As an online business owner, there are few things as disheartening as cart abandonment. Every time someone adds an item to their cart, you swell with excitement at your next sale. But often those items remain in the cart without ever being purchased. In fact, as many as 70% carts remain abandoned throughout online shopping.

So what can you do to stop it? You don’t want to harass or annoy your customers, but a few nudges might be to both your benefit and theirs: you get a sale and they get a product they want. Just like with all marketing and sales strategies, there is a finesse that you have to strike to address cart abandonment without coming across as annoying. Here are a few strategies to reduce cart abandonment.

Send a Reminder

The first and most obvious strategy is to send a cart abandonment email reminding customers that they left an item in their cart. Again, avoid harassing customers. You might send an email out a few hours after the cart is abandoned and then perhaps a few days later.

Within a few days, the customer may have had time to think over the purchase and might decide to go ahead and buy. They may have been waiting for a paycheck, or looking at other options. Your email could be just the reminder they need to go ahead and make the purchase, or if not, at least remove it from their cart.

Create a Rewards or Loyalty Program

In any purchase, there is a mutual exchange: the customer gets a product or service and you get some revenue. But when your competitors have similar offers, you might have to sweeten the deal. A rewards or loyalty program can be a great way to do this. These programs allow customers to accrue points with each purchase. At a certain amount of points, they might be able to get a discount or a free purchase of one of your less expensive products. It sort of gamifies the purchase for the customer, using it as a way to rack up points.

Be Transparent In Your Pricing

One common reason that customers abandon their carts before making a purchase is due to a drastic change between the list price and the checkout price. Most customers expect some amount of shipping fees and tax, but they don’t expect a $49 purchase to come out to $70 at checkout. If there is such a drastic change, you may need to be upfront about this cost before customers add the item to their cart. Consider adding a shipping estimator widget or breaking down what those extra fees represent.

Streamline Your Checkout Process

Sometimes customers abandon their cart partway through the checkout process simply because they find the checkout process too complicated. Go through your checkout process and make sure the user experience is optimized on both desktop and mobile. If everything is running smoothly, it might be the time the checkout process takes. You may need to minimize the amount of clicks it takes to get to the “place order” page.

Not everyone wants to make an account simply to make a purchase. There are benefits to having an account: allowing the website to remember your information for one thing. But for those who want to make a purchase but aren’t quite ready to commit to an account, consider allowing guest checkout.

Work On Your Trustworthiness

Some customers will add an item to their cart and then later have second thoughts because they’re not sure if they can trust the company. With so many scams online, it’s an understandable fear. The burden of proof is on your side. You need to show that your company can be trusted. Stay compliant with data privacy regulations and best practices for fraud prevention. Consider showing off reviews on your website to show customers the real people who were satisfied with your services.

Offer a Variety of Payment Methods

It’s a tragedy when the customer wants to buy your product but they can’t because you don’t accept the right payment methods. Make sure you accept all major credit cards, and consider accepting PayPal, Stripe, or other third party payments. When you do this, you open yourself up to customers who want to buy from you and who may not be able to buy from your competitors due to payment methods not being accepted. Even if they have multiple payment methods they can use, having their preferred method available will give you a competitive edge.