A PayPal survey this week shows that 50% of online shoppers have abandoned their carts multiple times in the past three weeks due to high shipping costs, security concerns and lack of convenience. The average cost of abandoned goods in U.S. shopping carts is $109.

Note: High Shipping Costs Top the List.

While nothing could have prevented one-third of shoppers from abandoning purchases, the survey found that providing shipping costs upfront might have caused 40 percent to complete the purchase.

To help merchants encourage shoppers to purchase, PayPal released a new Express Checkout feature – the PayPal Instant Update API.

By integrating the new API, merchants can show order details earlier in the process including shipping options, insurance choices and tax totals.

“To get shoppers to buy, it’s critical merchants make costs transparent,” said Eddie Davis, senior director of SMB merchant services, PayPal.

The survey also uncovered signs that the economy still has shoppers wary about clicking the “purchase” button.

• 33% of respondents abandoned checkout because they didn’t plan for all of the expenses
• 25% left the site to search for a coupon.
• 33% later returned to the same site to buy.
• 20% purchased the items at a brick and mortar store or competitor’s Web site.

“Merchants who don’t welcome back abandoners with open arms are leaving hundreds of dollars per shopper on the table,” added Davis.

“Sweetening the deal with free shipping, coupons and special discounts is also a great way to encourage online shoppers to complete their purchases.”

Breakdown on Why Shoppers Abandon

At least a fifth of all U.S. survey respondents cited the following as very important reasons for cart abandonment:

• High shipping charges: 46 percent
• Wanted to comparison shop: 37 percent
• Lack of money: 36 percent
• Wanted to look for a coupon: 27 percent
• Wanted to shop offline: 26 percent
• Couldn’t find preferred pay option: 24 percent
• Item was unavailable at checkout: 23 percent
• Couldn’t find customer support: 22 percent
• Concerned about security of credit card data: 21 percent

About the survey
The PayPal Checkout Abandonment Study was conducted by comScore among active shoppers who had recently abandoned a shopping cart. In the United States 553 people participated between May 12-15, 2009.

Ivan Walsh is a technology writer based in Dublin, Ireland.

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In a recent survey, Scriptorium Publishing found that a majority of technical writers will be working in a structured authoring environment by 2010.

Structured authoring is a publishing workflow that defines and automatically enforces consistent organization of information. Implementations are generally based on Extensible Markup Language (XML).

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“Most of our consulting projects involve XML,” said Sarah O’Keefe, President, Scriptorium Publishing. “This survey shows that our anecdotal experiences, such as the importance of change management, match the industry situation.”

The survey, conducted in early 2009, had more than 600 responses.

Participants cited content reuse, document consistency, and cost/effort of developing content as the primary factors driving them into structured authoring.

The Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) standard was the dominant standard employed.

40 percent of existing implementations and approximately 60 percent of in-progress and planned implementations are based on DITA.

Implementations were generally quite successful.

90 percent of respondents with completed implementations reported that they had improved document consistency.

86 percent were successful in content reuse, and 70 percent reduced the cost and effort of developing content.

When asked about implementation problems, 37 percent cited difficulties with project management, including “failure to plan” and “insufficient analysis.”

“The survey validates our current methodology,” said O’Keefe. “We establish goals and metrics long before any technical work begins.”

Change management was a significant concern. Of the 16 percent who did not plan to implement structured authoring, one third cited the inability of the staff to adjust to a new authoring environment as a factor.

Staff turnover was also a problem for nearly 30 percent of past and nearly 20 percent of current implementations.

The survey data indicates that private, customized training improves outcomes by increasing the percentages of respondents who achieved their goals. Interestingly, private training also correlated with change resistance.

The 56-page report is available at  www.scriptorium.com

If you plan to do an online survey either by email or over the web, make sure you follow a few golden rules.

Keep it short. No more than 3 screens. No more than 10 questions.

Otherwise they will give up and close the browser.

Add some benefit, for example, a prize. Describe how and when they will be entered into the prize. Include the date for the draw. Emphasize how you value their opinion and how you will keep their responses in confidence.

Sounds good!

Here is sample text you can modify for your next survey.

Hello, Now that you’ve seen what you can do with [insert the name of your product or service], we’re interested in your opinion.

In order to keep our [name of product or service] at its best we’d like to know how you use [name of product or service], why you use it, and how it can be improved.

Please fill out our quick 3 minute survey on [name of product or service]. Go on!

We’re offering an iPod touch to three lucky participants.

Could be you!

Just add your email address at the end of the survey. We will contact you if you win the June 16th drawing!

Thank you for your time and for helping to improve [name of product or service]!

Take the [name of product or service] Survey.

Your responses will remain confidential. No information about you will be sold or provided to any other company whatsoever, nor will you receive unsolicited emails because of your participation in this survey. Add your name and job title. What software do you use for surveys? Let me know and I will add it to our list.