As shopping online increasingly becomes a part of our daily lives, rental eCommerce enables customers to book rentals from anywhere. Customers interact with brands on many channels, from online stores to review aggregators, social media, and blog posts. The decision to make a booking is no longer limited to the in-store experience like it has been in the past.
This rapid growth and evolution of the digital landscape mean that businesses have more ways to interact with consumers. At the same time, the advancements in mobile technology mean that customers have instant access to everything. This has led to a 30% increase in mobile commerce over the past few years, so catering to this platform is critical.
Therefore, it is no longer possible to simply optimize the desktop rental experience and ensure it is mobile-friendly. Rental businesses now find it increasingly necessary to optimize heavily for mobile booking. This is the time to close that gap and capitalize on the opportunity it provides alongside the increased opportunities to engage with consumers.
Understanding cart abandonment
Unfortunately, there is a gap between knowing that mobile commerce is popular and understanding how these consumers behave. Yes, more people are shopping and renting products online, but they also abandon their carts almost twice as often on mobile than on desktop. Meanwhile, shoppers are three times more likely to convert into customers on desktop than on mobile.
The rapid shift in eCommerce behavior has meant that many brands haven’t been able to keep up. Creating an experience that is not only mobile-friendly but also optimized for mobile conversions can be hard to achieve. This is why achieving a competitive advantage and determining the exact friction points in the mobile booking experience are more important than ever before.
What does the data tell us?
On average, almost every industry has seen average cart abandonment hit 71.5% from data collected over the past couple of years. Some industries, like fashion and baby equipment, have seen it increase as high as 80%. So, while shopping and renting online have become more accessible, the likelihood for consumers to abandon their carts has also increased.
It is important to dive into the data to get a clear picture of what is happening on your own rental commerce website. Tools like Google Analytics can help you to see the relationship between traffic, conversion rate, and cart abandonment. If you see high traffic but low conversions, this can be a sign that the online booking experience is not as intuitive as it could be.
This data is important because it is estimated that there is an $18 billion opportunity for shopping cart abandonment. You could leave money on the table by not optimizing your booking experience to increase conversions and reduce cart abandonment. The question then remains, why does cart abandonment occur?, and what can you do to reduce it?
Why does cart abandonment occur?
There are many reasons why consumers choose to abandon their cart and why it is so prevalent for mobile users. Unsurprisingly, the key is unexpected costs and a lack of transparency in the booking process. Over 50% of cart abandonments can be tracked to surprises at the checkout. Customers feel cheated when they meet hidden costs like add-ons they weren’t expecting.
So, being more transparent about costs up-front is certainly one way to reduce cart abandonments. However, there are other aspects of the experience that can cause friction for potential customers. A lack of social proof is another big cause, with over 50% of visitors more likely to convert if a product or company has more than 10 reviews.
Another aspect that causes friction can be a lack of recognition. Often, when customers are looking to buy or rent products online, they will check out multiple vendors to find the best deals. If your website and branding don’t make an impact, customers are likely to forget your company and go with someone else. This extends to page experience, and if your website is slow, you may see potential customers going elsewhere.
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How can you reduce cart abandonment?
Of course, as with any optimization you do on your website, you need to tailor your approach to cart abandonment to both your needs as a business and the customers’ needs and expectations. However, these are some general guidelines you can follow to help increase the conversion rate of your rental website with just a few tweaks to the customer experience.
Be upfront about additional costs
It is clear from the data above that nothing is a bigger turn-off to customers than running into unexpected costs at checkout. So, you need to be upfront about any additional costs on your product pages, whether this is a security deposit, service fee, or shipping costs. Make sure customers are aware of exactly what they will be paying before they put products in their cart.
Chase customers for social proof
If you haven’t been chasing customers for reviews, you need to start now. It is important to collect reviews as soon after a rental as possible. You can ask them when they return items or follow up with an email a few days later. It cannot be overstated how important social proof is for modern rental businesses, and you should collect as much as possible from customers.
Take an omnichannel approach
Customers have more touchpoints with businesses than ever, and it is important to create a seamless approach to branding. On your website, social media, blogs, in-store, and emails, you should be tailoring the experience to exactly what the customer needs. Remember, you’re not just renting them equipment, you’re giving them an experience, and you need to play up to it.
Closing thoughts
Reducing cart abandonment can be challenging, but hopefully, this blog post has given you some more insight into the causes and solutions. It is important to keep track of this data, as it’s often not a one-and-done deal, and you will need to continue improving. Try implementing this guidance and see how it affects your website’s conversion rate.
Booqable enables rental businesses to accept online bookings and provides the building blocks for creating a great booking experience. Combining them with your skills in marketing and how you present your brand through your website and branding can help you to create a powerful online booking experience. Find out more about our embeddable rental store components.
