Table of Contents
Almost everyone has had a dream in which they were in a beautiful place, felt a lot of happiness, and could feel that something big was about to happen. There is now just a single, little step between you and your ambition. Once again, you awaken with no progress toward your objective in sight. That sense of dissatisfaction follows you around all day. This is the precise feeling that online business owners have when they see the number of abandoned carts.
No matter the size of your online store, cart abandonment is a serious issue. The fact that many online shoppers begin the checkout process but never finish it is a source of frustration for businesses. When a customer stops shopping before finishing their purchase, this is called “abandoning their cart.” This results in lost income and a wasted chance to increase customer loyalty.
We’ll also look at some of the best ways to get people to finish shopping in their carts, like improving shipping, the checkout process, email remarketing, and so on. We’ll also look at some of the best ways to get people to finish shopping in their carts, like improving shipping, the checkout process, email remarketing, and so on. If you’re an entrepreneur or a salesperson, keep reading to find out how to overcome this obstacle to online sales.
What is cart abandonment, and why should you care? Statistics and general information.
When someone visits your website but leaves before doing what you want them to do, this is called “abandonment.” This means that every page on your website with a call-to-action has an “abandonment rate” (CTA).
Shopping cart abandonment, often known as “basket abandonment,” is a kind of abandonment that happens when things are put into a digital shopping cart but never bought. After putting something in a shopping cart, the buyer can leave at any time for a number of reasons, like changing their mind or getting mad and leaving. Maybe the shipping costs were too high, the delivery time was too long, or the process of checking out took too long.
How do you analyze cart abandonment? To find out the shopping cart abandonment rate on your website or online store, divide the total number of started transactions (completed orders) by the number of shopping carts initialized. These numbers will be in different places depending on where you get your site’s analytics. If you don’t know where your shop’s analytics are, it’s a good idea to make a Google Analytics account so you can better keep track of how your website is doing. I think you should check your cart abandonment rate at least twice a month so you can see if there are any big problems and fix them.
If you realized you were in trouble after determining how many carts were left behind because the number was too high, wait in fear. In 2023, data from all over the world showed that an average of 69.99% of online shopping carts were left empty. Well, you are relieved! This is not an isolated issue; it affects every online company. Okay, let’s move on. The good news is that this is life, and if you know how, you can fix anything. We can’t fix everything, of course, because we don’t have control over what other people do. However, the typical barriers that prevent your clients from making purchases are easily overcome.
Before answering the question: How can we reduce cart abandonment? Let’s examine the main reasons for the abandonment cart issue.
What are the biggest reasons for cart abandonment?
Now, to be fair to the e-commerce industry, a lot of cart abandonments just happen because of how people use e-commerce sites. For example, many people will just look around, compare prices, save items for later, look for gifts or ideas, etc. These are mostly cart and checkout abandonments that can’t be helped.
For example, 58.6% of US online shoppers have left a shopping cart because “I was just looking around/I wasn’t ready to buy” in the last 3 months, according to the Baymard Institute. Most of these people will quit before they even start the checkout process. But if we take out the people who were “just browsing” and look at the rest of the reasons why people left, we get the following:
Reason #1 Unexpected delivery fees (Hidden charges or taxes not included in the price)
According to statistics, the top reason for abandonment carts is the unexpected cost of shipping. 55% of shoppers abandon their carts because of additional fees they didn’t expect, including shipping or tax fees. The world has become more connected because of how easy it is to sell things on the Internet. But, unfortunately, it didn’t say anything about having to pay more taxes and customs duties. The new generation of buyers, who were born into a world where globalization is the norm, are not at all ready for this.
Occasionally, extra fees are charged for shipments that stay within the borders of one country. And when the buyers get to the page where they pay, they feel cheated. For example, it looks like this in an international store: https://www.shoecarnival.com You can see the product page, the shopping cart, and the checkout process, all of which require extra payments despite the fact that shipping is advertised as being free.
It may seem like a little detail, yet it has a negative impact. What should be done in this case? The solution is simple: Offer customers all costs up front, including shipping costs, taxes, and any other fees they should expect. By asking the customer for their zip code, this information can be shown on the product description page or by incorporating any fees into the price. If customers will not feel as surprised when they add an item, they are more likely to buy it.
This is my cart on iHerb.com, and I am absolutely satisfied that all taxes and other fees are included in the price. I also qualify for free delivery since I met the conditions.
You may be asking whether I really purchased it. Personally, I have to say no. Read on if you’re curious as to why.
Reason #2 A new user account creation is required
When a shopper has looked around and decided on a product to buy, adding more steps to the buying process can really mess things up. Making an account is usually a time-consuming process that may require them to do more than one thing. So it doesn’t come as a surprise to see this on the list of reasons why people back out of a purchase.
Recently, there has even been a trend to force users to log in using a social account. And it’s like you can choose between making an account and using a social account. This practice makes it easier to manage digital identities, which is getting harder and harder, but it also puts privacy at risk in some ways. When the service accesses some information from the user’s social profile, the user loses control over their personal information. Using the information from social media for something other than what the user gave permission for. So, the user has to choose between making an account, which takes time, and putting his personal information at risk. In reality, people feel like they are being forced to do something they don’t want to do, so they might not purchase. And below you can see a reason why I hesitate to purchase on Iherb.com:
I wasn’t directed to check out; instead, I was asked to log in, make an account, or use a social account. And something like that made me decide not to buy it.
The answer to this issue is really straightforward. Add an order option, like a guest, without making an account. Customers are more positive about such solutions. Guest checkout should always be an option, and account creation should never be required. Collecting email addresses and other contact information for remarketing purposes is best done on the confirmation page after a purchase has been made (ask the consumer whether they would like to “receive email updates about my purchase and other special offers” or anything along those lines). Here is the best example of https://www.nordstromrack.com/ and how it could be in your store.
Also, you can always set up an option to create an account with just one click in checkout. In this instance, the user feels less pressure and is more relaxed about creating an account.
Reason #3 Delivery is too slow. No Express Shipping
Shipping is an important aspect of the e-commerce experience. Customers worry a lot about delivery, if you haven’t noticed. Shipping costs are a major reason for cart abandonment, but shipment speed is a serious threat to making transactions.
We are all procrastinators. Crucial purchases are often time-sensitive. Consider birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, or emergency situations. Customers anticipate certain items to take longer to ship than others, such as those that are handmade or come from a small country, but they have come to expect quick shipping and delivery times overall when they purchase online. Customer expectations are high, and if your business can’t meet them, they’ll abandon their shopping cart and go elsewhere.
Make sure you can compete with your competitors in terms of delivery speed and dependability if you want to lower the percentage of shoppers who leave their carts before making a purchase. You can give your customers what they want and meet their expectations by giving them different delivery options, such as fast and expedited shipping, for a higher price. For example, like this:
Consumers should be able to choose from a variety of shipping methods and change different parts of the shipping process to their liking. Provide options for delivery time and service so that clients may choose what works best for them.
Reason #4 Payment security concerns.
The next reason why users leave their cart is a lack of trust, namely with regard to payment security. Customers are more worried about the security of their private data in the modern environment. Because of recent high-profile data breaches and cyberattacks, clients are becoming more cautious about giving their personal information to businesses online. As a result, buyers may back out of purchases over privacy concerns. But what could give them reason to think that something is wrong? Design flaws, outdated layouts, missing images, and not having an SSL certificate are all big reasons to be suspicious.
I’ll offer you several examples of shops that do not inspire trust.
Images and blocks of varying sizes are strewn around at random on the first screen. Nobody seemed to take the shop seriously. However, this plays against establishing credibility.
The next two screenshots are from the lighting shop. These are images of the main page, which is literally crammed with items. That seems to be a 1990s catalog. Such a shop does not inspire my trust; does it inspire yours? Have a look and decide for yourself https://elxo.no/.
Make some necessary improvements to your shop first. Your homepage is like a store window—it draws customers in, but they probably won’t purchase anything because of design flaws. The store’s sleek and user-friendly design, how quickly pages load, and how simple it is to find the right items could all help or hurt its credibility.
There are a lot of ways to make people trust your site more. The easiest way to show customers that your store can be trusted is through different types of social proof. Utilize client testimonials. Review the products. Use suggestions. Give your full contact information, like a phone number, as well as pictures and bios of you and your employees.
All of these things show your customer that they are working with a real person who cares about their experience and will keep their personal information safe.
Also, working with a payment service provider (PSP) is a great way to make the checkout process smooth, on-brand, and trustworthy. The best PSPs help you offer a great payment experience that is also safe, which increases sales. Also, think about putting up badges to show your login information and reassure shoppers that you work with trusted payment partners.
At each step, confirm your site’s trustworthiness. And new potential customers do not hesitate to place an order.
Reason #5 Complicated, time-consuming checkout.
When a customer wants to buy something, they expect the payment process to be easy and smooth. But a long and complicated checkout process can quickly make even the most determined customer angry and turn them away. Research has shown that a long and complicated checkout process makes a lot of customers give up on their shopping carts.
Customers have to spend time and energy on each extra step, form field, or question they have to deal with during the checkout process. This extra work can make paying feel like a waste of time, which can quickly make customers lose interest and give up on their purchase.
The checkout process needs to be streamlined and made as easy and user-friendly as possible so that paying customers have a smooth and pleasant experience. This includes getting rid of steps that aren’t needed, reducing the number of form fields, and making it easy for clients to pay.
By doing this, you can make it more likely that customers will finish their purchases, which is good for both the customer and the business in the long run. Customers will be happier, conversions will go up, and sales will go up if the checkout process is shorter and easier to understand. The best checkout page I found on https://www.freedrinkingwater.com/
I can’t imagine a better checkout process than this one. What inspires you to place an order is a lack of frills, ease of use, and simplicity. The nicest part about this solution is that it doesn’t require users to create an account; customers can go straight from the shopping cart to the checkout page. And there’s a specific option that you can use, but do not have to, to establish an account with one click. I was so taken with this checkout that I looked into the code and discovered it was called FireCheckout. To reduce cart abandonment, you should make your checkout experience as simple and quick as Firecheckout.
Reason #6 Calculating total payments and fees impossible
When we shop online, we don’t want surprises. We don’t want to learn our item is unavailable or find out the price has suddenly jumped. One of our least favorite head-turning moments is discovering our purchases can’t be shipped to where we live or the shipping rates are higher than expected. As we said up above, hidden fees and other charges are the leading causes of shopping cart abandonment. Additionally, statistics show that almost one-fifth of shoppers abandoned their carts because they couldn’t figure out the total cost of their orders right away.
Adding a shipping rate calculator to your online store is one of the most important things you can do to get more sales. After all, if customers can see how much their order will cost before they go to checkout, they won’t have to deal with any annoying surprises.
I realize how tough it is to integrate a shipping calculator into a store platform. And a link to such a third-party calculator may lead to more baskets being thrown, perhaps more than intended due to the fact that they will not be there. So, at the very least, the product page should list any possible extra payments that the buyer might get. A clear stance attests to the store’s transparency and honesty and thereby generates trust.
Amazon provides the best illustration of this kind of transparency on their product page:
After deciding on a product, the customer thinks about any costs that might come up during delivery and then goes to the checkout without worry.
Reason #7 Website crashed/errored
Essentially, everything comes down to trust. Would you go to a doctor who isn’t licensed? Would you dine at a restaurant where dozens of people got sick recently? There’s no way it could ever happen. This is the kind of detail that should immediately raise red flags for you. There is always a sign like this on websites that have crashed or gone wrong.
That’s why nobody, save maybe insane individuals, would ever purchase anything from such a shop.
Ok, what technical issues can lead to website crashes or errors?
Your store has too many customers, and your server can’t handle that many people at once. That will slow down your store and make people leave. During the sales season, when you expect a lot of people to visit your store, you should get it ready and offer more server resources.
Also, bot traffic can sometimes cause a server to use a lot of resources. So having a firewall to protect your store is a good idea. For instance, Cloudflare is a good choice because it’s the de facto standard and the most popular.
Sometimes software updates or problems with payment gateways or shipping modules on your checkout can cause this to happen. So it might be hard for your customers to place orders. I would suggest configuring your store to send a notification to the store administrator every time a customer has trouble placing an order at checkout.
The frontend of a modern store uses a lot of JavaScript code, which can make it hard to do things like add items to your cart or finish checking out. Some browsers are compatible with this code, some are not. As a result, it is critical that your store pass all browser compatibility tests. It should work in all of the most popular browsers. Making your store work with old browser releases is a more complicated question that really depends on your audience.
Errors on the server, problems with payment gateways, lack of server resources and problems
JavaScript code and application errors are the most critical issues. A good way to solve these kinds of problems is to use a tool that keeps an eye on your application. The next services are the most popular and effective in solving technical issues that can lead to website crashes or errors.
New Relic is one of the tools that people use the most. It comes with a free plan that is enough for any small business to get started.
Datadog is a cloud-based monitoring and analytics platform that lets you see how your apps, infrastructure, and logs are doing from start to finish. It can monitor, alert, and track in real time, which makes it a great alternative to New Relic.
AppDynamics is a tool for monitoring and analyzing performance that helps businesses find and fix performance problems in real time. It lets you see how an application is working, how the end user is experiencing it, and how the infrastructure is being monitored. This makes it a complete tool for application monitoring.
Dynatrace is a monitoring and analytics platform that runs in the cloud and offers full-stack monitoring and AIOps. It has real-time monitoring, AI-powered problem detection, and root cause analysis, which makes it a great tool for finding problems quickly and fixing them.
Reason #8 Poor Return Policy
Online purchasing isn’t always as convenient for customers as some retailers may believe, especially when it comes to return policies. According to research from shipping and delivery solutions platform Narvar, some return policies, such as those that require customers to pay for return shipping or refund costs, might block a transaction before it ever starts.
When a customer adds an item to their shopping cart, they are typically given details on the item’s return policy and guarantee. Customers who encounter an unsatisfactory return policy will go elsewhere to make their purchase. Nonetheless, customers may go elsewhere in search of a more flexible return policy.
Provide a straightforward return policy and customer assistance process as a solution. Customers will feel more at ease with their purchase if you link them directly to the return policy early on the product page.
In my article, “Is the era of free eCommerce returns coming to an end?” We discussed the refund policy in detail.
Reason #9 Сonvenient payment methods (different types of payment method)
As e-commerce has grown, so have buyers’ expectations. Where there used to be only one payment or shipping option, there are now dozens. Having a number of different payment options available is the bare minimum for generation Z consumers, who were almost born with a tablet in their hands. As you might expect, the more payment options there are, the more likely a successful checkout is.
On the product page, there should ideally be links to different ways to pay and the logo of the payment service provider.
My goal is to get your attention to the fact that most stores in the modern market still only accept old ways of paying. Moreover, today’s consumers have a different worldview than their parents’ generation. To them, common withdrawal is from the Jurassic period. They also aren’t inclined to shop at establishments that don’t accept Apple Pay, Google Wallet, or even Amazon Pay.
Look at the payment security concerns.
Reason #10 Credit Card Rejected
Sure enough, we’ve all experienced the frustration of having a credit card declined for one reason or another. Sometimes we were still able to place an order or pay for a service even when these small problems happened. But sometimes we couldn’t solve this problem quickly, so we had to give up on our plans. A reminder email is the best solution in this situation. An email like this is a great example of a personalized marketing strategy.
Cart abandonment emails are a great way to bring back lost sales, and they can boost your sales. The messages are sent to people who have put items in their shopping cart but haven’t finished their purchase yet. Among triggered emails, shopping recovery emails are one type. This means that when a cart abandonment signal is raised on your website, an email or series of emails are sent after a certain amount of time.
Cart abandonment alerts tend to have higher conversion rates than mass email marketing because they treat customers as individuals and send them relevant messages based on what they just did.
This kind of reminder has a positive impact on clients and may be used in a wider context, such as with a wish list.
Never despise or underestimate the email remarketing strategy; it works, which means that it has an effect.
Reason #11-13 Other reasons
Other reasons why people leave their carts aren’t as important and don’t get as much attention in statistics. These include scrolling or researching, not having a discount code, and bad customer service.
Cart abandonment is a common thing in the e-commerce world, and one reason can be that customers are just looking around or doing research. With the new generation’s shopping habits, this is a very popular shopping strategy. These customers may not be ready to buy right away or may just be looking around, but they may add items to their cart to look at or compare later. When this happens, it’s important for online stores to interact with their customers and give them useful information and personalized suggestions to get them to finish their purchases.
The lack of coupons or discounts is another reason why people might leave their carts. Customers might expect to get discounts or promo codes to save money, and if they don’t, it might make them think twice about making a purchase. But it’s important to remember that not all customers are interested in discounts. Some may care more about things like quality, dependability, and ease of use.
Last but not least, bad customer service can also cause customers to abandon their carts because they expect quick and helpful answers to their questions or concerns. If you have bad online chat support or take too long to answer, it can make customers feel bad about your business and cause them to abandon their carts. So, it’s important for online stores to put customer service first and make sure that customers’ problems are solved quickly and to their satisfaction. This will improve their shopping experience and keep them from giving up on their carts.
Finale thought
I’m creating this article in the hopes that you’ll learn something that will help you boost conversion and decrease cart abandonment. After considering all of this, I am certain that if you implement my recommendations, you will sell more to both existing and new clients.
Finally, I’d like to mention that I researched a wide range of shops when composing this article. No one of them, no matter how big or small their budgets are, fall short of fully satisfying their clients’ needs. Since their clientele is always evolving, so too are their expectations. And what used to be innovative is now just the bare minimum. So, you should always be thinking of new ways to better your business to keep old customers happy and bring in new ones.
