Help! Why are visitors abandonning shopping cart?

[Flierboy]

Folks,

I am testing out 6 new niche products on clickbank. So I have these 6 minisites (essentially just a sales letter page, and a download/thank you page where they download their product after clickbank payment).

I am driving traffic to these sites via Adwords, and the problem is that although I am getting clicks on "Order Now" buttons, the visitors are just abandoning the shopping cart and walking away.

What's going on? Why would folks be doing that? Could someone here help me analyze where is my sales funnel breaking up or offer any other suggestions?

Here is my stats summary.

Niche1: 500 unique visitors, 10 clicks on ORDER button, No sales
Niche2: 350 unique visitors, 10 clicks on ORDER button, 1 sale
Niche3: 220 unique visitors, 5 clicks on ORDER button, No sales
Niche4: 230 unique visitors, 6 clicks on ORDER button, No sales
Niche5: 25 unique visitors, 3 clicks on ORDER button, No sales
Niche6: 65 unique visitors, 3 click on ORDER button, No sales

Adwords campaign for niches 5 & 6 were launched just yesterday evening, so not much data for those. The oldest campaigns have been running since 6 days.

All 6 of these niches have very rough salesletters with no Privacy Policy, Contact Us, Terms & Conditions etc. As always, I first test out niches with some adwords traffic, before refining the sites.

So I am not surprised that so few visitors are clicking on ORDER buttons. What's bothering me though is that 30 people clicked on ORDER buttons, went to Clickbank order page, and then left without ordering! The ORDER button takes them to the classic Clickbank Order form page. Nothing fancy there.

Is this phenomenon (shopping cart abandonment) something common that you have seen before? What is causing it and how could I respond to it?

Any advice would be deeply appreciated!

Thanks!

-Ritesh

[hpgoodboy]

Show me the site (if you don't want to post here send PM) and I can take a look and figure out what happened.

[mikestenger]

You have to take several things into consideration. A few of them are...

How targeted is your traffic? Are your campaigns reflecting what they will see on your site? Do your campaigns "flow" from ad to site? Are you targeting the proper keywords?

Then of course there's your salespage which I don't have to go into a lot of detail. You know what's what.

Remember that many who will land on your site are just curious. I know, sounds weird as to why they'd click on an order button with all the details right there but a lot of people do. You'll notice quite a few abandonments but I can assure you that the more targeted your traffic is, the less of that you'll see.

[havplenty]

It was suggested by someone that having an image of what the CB order form looks like under your order button can reduce abandonment by as much as 80%. Let the visitor know that there order will be securely processed and this is what the secure form looks like.

I hope this makes sense.

Hav

[IMnwxlh2]

Is the price hidden somewhere or not easily seen? That's what I do to quickly see how much the product costs.

Also if there is a hidden continuity (recurring future payment) which shows up as future payments, some people may click away from there.

Norman

[Flierboy]

Many thanks for all your advice!

hpgoodboy: Looks like I have too short a tenure at Warriorforums to be able to PM you. If you post your email addy here or send me an email at lalritesh AT gmail DOT com, I would love to get your advice on the sales letter page.

mikestenger: Appreciate your thoughts. I took care to really write my ads promising exactly what the product is. I will for sure go through ads and sales copy again, just to make sure. Darn these "curious" people who click and don't buy :-)

havplenty: I have read similar stuff that putting in a Clickbank image below helps. I will definitely split test with that and see what comes up.

Ps: I need to write another 12 posts before the forum will allow me to even add an image or link in my posts :-( So can't share any links or screen shots with you here.

[Flierboy]

Norman,

I did get that feedback. Previously the price although mentioned, was displayed just once, and not in a prominent location on the sales letter.

So I made some changes a yesterday, and am waiting to see if it makes any difference. I guess I will know by this weekend.

Now the price is written in bold large letters on top of every "Order" button. No hidden continuity, sales taxes, shipping or any other funny extra charges on the order page either. The buyer is charged one time price and it's exactly what he/she sees above the "Order" button.

[Debbie Songster]

Is the price on the sales page or do people have to click the button to find the price?
So many people don't put the price on the page - drives me nuts.
Going to a different looking page - ie clickbank order form is unsettling for some.

Are there extra charges for the product once they get to the order form?

Shopping cart abandonment is an issue that is discussed frequently.

Shopping cart abandonment is a challenge for all online advertisers and retailers. In fact, studies show that online consumers abandon their shopping carts anywhere from 50% to 75% of the time, according to a recent JupiterResearch study. This abandonment pattern extends across multiple industries including automotive, retail, travel, technology, finance, and many others.

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