e-Commerce sites live from articles they sell online and for them shopping cart abandonment is a major problem.  A high shopping cart abandon rate, imply a lower conversion rate and the consequence is a loss of revenue.

In this article we will briefly define the shopping cart abandonment, the problem as well as common approaches on how to improve e-commerce shopping cart abandonment.

What is Shopping Cart Abandonment?

Shopping cart abandonment is when a visitor enters the shopping basket and leaves before completing the checkout. This it potential loss for the e-commerce business as the visitor did not buy the articles. The straightforward consequence for the business is a loss of revenue.

Understanding the causes of shopping cart abandonment

Before starting the process of improving the shopping cart abandonment we have to ask ourselves the reasons why people abandon their shopping cart? Furthermore is a certain percentage of shopping cart abandonment not normal?

According to Forrester Research, here below is a list of the most common reasons customers abandon their shopping cart:

How to reduce shopping cart abandonment?

Be trustworthy and transparent

For all kind of business, a person will only buy your good if he trusts you. In my country (maybe yours too) generally car repairers have a bad reputation. Why? Because when you get the bill it is often more than expected because they add a few dollars here and there for stuff that it is hard to control. Do not do this mistake! Online concurrence is rough and an online dissatisfied customer will never come back.

In case you have some shipping cost, only accept credit card payment, product is out of stock or whatever other reason put this information in a place where your customers can directly see it.

Make your customer confident that your page is secure and that their personal information will not be resell to a third company. You should also tell your visitor that they have the right to return products within XY days after receiving them.

Minimize the number of steps

A fundamental rule in e-commerce is to make the buying process as quick and easy as possible for your customers. The ideal case is to have a single page to complete the sale. It is useless to ask your customers to fill out information you do not really need. Just ask the bare essential.

Of course, this is not always possible to "shrink" to a single page. In case you need several steps, be sure to include a progress bar. Still a checkout should be in no more than three steps. Customers need to know in which step they are in the buying process. Besides a going back step is mandatory as a customer may have done a mistake. He needs to be certain of the information entered before he can buy.

Do not force customers

When the customer decides to buy a product and he is not a client (member) do not lose him by forcing him in becoming a member. Indeed, users who first order tend to be anxious and do not want to give personal information on a site that may not be trustworthy.

Do not hold back on photos of your products

In the "physical" stores, it is possible to touch a product, to feel a product, to see the details and to get an idea of the quality of the product. In e-commerce one of the only alternatives that you can have is to provide high quality photos or video of each of your products. Besides if you product is available with another color or a slightly different shape you should put a picture of it.

Images give the customer a direct feedback compare to textual description. Textual description is still very important but in a second phase. It is also important to keep a thumbnail of all your purchased products in the checkout process. This will reduce the number of people who return to the previous page to check their order. Besides when a user goes on mouse over a thumbnail a bigger picture should appear as it is not always easy to distinguish products from a thumbnail.

Quick examples and recommendations

Here below some clear examples that will reduce the shopping cart abandonment.

The user knows if he buys for over 100€ the delivery will be free. This may convince clients buying slightly under 100€ to purchase a small (cheap) item in order to get over 100€.

Show your payment methods in the footer or sidebar. It does not cost a lot of space and it is obvious and understandable.

This is also an obvious message for a customer that is in a hurry to get his product. This and a 24h delivery will give the customer a feeling of professionalism.

Never forget to add editing possibilities. A customer may change his opinion about a product and you do not want to lose him because he cannot delete or change the quantity of a product.

Help your customers! Here is a basic example of how you could show your customers where the Card Verification Code is.

Let us know your tips and tricks about improving e-commerce shopping cart abandonment.

I was very happy to see that Mozilla created a new version of Firefox. Firefox 3.6 is without a doubt the most stable version ever made. In this new version many bugs have been corrected and everything is working just perfect. I was thinking about making some customization for my own Firefox so I thought it will be nice to share with you some of the best Firefox Themes I’ve seen.

These themes are great for any type of Firefox user so without a doubt you will find one that’s suitable to your needs. Bring some color into your Firefox Browser and Enjoy!

1. Ambient

2. Chromifox Basic

3. Chromifox Extreme

4. Chromifox Carbon

5. Black Stratini

6. Past Modern

7. SilverMel

8. Aluminium Kai 2

9. Anthem

10. Camifox

11. VFox3

12. Midnight Fox

13. Midnight Foxy

14. iTunes Fox

15. Glaze Black

16. Abaca Classic

17. Dark Revisited

18. Devious Green

19. Bluetacular

20. Operetta Advance

21. iAqua

22. Purity

23. Phoenity

24. Minty Fresh

25. GrApple Yummy

26. SoCool-Calx

27. W3 V8

28. Aero Fox XL

29. Strata40

30. MacOSX Theme

31. Nuvola FF

32. Modern Modoki

33. NetFox

34. Gradient iCool

35. Vista AERO

36. My Fire Fox

37. Noia

38. Aeon

39. WhiteHart

40. Pimp Zilla

41. iPox

42. GrayModern

43. Old Factory

44. FoxScape

45. BlackX

46. Nasa Night Launch

47. Sky

48. OWN

49. MozXP

50. Kempelton

51. Kempelton Large

52. Simple Green

53. Phoenity Aura

54. Vista on XP

55. GNome Classic

56. Firefox 2 For Firefox 3

57. xBox Fox

58. Full Flat

59. Utopia White

60. Rein

61. Crystal Fox

62. Alienware Invader

63. zBlack

64. Office Black

65. Strata O Various

66. AvantGarde Nightlife

67. MonoChrome

68. Arctic Glow

69. MonGrel

70. SkyPlus

71. SlikerFox

That’s it! Don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS Feed in order to get latest design related stories and resources.

In this article I’ve gathered 75 amazing, stunning artworks that are all having the eye as the center of attention. Here you will find photos, digital drawings, photo manipulations, traditional drawings and more. Don’t miss out on these, they will impress and inspire. Enjoy!

Clicking on the images will take you to the artists page with possibilities to watch the pictures in bigger formats. Some can also be downloaded or bought as prints.

1. My Dream of World Peace by ~killmatthew33

2. Water Witch Eye by ~asdfgfunky

3. Eye serie 30 by ~MelckyXY

4. Eye See you by ~MonkeySeed

5. Apophysis Eye by =peach

6. He is wacthing you by ~gatopreto208

7. Eye from some Eyes by =Fatalsoul

8. Aquarius eye by =ftourini

9. Jade by `Lilyas

10. Apple of my Eye by ~mickeykumar

11. Eye eye by ~norking

12. Leafy Eye by ~reinedescoeurs

13. Looking at You by *DraculeaRiccy

14. Eye Color by ~Whistala

15. Disturbia by ~RudolphEurich

16. Flower eye series by ~Jenya88

17. Eye of Time -II- by ~YourSweetAgony

18. I Dream of Freedom by ~loopyluv

19. Eye scream by ~maliciaZintent

20. Apple eye by ~toxic92

21. Eye by ~deGimbalz

22. For the world to see … by ~keikei11

23. Steampunk Ring green eye by *CatherinetteRings

24. Darksiders – End of My World by *DomMcCann

25. Eye Candy by ~LiNoR

26. Cool eye 2 by ~fallen-angel-636

27. Eye Candy by ~RooCouture

28. Reflections XXII by ~neodecay

29. Apple by ~Khay88

30. Soft Leaking Eye by *VegasMike

31. Eye Candy by *SaraSchool

32. Macro eye vector by ~seldom-sleeping

33. What meets the eye by *Hera-of-Stockholm

34. Soul Searching by =MichaelO

35. Zombie eye by ~freakshow6661

36. Werewolf eye by ~Esroth

37. With this Eye by ~blue-mirage

38. Sea Eye by ~Dyyyy

39. In Your Eye by ~BrokenWings3D

40. Snowy Eye by ~darkchilightchi

41. Passion Of The Night by ~Dyyyy

42. Rose Love Eye by ~Dyyyy

43. Yellow Magic Eye by ~Dyyyy

44. Eye of a devine by ~PheoniX-VII

45. Eye of a predator by =ftourini

46. Eyes open wide by ~LiNoR

47. Natural Eye by ~LiNoR

48. Rainbow eye by ~ThErEaLDoLLyFrikka

49. Eye by ~sweety-girl2oo8

50. Eye Sketch by ~LyonsGate

51. Eye of the lemon by ~MLep

52. Eye Hate Spiders by ~Forgotten-Myth

53. Kiwi eye reloaded by =ftourini

54. In The Eye Of The Begotten IX by ~neodecay

55. T-eye-M by *123Stella

56. Eiko Eye-Con – Competition by =TheNeonGryphon

57. Eye of a nymph, by ~iheartsomersby

58. Fish eye by =ssecret

59. Eye grabber by ~lorrainemd

60. Chestnut Eye by ~oilcorner

61. Behind the eye by ~Ober88

62. Eye love d you by =ftourini

63. Eye candy by =ftourini

64. Eye – full HDR by ~ridethespiral1

65. Another eye??? by ~gyuszi02

66. Big eye goldfish by ~inmc

67. Eye On Fire by =Birthstone

68. Eye Candy by ~mprox

69. Avatar eye by ~MrJackXIII

70. The eye by ~Black-Ban

71. Into the Depth of an Eye by ~Snow-Owl

72. Fire Eye by =MEGAN-Yrrbby

73. The eye by ~morkovka55

74. Blue cup eye by ~bangrud

75. Broken Eye by ~SoloEvolution

I hope you enjoyed this collection of “eye candy”. If you have any feedback, please leave a comment! :)