Shopping Carts for Blogshops

A key difference between a blogshop and a conventional e-commerce site or dotcom is the shopping cart.  Actually, many blogshop owners refer to regular e-commerce sites as shopping carts.  Blogshops do not have shopping carts, so the ordering and checking out process usually requires other means, like through an email which can be laborious and time consuming.

This article talks about the advantage of having a shopping cart.

It is interesting that in my interviews with blogshop owners last weekend at the MOFEW 2010 event at Mid Valley, it was mentioned that many Malaysian online shoppers actually are not familiar with the mechanics of using online purchasing facilities like the shopping cart.  They say that this is a reason why blogshops work so well in our SEA context.

3 Key Shopping Cart Features Not Found On Blogshops

By Chris Chan

From the Instant eStore eCommerce Blog:


http://ecommerce.instantestore.com/3-key-shopping-cart-features-not-found-on-blogshops/

Apture™

by Chris Chan

Blogshops have sprouted like mushrooms after the rain with more and more people seeking to make some extra cash on the side. However, for every person that buys something from a blogshop, dozens more give it a pass. Security, transition from product browsing to checkout and the general user-friendliness of a blogshop cannot compete with that of a proper shopping cart.

In this article, we shall look at 3 key shopping cart features that are not found on blogshops that can help improve conversion rates.

 

Cross Selling

Cross selling is a free online shopping cart feature that is available in practically all good shopping carts like InstanteStore. Effective cross selling can improve revenue by as much as 50%. Take a look at the experts: Amazon.com. Certainly they have invested a large amount of resources in complex algorithms that continually ensure that their cross selling combinations are fully optimized. But their investment has proved to be a wise one and they continue to reap the rewards.

Of course, cross selling via a website shopping cart solution is far from complex because it does not have to be. The average merchant only has a few hundred products in his or her store, not millions. I would venture a guess that the average estore does not get 500 million visitors a month either.

The key to formulating a successful cross sell combination is to actually to test out a few combinations. Of course, merchants can also take the easy way out and set the cross sell feature to automatic if time does not permit. Even in that mode, sales can improve by up to 14%. That’s not bad for something that’s available for free and can be activated simply by checking on a checkbox.

 

Easy Checkout

Shopping online is all about convenience. Checking out on a single page is another feature that improves conversion. The less steps and pages customers have to go through in order to complete a purchase means the less customers you’ll lose along the way. People’s attentions tend to drift or they may change their minds the longer it takes to complete their order, so the briefer the checkout process, the better.

Many blog shops do not even have a Buy Now button or a link to a proper store so shoppers have to exchange a few emails before a purchase can be completed. Saying that, sending credit card details via email isn’t exactly safe.

 

Aborted Orders Automatic Email

Studies have shown that aborted orders can still be converted if followed up on within 24 hours. Conversion figures go as high as 30%. Blogshops do not have an aborted orders list and therefore do not have a feature that sends out email automatically to try to convince those customers to complete their order.

 

Summary

Having a blog is a great way to channel traffic to a proper online store. The limitations of a blog are obvious as a venue to shop. Sure, you can still make a few sales, but think of the many more you could have made if you had a proper store offering a proper online shopping environment, supported by tried and proven shopping cart features.