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What is Shopping Cart Abandonment? How to Prevent It

December 20, 2024

shopping cart abandonment

Abandoned carts are one of the most maddening parts of running an e-commerce business.

You’re so close to making a sale--the items are in the cart--and then, at the last possible moment, the customer leaves your website without buying anything.

This happens more often than you might think. Almost 70 percent of carts are abandoned, accounting for millions of dollars in lost potential revenue each day. With the help of shopping cart software, however, you can reduce abandonment and improve conversion rates.

In this article, we’ll examine the primary reasons why people abandon their carts, techniques to reduce the frequency of this on your site, and how to use cart abandonment emails to recover and convert some of those lost customers into sales.

Reasons for shopping cart abandonment

Shopping cart abandonment is a significant challenge for eCommerce businesses. Understanding the common reasons behind it can help businesses take steps to reduce abandonment rates. Here are some key factors:

  • High shipping costs, taxes, or fees can lead to abandonment if the final price exceeds expectations.
  • A complicated checkout process with multiple pages or excessive form-filling can frustrate customers.
  • Forcing customers to create an account before purchasing may discourage them; many prefer guest checkout.
  • Lack of security signals (e.g., SSL certificates) can make customers wary of entering payment information.
  • Slow page load times or delays during checkout can lead to frustration and cart abandonment.
  • If a customer’s preferred payment method isn’t available, they may abandon the cart.
  • Unclear return/refund policies or difficulty finding them can cause hesitation and abandonment.
  • A lack of clear shipping details (e.g., time, availability, costs) can cause uncertainty and lead to abandonment.
  • Distractions or interruptions during checkout can cause shoppers to abandon their carts.
  • If discounts or promotions aren’t available at checkout as expected, shoppers may leave their carts.

How to calculate the shopping cart abandonment rate

The shopping cart abandonment rate (SCAR) is the percentage of shopping carts created that are not converted into completed sales. It is a key metric for eCommerce businesses to evaluate their checkout process and identify areas for improvement.

To calculate the shopping cart abandonment rate, use the following formula:

Shopping cart abandonment rate = (abandoned carts / initiated carts) × 100

Where:

  • Abandoned carts: The number of customers who add items to their cart but do not complete the purchase.
  • Initiated carts: The number of customers who start the checkout process by adding an item to their cart.

If 100 customers add items to their cart but only 60 complete the purchase, the abandonment rate would be:

Abandonment rate = ((100 - 60) / 100) × 100 = 40%

A 40% abandonment rate indicates that 40% of potential customers did not finalize their purchase after adding items to the cart.

By tracking this metric, businesses can analyze the effectiveness of their checkout process and implement strategies to reduce abandonment.

How to reduce shopping cart abandonment

While some level of shopping cart abandonment is unavoidable, there are things your business can do to reduce the abandonment rate. The best way to solve your abandoned cart problem is for your customers to simply stop abandoning their carts. 

Expensive shipping and extra costs

The top cause of cart abandonment in both studies--by something of a landslide--is shipping charges. And, on top of that, people also abandon carts because of other charges that might surprise them at checkout, like taxes or fees.

The easiest fix, of course, is for your business to just eat the cost of shipping and tax. If you go that route, be sure that your site makes it clear that the price of the products is the “all-in” price; if you’re selling something for $40, it’s going to cost exactly $40. You also need to make sure you have the margins to support offering free shipping. You can’t overcome zero margins with more volume!

Unfortunately, free shipping and no tax isn’t a reality for most businesses. In that case, your best approach is to be very clear and upfront about all of the additional costs someone will face at checkout time. Put your shipping rates right on the product landing page, and mention if there will be an internet sales tax or other fees.

It’s clear from both of the studies above that people don’t like to be surprised. Beyond unexpected shipping costs or other fees, look at some of the other related reasons for cart abandonment: “I couldn’t see/calculate the total order cost upfront.” “Returns policy wasn’t satisfactory.” “Discount code doesn’t work.” All those issues can be resolved with clear communication so there are no surprises once a person has started the checkout process.

Here’s how Knockaround does a good job to eliminate surprises. They clearly communicate on every product page their shipping costs (free over $50) and return policies (satisfaction guaranteed and free returns).

stopping-cart-abandonment

Slow shipping

Amazon has conditioned us to expect our purchase to come in two days flat. (They’ve also somehow made us all forget we’re paying $120/year for that perk.) But even if we weren’t all brainwashed into thinking two-day shipping is a right, not a privilege, when we order something online, we want it NOW.

The solution is probably pretty obvious: Offer express shipping. But you don’t have to offer it for free. If you can swing it, offer a slower free shipping option and a faster paid express shipping option. That should satisfy everyone who would be tempted to abandon a cart over any shipping issue.

Cultures for Health does tiered shipping well. They prominently offer a flat rate of $5.99 for economy shipping on smaller orders, free economy shipping on orders over $40, and clearly communicated faster options for a fee. 

A long checkout process, including having to make an account

Forcing someone to create an account before they can check out is a significant roadblock. One-third of people in the Baymard Institute study abandoned their cart over account creation and, anecdotally, think of how many times you’ve done it. I know I have.

A long checkout process is also a good way to lose customers. The average checkout contains 23.5 form elements, but the ideal number is 12 to 14. 

Of course, getting customers to sign up for an account has a lot of benefits for both you as a merchant and for the customer. That’s why you should always offer a guest checkout option--and then give them the option to create an account once the person has entered their information or even completed their purchase.

Beyond offering guest checkout, there are several steps you can take to make the process smoother. 

  • Try to reduce the number of things you’re asking someone to type. For example, once they enter their billing address, make sure they can click a button to use it to autofill their shipping address. Can you auto-suggest their city and state once you have their zip code? Do you really need their phone number?
  • Try to keep the checkout on a single page, and if that’s not possible, show people their progress as they complete different stages of the process.
  • Save the person’s info when they submit your form, so if there’s an error, they don’t have to re-enter their personal details
  • Offer popular digital wallet options like PayPal, Google Pay, or Amazon Pay, which save people the hassle of entering all of their credit card details. Talk to your existing customers to find out which payment gateways are most popular with them.
  • Set up a one-click checkout for repeat customers. One of the major benefits of creating an account for the customer is that it allows you to manage their information.
  • Retargeting on social media. Using retargeting tactics on popular social media channels can help bring customers back to complete their checkout. Many brands have turned to Facebook chatbots to follow up with those who have left without finalizing their order.
  • Send cart abandonment emails. Unfortunately, there’s no way to get your cart abandonment rate down to zero. But not all those abandoned sales are lost. One of the most effective ways to save abandoned carts is by sending cart abandonment emails. More on this later.

Bellroy's site has a fantastic checkout process. It’s all on one page, where the customer sees everything they’ll have to fill in—and they’ve done a great job paring down the form. The shipping choices are concise. There’s an option to use the shipping address as the billing address. The payment options are simple, and PayPal availability saves people the trouble of having to type in their credit card number. This is a checkout page worth emulating. 

Website errors and navigation problems

An e-commerce site that’s difficult to use will quickly lose customers, whether it’s difficult to navigate, features broken links, or spits out unexpected errors during checkout.

It’s important to test your site’s usability regularly. Go to your own website and try to find a product, then buy it. Or have a friend do it (bonus points if they’re not so web-savvy). Stay vigilant about broken links, and make sure your search is working like it’s supposed to.

Check out the focus on usability here by the store Skinny Ties. Their navigation bar offers direct links to the primary ways someone would search for a tie (color, width, pattern, and so on). Below that, they’ve got another navigation system--a unique and highly clickable one where pictures of different types of ties link to sections of the site. And if neither of those works for you, there’s a search box up top--and a section of “popular” ties on the bottom. This site’s design is entirely focused on getting customers to the exact product they want as easily as possible. 

It’s also crucial to give your site a stress test on mobile. Mobile has higher cart abandonment rates than desktop. Make sure your site is mobile-optimized, fast, accepts digital wallets, and limits screen-blocking pop-ups.

Trusting the site with info

You need to ensure that your site has a credible look and feel so that people will be willing to provide you with their home address, email, and especially credit card information. 

Make sure your SSL is up to date (so that a nice little lock shows up next to the URL in the person’s web browser), and use trusted payment processors and badges.  

And when you’re making design choices for your site, think of how they’ll look to someone gauging your trustworthiness. Or, in other words, don’t make lots of typos or use Comic Sans.

One other way to show you’re trustworthy is to offer a live chat with a real person. Make it clear it’s a real person by including their picture, name, and maybe even a link to their Twitter account.

Cart abandonment emails

So what happens when you take all of those steps above, and people still abandon their carts? Sadly, it’s going to happen. That’s where cart abandonment emails come in. In order to send a cart abandonment email, you need to capture an email address.

There are three main ways to do that:

  1. For existing customers who are logged in, you’ll already have their email.
  2. New customers may enter their email addresses during the checkout process (even if the cart is abandoned).
  3. You can capture the email address earlier with a pop-up or by enticing the person to subscribe to your list.

Then, follow the best practices for recovery emails as you set up your automated cart abandonment recovery email schedule. Send an email within an hour or two of the abandonment, asking what went wrong. Send a second email within 24 hours, reminding the person what’s in their cart and potentially offering a discount. Send a third and final email within 48 hours, creating a sense of urgency or scarcity. 

The cart that got away!

Abandoned carts represent a lot of potential revenue for your store, so by addressing them from two angles—site optimization and cart abandonment recovery emails—you should be able to recover a good chunk of sales you’d otherwise never see. Remember, each abandoned cart is an opportunity to improve your checkout process and re-engage customers who were just a click away from completing their purchase.

By making your site more user-friendly, speeding up checkout, and offering multiple payment options, you can reduce abandonment rates. At the same time, strategically timed recovery emails can turn those lost carts into loyal customers.

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This article was originally published in 2019. It has been updated with new information.


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