What is shopping cart abandonment?
Shopping cart abandonment is an e-commerce metric referring to instances where a site visitor adds one or more products to their cart but leaves without completing the purchase.
Explaining shopping cart abandonment
If an online store’s conversion rate calculates how many customers complete a purchase, shopping cart abandonment is the opposite. The shopping cart abandonment rate measures how frequently shoppers drop out of a transaction after adding products to a cart. Shoppers show interest in a product by adding it to a cart but exit the site without completing the buying process.
In a brick-and-mortar store scenario, think of cart abandonment as an instance where a customer fills a basket with merchandise and then walks out of the establishment, leaving behind the basket and the goods in it. Every such occurrence in an online store contributes to this data point. The following formula calculates a store’s cart abandonment rate:
Statistics show that customers abandon 88.1% of online shopping orders on average. This benchmark figure may fluctuate depending on specific industries. For instance, retail averages a basket abandonment rate of 84.5%, while e-commerce sites for luxury products have a higher average figure at 92.6%. Based on these figures, out of 10 interested customers, 8 or 9 abandon the transaction before checking out with the product.
Online entrepreneurs need to monitor cart abandonment because this metric reflects their stores’ overall effectiveness in converting visitors into paying customers. Business owners can analyze this data alongside other metrics like average order value (AOV) and website conversion rate to identify the source of friction and optimize their website for higher conversions. Merchants can also segment the cart abandonment data according to the device type or geolocation to gain deeper insights into customer behavior.
Why do customers abandon their carts?
Cart abandonment is inevitable. It is part and parcel of running an e-commerce store, especially a Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) one. Users add to their carts and drop out for various reasons, like saving the product for later, comparing prices with competitors, or simply doing window shopping online. However, suppose this figure is too high. In that case, it might indicate problems along the purchase journey, such as a poor user experience or a broken sales funnel.
In addressing the complicated problem of shopping cart abandonment, it pays to understand the multifaceted nature of why visitors drop out of transactions. According to research from Baymard, extra costs (shipping, fees, and taxes) being too high tops that list of reasons for cart abandonment. Long, complicated checkout processes are also a turn-off for would-be customers, even more so if it requires them to create an account. Lack of trust towards the store and too few payment options are common reasons for abandoned shopping carts.
The good news is that these issues are solvable through design changes, website optimizations, and marketing strategies. Streamlining the checkout process and being more transparent with extra costs could increase conversions by 35%. Highlighting warranties, trust seals, customer testimonials, and installing an SSL certificate can help address the problem of trust. Broadening payment options can also convince customers to pay for their goods. For those just browsing, personalized cart recovery emails and exit splash pages can help win them over.
Cafe24 stores are optimized to convert customers
All of these solutions are readily available for merchants under the Cafe24 umbrella. Merchants can install various apps from the Cafe24 Store to address specific sources of friction in the purchase journey and make the customer experience smooth and seamless. Two examples of these apps are RemindMe and Reload. RemindMe creates alerts for any items left in the shopping cart. Meanwhile, Reload lets merchants set up a splash page for exiting customers to woo them back.
Cafe24 also has existing partnerships with global payment gateways (PG) for a frictionless checkout. Through these companies, merchants can provide the most convenient payment experience possible for customers. Cafe24’s most recent collaboration with Paymentwall allows the latter’s integration into DTC stores, a PG with over 200 payment methods available for local and cross-border transactions. With Cafe24, merchants have a reliable partner in growing their business and outsmarting the competition. Brands can cement their footing in their home market and pave the road to global success.