Ideally, the sales funnel for e-commerce companies would be straightforward: A shopper finds your product, perhaps on a search engine results page (SERP), in a social media ad, or in an ad on their favorite digital publication. They click to learn more about it. They read a few articles and reviews, liking what they see. They click to your site and purchase the product.

It’s more likely, though, that at some point in the process, the consumer says “forget it,” leaves the product in the online shopping cart, and goes on with their day. In fact, statistics from the Baymard Institute reveal that more than 70% of shoppers, on average, abandon their shopping carts before making a purchase. Let’s take a closer look at why that is, and what you can do about it.

What Is Cart Abandonment?

Cart abandonment, as the name implies, happens when an online shopper halts a transaction and leaves their product in the shopping cart. They might intend to return to make the purchase later, but a majority of the time, those carts are just left to languish. It’s lost revenue and a lost opportunity to create loyal customers.

An “acceptable” abandoned cart recovery percentage ranges from 10% to 20%, according to Convertcart. That means, for most businesses, 80% to 90% of lost potential customers are gone for good.

What Does it Mean for a Business?

Cart abandonment costs e-commerce retailers $18 billion per year, with around $4.6 trillion worth of merchandise left in online carts. Cart abandonment doesn’t just lead to lost revenue, though (even if $18 billion is, admittedly, a pretty big chunk of cash to leave on the table): Companies also miss out on the chance to build loyal, repeat customers, especially if shoppers purchase from a competitor instead. Cart abandonment makes it more challenging to boost sales, pull market share from competitors, and scale your e-commerce business.

There are ways to win back customers after they’ve abandoned their cart. A report from SellersCommerce shared that cart abandonment emails can help recapture that revenue, citing that shoppers open 45% of abandoned cart emails, 21% click through, and of those, 50% ultimately make the purchase. SMS strategies can also lead to a 58% recovery rate for abandoned carts, since so many people today shop on their mobile devices.

Having a solid strategy to recapture customers is good, of course, but it’s still a better business practice to avoid cart abandonment whenever you can, by optimizing and streamlining your check-out process.

Why Does Cart Abandonment Happen?

Cart abandonment happens for several reasons: Personal finance experts, e.g., often recommend cart abandonment as a budgeting and money-saving tactic, suggesting shoppers leave something in their cart overnight to avoid impulse purchases. While this type of intentional spending may account for some cases of cart abandonment, though, a lot of times, cart abandonment is the fault of the seller.

Here are some of the most common reasons for cart abandonment, based on data from Statista collected from online shoppers:

• Additional charges too high (shipping/tax): 39%.
• Slow delivery: 21%.
• Must create an account to check out: 19%.
• Payment security concerns: 19%.
• Complicated check-out process: 18%.

These are the top reasons for cart abandonment. Other reasons included unclear pricing before purchase, an unsatisfactory return policy, website crashes, not enough payment methods, or the user’s credit card being declined.

How to Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment

Knowing the primary reasons for shopping cart abandonment can help you tackle this problem, especially during key parts of the year, like the lead-up to Black Friday/Cyber-Monday, or during hot summer sales times, like Memorial Day and Fourth of July.

Be Upfront About Pricing, Including Fees

It’s easy for brands and e-commerce sites to address the first shopper concern: hidden fees. Follow the standard of companies like Expedia and publish the full price of your product, including any required taxes and fees, right upfront.

“Drip pricing,” the practice where you hide fees until the very end, leads to cart abandonment, distrust, and bad will. It can also lead to lawsuits, so being clear about pricing upfront doesn’t just reduce cart abandonment — it may also prevent you from facing compliance issues. For a real world example, look no further than event ticket seller Ticketmaster (and parent company Live Nation), along with re-seller StubHub, who faced legal action for unclear pricing on their websites. Most recently, StubHub agreed to pay out $2.5 million in cash and $20 million in credit for not revealing fees that substantially drove up the cost of their tickets.

Most retailers aren’t intentionally deceiving customers: It could be that you’ve adopted a drip pricing model because that’s the way companies have done it in the past. Now that we, as an industry, know better, though, it’s time to change things up.

Offer Free, Fast Shipping

Of course, it can be difficult to disclose the total cost without knowing the buyer’s shipping address. State and local taxes, along with shipping costs, differ. One way to avoid losing customers due to high shipping costs (or slow shipping times) is by offering free shipping across the board, or at least with a minimum purchase. Data from SellersCommerce shows that 80% of customers are willing to meet free shipping requirements. Tiktokers might call it “girl math” when they’re willing to pay an extra $20 to save $10 in shipping, but successful e-commerce companies call it smart business to reduce cart abandonment.

It’s also smart to be specific about shipping times. Rather than noting that orders arrive “within three business days,” provide an exact date or, at least, a range of dates. Amazon excels at this, noting below every product (even before you reach the checkout stage) exactly when the product will arrive, based on when it’s purchased.

Allow a “Guest Checkout” Option

Taking advantage of impulse purchases requires reducing opportunities for shoppers to really think about what they’re buying. Every extra step they must take is another chance to ask themselves, “Do I really need this?”

Since almost a fifth of shoppers abandon their cart if they have to create an account, why not remove this roadblock and allow guest checkout? The fewer steps customers have to take to make a purchase, the more likely they are to follow through.

Offer Multiple Payment Choices

Offering many different payment options addresses a variety of concerns. If a shopper is hesitant to enter their credit or debit card information, perhaps they’d be more comfortable using PayPal or a secure digital wallet. Alternatively, offering buy now, pay later programs to spread out costs can reduce the number of cart abandonments due to the shopper’s credit card being declined, which occurs in 8% of cart abandonment cases.

Another 10% of cart abandonments happen due to the lack of payment methods available, so make sure to set up your site so you can accept all major credit cards, PayPal, various digital wallets, and at least one BNPL service.

Key Takeaways

E-commerce sellers lose an average of 70% of sales because of cart abandonment, representing $18 billion in revenue. Some key reasons for cart abandonment include a lack of upfront pricing, slow or expensive shipping, and a complicated checkout process. While there are tactics to recapture those abandoned carts, it’s better to avoid them in the first place.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How do you deal with abandoned carts?

Smart online retailers deal with abandoned carts by reducing their prevalence with upfront pricing and a seamless checkout process. After a customer has abandoned a cart, retailers can recapture the sale through SMS or email marketing.

What is abandoned cart recovery?

Abandoned cart recovery is a tactic e-commerce sellers use to entice a shopper who left an item in their cart to return and purchase the product.

How do you write abandoned cart emails?

Abandoned cart emails can help you recover carts after a consumer has decided not to make a purchase. The best abandoned cart emails start with a provocative subject line, like, “Did you forget something?” or “[Product] is selling out quick.” An abandoned cart email may also offer a discount or free shipping to get the reader’s attention. The body of the email should address the prospective buyer’s pain points and make it easy for them to click through and make the purchase.