5 Biggest Reasons for Cart Abandonment

an empty shopping cart with an eCommerce website in the background

High cart abandonment can represent a significant chunk of lost revenue. It’s a huge problem that affects many businesses, with a reported 69.99% average rate of online cart abandonment across the eCommerce industry documented by the Baymard Institute last August 2022.

If you are experiencing high cart abandonment rates but don’t know the reason, here are the possible issues you might be experiencing to help you identify the cause. We’ll also go over a few solutions to address each situation, as well as a recommendation you can implement to alleviate a portion of the losses.

5 Common Reasons for High Cart Abandonment

Every eCommerce store is different, but high cart abandonment is a common problem that can cause any kind of business to lose sales and revenue. Here are some reasons behind what could be happening to you:

1. High shipping rates and additional costs and fees

Customers often leave their cart if they see high shipping costs with their orders. Although you can’t control how much a person is willing to spend on shipping, you can upgrade or expand your current shipping options to better cater to consumers’ needs and maximise conversions.

One of the most common tactics to solve high shipping costs is to offer free shipping, as it will likely prompt more customers to complete their purchases. You can bundle the cost into the product price to stay within budget, and customers won’t get sticker-shocked when met with the final total. You can also provide a free shipping promotion for orders that meet a certain purchase threshold.

Another strategy is to be transparent about the costs, especially if free shipping is not practical for your business. You can fully disclose the extra fees and make customers aware of what they’re paying for and where their money goes.

2. Compulsory account registration

Account registration takes a lot of extra effort, and customers in a hurry don’t have time for all that. Consumers may not see the point of creating an account, especially if they’re only making a one-time purchase. Making a guest checkout option that only requires their name and email address allows shoppers to complete their purchases faster and pushes more people to buy.

3. Long checkout process

The typical checkout process is as follows: shopping cart > shipping info > billing info > order summary > payment > confirmation. Ideally, this process should be quick and flow smoothly.

With a long and complicated checkout process, your consumers lose patience, resulting in cart abandonment. Reducing the complexity relieves your consumers of the hassle and makes them more likely to buy.

You can do this by allowing shoppers to save their information for future purchases, or add Quick-Buy options that allow them to skip entire steps There are plenty of tweaks and functionalities you can implement to streamline checkout for customers.

4. Lack of delivery and payment options

Customers often only complete their orders if they see their preferred delivery and payment options.

For best chances of conversion, your website should offer the most popular payment methods for your target audience, such as credit cards, PayPal, digital wallets, and even cash on delivery. It should also provide various delivery options and shipping methods, such as 2-day shipping and same-day delivery.

5. Poor returns policy

Consumers are aware of the risks of ordering online since they can’t physically interact with the product, so your return and refund policy needs to be clear.

One way you can reassure your customers is to let them ask for a refund or return the product if they’re unsatisfied. You can offer a 30-day return policy so your customers can shop with confidence, but if this is not an option, make sure to indicate what kind of policy you can extend so that customers are more likely to purchase.

Re-Engage With Customers Using Email Remarketing

Besides resolving the previous cart abandonment issues, you can also use email remarketing to recapture lost customers.

Email remarketing allows you to recover lost sales by getting a second shot at influencing consumers’ decisions. It’s also cost-effective, with a study showing it can yield as much as 4,300% ROI.

Leverage the power of email remarketing today.

If you want to take advantage of email remarketing to recapture abandoned carts and lost revenue, contact our team to learn more. We provide email marketing services for small to large businesses. Tell us about your email remarketing needs and enjoy a free quote.