Major Online Shopper Dilemmas and How to Solve Them

Did you know that over 1.8 billion people worldwide are already into online shopping?

This massive chunk of the population continues to grow, and store owners are faced with the challenge of keeping up with what their customers want. Customer behavior continually changes, competition becomes stronger, and technology has a way of obliging us to innovate all the time.

But no matter what eCommerce might look like in the future, you have the power to create a great shopping experience for your customers.

We’ve found some common pain points, and will show how you can fix them using effective tactics and easy to implement tools like pop ups:

What are pop ups?

Pop ups are graphical windows that suddenly appear on a website screen. Generally, pop ups are used to effectively convert visitors into customers, leads and subscribers. They can initiate engagement, rescue abandoned carts and offer exclusive discounts for a seamless customer shopping journey.

In fact, studies reveal that the average global cart abandonment rate is at almost 70%, but pop ups help in reducing it by 20%, which is a big recoverable cost for online retailers.

Plus, you can really improve your shop’s bounce rate (that’s how quickly folks navigate away from your site) if you know which online touch points and common dilemmas you should address immediately.

Now, let’s dive into the most major dilemmas of online shoppers and learn how to fix them!

Fixing the Shopper Dilemmas

Dilemma 1: Lack of Shopping Assistance

Unlike in a physical store, shopping online doesn’t give shoppers the luxury of checking the items firsthand. That’s why customers always rely on reliable customer service to address their concerns.

Studies show that 83% of shoppers need support to complete a purchase. They expect to receive assistance within a 5-minute window, otherwise, they’ll go elsewhere. If a communication channel is non-existent, that might slow down conversion and might leave a really terrible impression. You don’t want that, right?

Solution: This is pretty easy! Just create a floating pop up that leads to your shop’s built-in contact page or chat integration. This could help customers know that you’re ready to help whenever they need you.

You might also consider showing a slide-in pop up equipped with the click count trigger. So, whenever a customer has clicked a specified number of buttons on your screen, which probably means they’re having trouble with something, a pop up appears to the rescue.

Another effective way to improve customer service is to implement a chat support plugin or AI chatbots. This way, in just a single click, visitors can chat with you anytime they need your help. Keep in mind that adding chat to your shop will likely be an added cost, both for the add-on product (LiveChat integrates directly with Big Cartel), and for the time that you’ll set aside to be online and available to your customers. This can be a bit much for a solo shop runner to take on, so it’s okay to decide to stick with email via your shop’s existing Contact page early on.

Dilemma 2: Non-existent discount codes

For sure, many of us have paused our online shopping in search of a magic combination of letters and numbers to put in that “discount code” box at checkout. This can be a distraction at best, or a total diversion away from completing a purchase.

When you look at Google, some popular searches are about discount codes. This means your customers may leave the checkout page to search for a code, and potentially foul up the whole sales funnel.

Solution: Take advantage of this scenario when buyers are looking for discounts and show a lightbox pop up with a discount code on it, or a recommended product that’s half the price. It’ll surprise visitors, gain leads and upsell. You gain a great customer impression and boost your revenue.

And if there’s no active discount or sales campaign, an informational message (something along the lines of “we couldn’t find any active discount codes”) can let shoppers know that they aren’t missing out.

Use targeted rules for your pop ups to show specific codes when shoppers arrive from an affiliate link, a promo ad or an email marketing campaign. A relevant code can be served up via pop up to a specific segment of your site traffic.

Dilemma 3: Product legitimacy

If you’re a new authorized retailer of an existing product line, and if you fail to establish the authenticity of your products right away, you might usher your visitors into leaving your store.

It’s a challenge for shops that specialize in curation: With many online stores offering the same products, it’s quite hard to tell which are actually legit. People just want to get their money’s worth, so it’s important to gain their trust. This is also vital for fundraising or non-profit organizations.

Solution: Show a pop up window that highlights a testimonial from a previous customer, or display a badge or logo from the actual brand showing that you’re an accredited store.

Aside from pop ups, you may also use a testimonial widget, create a social proof page and highlight some media features. While showcasing customers who actively tag you on social media isn’t the only sign of a thriving business, it’s one way to assure new prospective customers that people get what they expect when they shop with you. By establishing legitimacy as a brand, you’ll convert more visitors into customers faster and easier.

Dilemma 4: Unclear checkout process

Attracting visitors to buy your product is such a challenging task. More than that, keeping them interested as you usher them into the checkout page is even harder.

Tricky navigation and a whole lot of buttons to click might turn off would-be customers. In fact, 87% of consumers leave their carts instantly when the checkout process isn’t obvious. While Big Cartel keeps things pretty simple, it’s important to check for yourself that you’ve chosen a theme that makes it easy to find your cart and complete your purchase.

Solution: One of the most effective ways to lessen churn out in the checkout page is to use heatmap tools. These are analytics tools that can show where people are pausing and clicking on your website. It’s like flipping on the black light to show all the places in the kitchen that were touched by a person handling raw chicken… but much less gross, because it’s just online shopping behavior.

Google Analytics and Lucky Orange, which both integrate with Big Cartel, can get you started in exploring your shop’s heatmap. After reviewing visitor behavior, you should be ready to remove unnecessary details, buttons and fields. You might also need not to overwhelm visitors with too many CTAs and options.

Once you’re happy with the simplicity of your shop and checkout flow, you may consider adding a few impactful things back in. A pop up on your best-selling product page that recommends a related item can help you boost your sales in no time.

Dilemma 5: Hard to find on-sale items

You promote your sale campaign on Facebook. Prospects click the link. Then, they are directed to your website. The items that are on sale are nowhere to be found. That’s pretty confusing as a consumer!

I’ve experienced this a lot of times. And more often than not, I just leave the webpage right away. I don’t want this to happen to your store too.

I understand that websites want a high click rate or high page visits. Yet every ecommerce store also deserves a low bounce rate, and there’s a solution for you if you want to achieve both.

Solution: As an online store owner, welcome your visitors with a Welcome Pop Up that displays a button that would lead them to the promo page or sale category. This is the usual but effective way.

For a more effective tactic, create a standout design, and customize your targeting rules. So, whenever visitors click your link from Facebook (or any other platform), this pop up will appear to them. In this way, you’ll have a seamless customer shopping experience, plus low bounce rates.

The growth of ecommerce is unstoppable. We live in a world where we can just relax at home while we shop from one store to another.

As a store owner, it’s likely your priority to provide the best customer shopping experience at all times. Online shopper dilemmas should be addressed immediately, before you lose customers. Thanks to online shop pop ups, you have an easy and effective way to fix the problems and drive your business forward.