What is Cart Abandonment?

Losing Customers to Cart Abandonments

One of the biggest headaches faced by merchants selling online is Cart Abandonment. Cart Abandonment is a situation whereby a customer that had put some products in the shopping cart fails to go through the entire checkout process or cancels the order during the checkout process. The global average rate of cart abandonment for 2019 is 75.6%.

The cart abandonment rate shows how many of the items that are added to the shopping cart are abandoned. It is calculated by dividing the total number of completed transactions by the total number of transactions that were initiated. What makes Cart Abandonment Rate an important metric for online commerce sites is the fact that a high abandonment rate could signal a poor user experience or a friction-filled checkout experience.

Top 4 Reasons Users Abandon Their Carts

The following are the top cited on every survey that outlines the reasons why customers abandon a cart:

1. Being forced to create an account.

2. Struggling with complicated checkout processes.

3. Unexpected delivery costs.

4. Concerns over security.

This shows that shoppers consider full transparency of the costs, guest checkout, coupon codes, security in transactions, variety in shipping options and a clear and short checkout process as prerequisites for online stores and necessities to make a purchase.

To keep abandoned cart rates down, it’s always a simple matter of design and making the checkout process easier and more straightforward.

Here are a few ways that you can reduce Cart Abandonment and help more buyers make it through the checkout process successfully.

• Understand intent.

• Shorten and simplify your checkout.

• Offer guest checkout.

• Consider accepting additional forms of payment.

• Implement an abandoned cart email strategy.

While window shoppers on your site can’t be helped, there are ways to reduce carts that are abandoned for other reasons. That is why it’s important to use cart abandonment as an opportunity to gauge your visitors’ intent and help them in their purchasing journey.

Additional Reads

More reads on Cart Abandonment, and understanding how they affect the acquisition in SaaS businesses:

• Wondering why people come by to check out your site, get all the way to your checkout cart, and then leave? There’s a black hole on your checkout page that you didn’t know about.

• Using abandoned cart emails to plug holes in the revenue recovery pipeline. Improve Sales Conversions Against Checkout Drops With Chargebee’s Cart Abandonment Reporting 

• What methods should you employ to improve your checkout conversions? Introducing Chargebee Moments: For the Ultimate Moment of Truth at Checkout