt the user to create an account if the customer tries to close a window and still has saved items.
Do use the saved items list as an opportunity to reach out to customers when inventory becomes low or an item goes on sale.

Here’s a quick example of these keys in practice:

Ready to improve your store’s cart? Contact us at [email protected]. We can examine your entire checkout flow, provide suggestions for updates and start developing right away.

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