Having an ecommerce website, you always want people to be buying, and as long as you ahve good products and service, this is very doable. However, there is a sub-set of customers that can be more difficult to convert – last minute shoppers.

These are people who need to buy something in a hurry, whether this be for themselves or as a gift for someone else. In this article, we will be looking at ways to help tempt the last minute buyers to buy from you.

Provide quick delivery options

Last minute shoppers are going to be in a hurry to get a gift, so ensuring you are able to get them this make sure that they can get it on time.

If you can make your next day delivery free, then even better as one of the top reasons for abandoned carts is due to additional costs during checkout.

You might think that if people are looking to get an item quickly, then they might already be anticipating paying an additional charge for expedited shipping, which may hold some truth to it. However, if you are able to cut out that additional cost, you may remove any hesitation that could cause someone to stop the order, which will be especially true for lower cost items.

Have a gift area

Having an area where people can automatically gravitate, to see items that would be ideal for gifts. This helps direct people to a particular page with relevant items, which will help give last minute visitors to your store a direction to look if they are unsure what they are going to buy.

Be mobile friendly

This should hopefully be something that your eCommerce website already does, but being mobile friendly is essential, as this is the most popular way to browse the web (stats for mobile web usage).

However, it does also have additional reasons in addition, someone who is looking for a last minute gift is likely to use any spare time they have to search for something, this could be while they are on the train for their commute to work, during their lunch hour etc. All times where they are more likely to be using a mobile phone to browse.

The important parts of helping to increase purchases will be simple navigation, on product pages showing the most important elements first (image, price, buy button).

The other element that is essential is having a simple checkout process. This means minimising the number of fields to only the essential and have included. It also means making the process as simple as possible, by having address lookups and adjusting the keyboard based on the input needed (e.g. number keyboard for card number).

Offer multiple payment options

For people looking for last minute gifts, as we’ve said, it is about making the process from buying to checkout as simple and easy as possible. One thing that can help increase conversion rates is to offer multiple payment options for customers, using popular ones such as:

• Apple pay
• Amazon pay
• Paypal

This helps with conversion rates as it makes the checkout process simpler by saving time by using a payment system that customers know is secure and they are familiar with. These can pull information such as delivery address and card details out to use, which then further simplifies the process.

Sell gift cards

When all else fails for someone looking for a gift, a gift card is the next best option. Allows someone to buy from you, without the need to commit to any specific items. If you are going to have these, ensure they feature prominently on your home page and somewhere prominent throughout the website where people can simply decide to get one.

Gift wrapping options

For those customers looking to buy last minute gifts, they are more likely going to do is send their gifts directly, so offering a gift wrapping option at checkout. This can provide additional peace of mind where they don’t have to worry about wrapping and make what they are sending feel more like a gift, than simply a package.