Is 'Click to Call' an answer to shopping cart abandonment?

Ecommerce is a rapidly expanding area of online development and is expected to grow to $33.8 billion in Australia by 2012. Therefore with the competition growing, it is crucial to design the user experience with as little confusion as possible. But how do you answer all your user’s questions? If they come up to a roadblock on the site and are not sure what to do next…what happens? Unfortunately if they can’t find out what they need within a few minutes it usually means they will abandon their shopping cart.

One of the most useful solutions for answering a user question is to use Click to Call or Live Chat. If you don’t already know what Click to Call is, it’s actually quite a simple concept. You put a Click to Call button on your website, the user enters their phone number, then your lines are connected and wallah! You are now speaking directly to a potential customer or client. Likewise with Live Chat, the user clicks a link to be taken to an instant messaging dialogue with a company representative. Direct contact to achieve direct results.

It sounds simple enough, in fact at first glance it looks like it’s basically the same as advertising your company number on the website and the user getting the phone and calling you themselves. But there is a big difference as Click to Call encourages user interactivity and helps reduce website abandonment as it gives the user incentive to contact the company. There are multiple benefits especially when it comes to e-commerce sites.

Let’s start with the basic benefits of Click to Call. Most companies that provide Click to Call offer the service of tracking and recording the call. This can assist in training purposes and also in analysing your sales and advertising techniques. Any missed calls immediately get sent to your email along with a recording of any voice message left.

But how successful is this Click to Call concept? Would people even really want to click that flashing button in the corner of the menu? Apparently they do! Forrester Research conducted a research report in August 2010 and interviewed 6 organisations using Click to Call and Live Chat technology. They found that customers who use the Click to Call function on one of the organisation’s ecommerce sites has an average order value of $141, which is a 23% increase over the average $115 order.

They also noted that there was an average of 8500 Live Chats monthly and 3400 Click to Calls monthly which grow by 10% and 5% respectively.

Click to Call with mobile advertising is even more impressive. At the end of last year Google showed results from a case study they performed with their network Ad Mob. With mobile advertising, a successful strategy is advertising a deal by sending an ad to local smartphones. In order for the user to claim the deal they must use the Click to Call function embedded in the ad. An example of a company that used this advertising idea was Roy’s Restaurant. In the case study performed by Google they reported that Roy’s Restaurant received an amazing 800% return on investment.

Although Click to Call is a simple concept it needs to be used in a creative way in order to give incentive for the user to call. Companies that use marketing strategies along with a Click to Call button are the ones that achieve success. Whether it’s immediate answers to a question, the fact you can talk to a real person not an enquiry form or the chance for users to claim a deal by calling the number directly from the ad, Click to Call can be very beneficiary for your business.