Top 5 Reasons for Shopping Cart Abandonment

Imagine seeing a potential customer in real-time, browsing through your e-commerce store. Your hard work on social media and SEO optimization enticed them to come visit your website, and after looking through your products, they find the perfect item and place it in their shopping cart. But after getting them so close to the purchase finish line, they suddenly change their mind and abandon their cart.

Almost 70% of online shoppers who place items in carts don't complete the checkout process, costing merchants $18 billion in lost sales revenue every year. Understanding the reasons why people leave your site with a full shopping cart is the first step to proactively combating this problem and getting more customers to complete their purchases.

In this post, we'll cover five of the most common reasons for abandoned shopping carts and what you can do to prevent them from happening. 

1. Additional Charges

Hands down, one of the main reasons an online shopper will ditch their cart is because of extra costs like taxes, shipping, and other fees. In Baymard Institute’s latest 2022 study, nearly half of all customers abandoned their online purchases during the checkout process because the additional charges were too high. On top of that, 44% of shoppers cited high shipping costs as their primary reason to ditch the cart and go elsewhere. 

Solutions:

• Lower your shipping rates, offer flat rate shipping, or remove shipping costs altogether—73% of shoppers buy products when there’s free shipping. 
• If free shipping is something you can’t do for every order, consider creating minimum purchase orders that qualify for free shipping, thereby increasing revenue with the increase in purchases.
• Be upfront about all costs, including shipping, taxes, and any other fees they may expect. These details can be added to each product page to eliminate any unwelcome surprises during checkout.

2. Slow Website Performance

Whether it’s slow page loading times or failing to ensure your site is mobile-friendly, if shoppers find themselves struggling to access your content, they’re going to bail. Studies show that 57% of shoppers will abandon their cart if they have to wait more than three seconds for a page to load. Even worse, 80% of these shoppers will never return to your site.

As for those who do most of their online shopping on their mobile device, almost 86% will abandon their cart—over 12% more than desktop users.

Solutions:

• Make sure your pages load quickly by performing various test runs to ensure their optimal speed.
• On top of fast loading times, ensure content is laid out in a user-friendly way that helps shoppers have an enjoyable shopping experience.
• For mobile devices, provide clear content that’s visible on small screens, including buttons and form fields that offer auto-fill whenever possible.

3. Complicated or Lengthy Checkout Process

If a shopper feels like they need to take a course just to figure out how to get through a checkout process, chances are, they’re going to skip class and shop somewhere else. 

Research shows that 83% of customers need help while trying to complete an online purchase.

The more steps during checkout, the more likely you’ll detract shoppers from continuing with the purchase—especially if it includes having to create an account. In fact, almost one-quarter (24%) of shoppers will forgo their purchase if guest checkout isn’t an option.

Solutions:

• A quick and easy checkout can increase conversion rates by nearly 36%, so simplify things by minimizing the amount of information you request and reducing the number of pages the customer needs to go through during the purchase process.
• Always give the shopper the option to checkout as a guest. Rather than forcing people to sign up to your site, focus on providing a quality product and experience, such as discounts or personalized product recommendations that make them want to sign up after receiving their order.
• Simplify things even more by including a range of payment options beyond credit cards, such as PayPal, Shop Pay, PayPal, or Apple Pay, which all offer auto-fill to complete the forms.

Related: Why Do Product Recommendations Even Matter?

4. Lack of Trust

Everyone’s been on a website where either the products, security, or both seem a bit questionable. If customers can’t trust your product’s quality, shipping, return policies or secure payment options, they’ll look elsewhere to shop. 

About 61 percent of consumers won’t buy from a site that doesn’t display trust logos, while 18% of shoppers are hesitant with giving online stores with their credit card information. To build brand loyalty and decrease the number of carts left behind, it’s imperative to show your customers that your site is credible and can be trusted. 

Solutions:

• Consider adding trust elements throughout your website, such as customer reviews, and SSL certificate, and trusted payment processors like PayPal Apple Pay, and more.
• Include a detailed refund policy or even a money back guarantee to reassure shoppers they’ll be taken care of in case they’re unhappy with the product.
• Make sure there’s customer service contact information and include social media handles to show that your business extends beyond your website.

5. Limited Shipping Options

Online shoppers always want their items to arrive sooner than later—especially if it’s something they need within a specified time frame. 42% of shoppers will actually abandon their cart because of the delivery date.

Clearly, the longer your product takes to arrive, the less likely your customers will buy it from you. And this can lead to significant losses in online sales over time.

Solutions:

• Clearly present your shipping policy on the website. This includes shipping options and where you deliver to (and don’t.)
• Offer a range of shipping options for those who want their order expedited quickly and are willing to pay the extra cost to do so.
• If you charge for shipping, provide people with the total cost of their order before beginning the checkout process.

Final Thoughts

Shopping cart abandonment is a problem, but it’s a solvable one. A few small changes can keep customers happy and completing their orders each time they shop on your site. Be transparent with any additional charges like shipping costs and present this info before shoppers hit the checkout page. Optimize your website’s performance by ensuring load times are fast and content is mobile-friendly. Keep the checkout flow short and sweet, and add credibility to your website by including trust elements like customer reviews and ratings. And provide a range of shipping options for those who want their orders faster than standard shipping times.  

Abandoned carts will always be a problem online businesses must face, but by understanding your shoppers and regularly making simple changes you can recover a large portion of the sales you should be making.

Decrease Your Cart Abandonment Even More

If you’re interested in finding other ways to decrease your shopping cart abandonment rate and turn those churning visitors into revenue opportunities, let us know!

Granify offers a free consultation to review your online retail strategies and determine how you can optimize your shopper experience.