Have you seen How To SELL Anything?

This incredible sales handbook distils an expert's lifetime of sales and marketing experience and hands it to you on a platter, in a simple, easy-to-follow format. With existing customers being the most valuable source of income for any business, this book will teach you how to increase your return business and make more profit from your most loyal customers - and even how to reduce the costs of dealing with your least profitable customers.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)

Cart abandonment plagues major e-retailers

Recent Genesys research has identified that a massive 85% of online retailers are letting customers discard their online goods without challenge. The issue became apparent after £140 worth of goods were put in the baskets of 75 of the UK's top retailers, then abandoned before final payment. Just 15% of surveyed retailers chased up potential customers in the crucial first 24 hours post-abandonment, with 5% of them enquiring a second time the following day.

Customer service in the shape of the contact centre can be key in proactively combating online shopping cart abandonment.

Missed Opportunities
Retailers, at this stage in the sales cycle, are already in possession of a customer's contact details, yet choose to miss the sales opportunity. From £10,830 worth of abandoned items, £9,180 of goods were not pursued at all. In other words just £1,650 (15%) worth of potential sales were investigated post-abandonment.

This wasted revenue opportunity is avoidable. All that is required is timely intervention at the point of virtual sale or quick and diligent following-up by the contact centre after a cart has been sidelined.

Proactive Engagement
Every retailer would benefit by implementing something as simple as a live web chat; however, the study found only 7% of the retailers operated a web chat service, and none of them chose to proactively use this option during the buying process. But surely it's the ideal tool to engage with a hesitant shopper who is almost at the point of purchase?

Proactively using web chat enables retailers to persuade the customer to continue their purchase or simply address any questions they may have about the goods they're buying, which can also reduce stock returns. This is more preferable than letting them discard their goods or, worse still, conceding them to a competitor.

Recent research by ContactBabel has also indicated that the number of web chats handled by contact centres has risen to 250 million, a 60% increase over the last 12 months. Using this service to offer support to online shoppers at the point of sale goes a significant way to improving the customer's website experience, boosting customer service and sales simultaneously.

Re-marketing
If this fails, follow-up by phone or email. But the Genesys research showed just 15% of retailers followed up within that crucial 24 hours after shopping cart abandonment. Following-up after consumers have abandoned their online goods is clearly not deemed a priority. But understanding why a shopper has decided to disregard the items in their online basket and re-marketing to them can unearth valuable sales and marketing data to support a range of services from product marketing to website design.

"These simple solutions could decrease online abandonment, and lead to higher sales and a better customer experience," concluded Dykes.

Have you seen How To SELL Anything?

This incredible sales handbook distils an expert's lifetime of sales and marketing experience and hands it to you on a platter, in a simple, easy-to-follow format.

With existing customers being the most valuable source of income for any business, this book will teach you how to increase your return business and make more profit from your most loyal customers - and even how to reduce the costs of dealing with your least profitable customers.

You'll learn to sell yourself, sell your products, and sell your brand on the internet, writing high-conversion landing pages, social media posts, and more. You'll start attracting customers you didn’t even know existed, and learn the top trade secrets for customer retention.

You'll become a lean, mean selling machine. See how the experts do it and learn to adapt what they've done for your own profit. You'll learn to write strong, powerful, effective sales copy, whether it's for a sales script, sales letter, flyer, insert, advert or just about anything else.

You'll learn how to sell whether you're selling by telephone, by mail, or even meeting prospects face-to-face. You'll find out how to size them up, present yourself, nail down their true needs, close the sale, and learn to tackle the tricky ones.

You'll discover the biggest secrets of successful direct mail sellers, sales letter writers, and how to segment and choose the right prospects for each campaign.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)