Shopping Cart Abandonment Solved!
By Mike Banks Valentine

Imagine yourself at the local Sears carrying a shopping basket
down the isles looking for the perfect gift for your spouse
when you come to a great looking watch in the jewelry department.
You know she'll love the design, but also know she has a curious
allergy to white gold and call over a salesperson to ask them
what the bevel surround is made of. She reassures you that it's
made of platinum so you cheerfully purchase the watch, smiling
as you wander over to have it gift-wrapped.

Take the same scenario online and imagine you have the same
simple question to ask someone. Now what? You most likely just
abandon the shopping cart and leave the store because you can't
imagine spending that amount of money without knowing whether
your sweetie will break out in hives because the white gold
allergy affects her wrists so badly.

Abandonment of shopping carts online is blamed on everything
from fear of using credit cards on the web to privacy concerns.

My theory is as follows: If you have any questions about any
product or service you are purchasing online, ecommerce sites
expect you to either look up the answer in their FAQ's
(frequently asked questions page) or just search out their
800 number from the site somewhere and call them yourself to
find out. This can be a ridiculous process on some sites as
they simply don't want to be bothered with expensive phone
calls and leave their number off of the shopping cart pages.

They don't want to devote customer service reps to those fickle
shoppers that abandon online shopping carts at rates as high
as 90% at some ecommerce sites. I'd propose that most online
shoppers abandon those carts because they need to know something
that could never be considered for those FAQ pages like the term
of the product guarantees or how long the battery life is. If
there were a simple way to have your questions answered, I'd
like to suggest that those shopping carts would rarely ever
be abandoned.

I've found the solution and can't believe the brilliance of
the idea behind the answer to this thorny question. Customer
clicks a button labled "CallButton" and gets a pop-up screen
asking for their name and phone number so a representative
can call them at their convenience to answer any questions
and/or concerns!

They fill int their name and phone number and receive a polite
response page custom designed to reassure them that they will
be contacted how and when they would like to be by a person that
can actually answer their question! No nasty telephone trees or
automated callbacks, but a person from the jewelry department
that knows platinum from white gold.

You now have the name and phone number of a prime valuable
customer ready to buy who WANTS to hear from you.

>From the customers viewpoint, this is simple, responsive and
satisfying. From the sellers position it is one of the most
powerful ecommerce tools to be announced on the web this year!
This idea and the powerful software behind that simple button
were announced at a press event titled "Showstoppers" during
the Spring 2001 InternetWorld conference and show in the City
of Angels (Los Angeles) March 15th.

This tool receives my vote as a better ecommerce solution than
any seen at the huge eCRM (Customer Relationship Management) show
held concurrently with the I-World show at the LA convention
center this month. The powerful tracking and reporting functions
that come as part of the package with this incredibly simple
little button could turn around the fortunes of major e-tailers
like many of those we've seen sink in the economic downturn.

Priced at a very low per-call rate starting at about $1.50
per customer contact, you can have calls routed anywhere from
your cell phone to your home office and be assured of making
the sale to that customer that very likely would have walked
(or clicked) right out of your e-store without that personal
contact from a caring customer representative. Most so-called
CRM solutions are simply automated-database-tracking-purchase-
recording-preference-listing-sub-routine-predictive-expensive-
file-them-here-contact-them-then-follow-up-with-them-next
types of robotic de-personalizers.

CallButton offers the reporting and tracking tools available
in those complex CRM solutions with two major differences. Your
customer gets their questions answered and you make the sale!
It's installed on your page with a short line of HTML code and
you don't invest the tens of thousands of dollars required of
major corporations for their robotic de-personalizer software.

You make the sale, your customer is satisfied. Now comes the
bonus. The upsell while the customer is on the phone with you.
This prospect has requested your contact, has an interest in more
of what you sell and has qualified themselves for your services.
If you don't upsell them now, you might consider doing something
else with your time.

I've signed up for the service and can't imagine how I got along
without it. It's priced for the small business and handily solves a
difficult issue for both business owners and their customers.

http://callbutton.com/

About the Author

Mike Banks Valentine
WebSite101 "Reading List" Weekly Netrepreneur Tip Sheet
Weekly Ezine emphasizing small business on the Internet
Subscribe address mailto:WebSite101-subscribe@listbot.com
articles available: http://website101.com/freecontent.html

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