According to Baymard, high extra costs (shipping, fees, taxes etc) are responsible for about half of all cart abandonments. Slow deliveries are responsible for another 19% while unsatisfactory returns policies are the reason behind 11% of cart abandonments.

Shipping speeds and rates will always make up a huge part of the decision-making process for anyone shopping online. No one wants to wait a whole month for the delivery of a can of beans and no one wants to pay $20 just to ship something worth $30.

The return policy is also extremely important to people buying products with a high dollar value or those whose functionality varies from person to person and are therefore extremely sensitive to small variations.

Shoes are a great example as they are only good if they are your exact size. Too small and they’ll be extremely uncomfortable to walk in, too large and you always run the risk of them coming off. If you have third-party sellers on your site, issues like counterfeiting might arise and customers will need redress. If Jonah pays $500 for a pair of sneakers and they get damaged during shipping, or he gets stuck with a counterfeit, or the delivered size is too small, he should be able to return it.

Add links in the footer and PDP

Since access to shipping and returns information is crucial to the purchasing decision, links to the same should be highly visible. Many customers look to the footer for the return policy and shipping information so you should place your links there.

Links to product specific shipping and return policies should also be added to the product page so customers can access them while they view the product in question.