WP eCommerce Show

In the middle of Season 3, we are doing something of a pivot around our podcasts. We are adding a third one in November, and making some slight changes that you may notice is our current show. We talked about it all on a recent post but listen to this short podcast to learn what you can expect with this podcast.

Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 03:31

Subscribe: iTunes |

This last week I had the pleasure of attending WooConf, the much anticipated, 3rd annual WooCommerce conference. While there, I had the chance to snag some time with one of my favorite eCommerce peeps, Beka Rice.

This is Beka’s third appearance on our podcast, and it’s always an information-packed episode. As Head of Product at SkyVerge, the company that also runs Jilt, Beka is recognized as an expert in cart abandonment and I thought there was no one better than Beka to give us some insights into the how, what, why and when of it. As online shop owners this is one of the largest challenges we face. Listen in as Beka not only gives us some great tips and concepts behind cart abandonment, but also tells us what we can do to make the best of those times when our customer bails on us.

• Why carts are abandoned
• How checkout, payment and security can contribute to abandoned carts
• Return policies and how they affect that after-purchase experience
• Tips on the recovery of those abandoned carts

You can also listen to our show where Beka gave some great advice around Google Analytics: The Google Analytics Essentials for Growing Your Online Store with Beka Rice

Transcript

Bob Dunn: Hey. everybody. Bob here. We are at WooConf Seattle 2017 and I’m lucky to have Beka Rice here from Jilt. She’s going to be talking about cart abandonment. How are you doing?

Beka Rice: I’m doing great, Bob. It’s a little rainy here in Seattle, but thanks so much for having me on this.

Bob: Alrighty, well, we’re going to dive right into this, and it’s a topic I think anybody with an eCommerce site will want to know more about. Why in the world do people abandon their carts?

Beka: That’s an excellent question, and one I think many merchants find themselves asking. We track abandonment at Jilt, but instead of talking about what we can do about that, to start, we need to talk about how we can prevent it. Many of us has seen the Baymard Institute statistic that says almost 70 percent of carts are abandoned and in stats, we find that to be pretty consistent, pretty accurate. When you consider the fact that the average order value for e-commerce shops is over $54, that’s a huge amount of money. In fact, at Jilt we find that the average order value of the carts that we recover is over $100. That’s a tremendous amount of money that merchants are losing to sales that customers just leave on the table. We’ve done a lot of digging into how can prevent this and how merchants can stop these sales from ever being lost, so there’s a ton of great research around this on the web.

We found some good research from Statista, that we can link to in the show notes, that talks about the primary reason for people abandoning carts being unexpected costs, and especially typically re

On this week’s show I had the pleasure of chatting with Henrik Saetre, Chief Online Officer at Mamahuhu. Their story—and the mission behind selling stylish shoes that are handcrafted by artisans—is a fascinating one.  Not only did they bring a unique and high-quality product online, but they are helping artisans build their own businesses and become self-sufficient. Their business model is based on one of my favorite lines, Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

Download file |

I am excited to chat with Rahama Wright, founder and CEO of Sheayeleen.com, a social enterprise that is dedicated to empowering women in West Africa and the United States through the production, sale and use of shea butter products. Her story is amazing and we hear not only how and why she started, but also her own challenges and successes along the way.

Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 21:15

We hear the word community a lot. Brands build community. Bloggers build community. Even we podcasters build community. But whether it’s your listeners, your readers, or your customers, there are ways to do this successfully. And when it comes to your product, it’s even more important to create that community and define how your customers become part of it.

In today’s show I have invited my friend and the force behind building community for GoDaddy.com, Mendel Kurland. He has done an amazing job since he was put in place at GoDaddy and I just knew he would have some great insights into this subject.

Download file | Play in new window