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Shopping cart abandonment is the silent killer of eCommerce profits.
Despite businesses investing heavily in customer acquisition and optimizing user experience, cart abandonments are still a major issue. And for every abandoned cart, potential revenue slips through the cracks.
But what exactly causes shoppers to abandon their carts? Is it the unexpected shipping costs, a complicated checkout process, or something else entirely? And more importantly, what can you do to turn those abandoned carts into completed purchases?
To find the root causes and potential solutions, we surveyed 69 experts who are successfully lowering cart abandonment. Together, we explored the top reasons why customers walk away from their carts and the steps businesses can take to reduce abandonment rates.
Let’s dive in and see what the experts had to say:
For this report, Databox and our partners talked to 69 companies to explore what makes digital buyers leave their shopping carts and how ecommerce companies can fix it.
When it comes to the type of ecommerce businesses we talked to, 33.33% of the respondents are B2C (Business-to-Consumer), 33.33% are B2B (Business-to-Business), and 21.74% are agencies or consultants working for eCommerce.
Most surveyed companies we talked to have up to 50 employees.
The survey we ran is connected to the Benchmark Group General Ecommerce Performance Benchmarks.
Companies that join the group can compare their ecommerce performance against similar businesses and get real-time insights into relevant KPIs and metrics. The group has more than 600 members and shows metric values from Shopify and Google Analytics.
According to the collected data, there were 94.5 abandoned checkouts on August 24 (median, 182 contributors).
If you also run an ecommerce business, we want to invite you to join our exclusive benchmark group called General Ecommerce Performance Benchmarks.
Once you join, you can anonymously compare your performance with other ecommerce companies, for zero cost. All you need to do is connect your account to the group (100% anonymous).
Even if you run another type of business, you can still scroll through Benchmark Groups to find the ones most relevant for you.
From a confusing checkout system to hidden fees, there’s no shortage of reasons that may lead to shopping cart abandonment.
But according to our survey, unexpected shipping costs are the most common reason why digital buyers abandon their shopping carts.
We talked to our respondents in detail about some of these most common causes, so let’s check out what they had to say:
When customers get to checkout and see shipping fees they weren’t expecting, it can cause frustration and make them rethink the purchase. It often feels like a surprise charge, which leads them to drop out of the process.
To avoid this, the best practice is to be upfront about shipping costs—either offering free shipping or clearly showing the fees early on. When customers know the full price from the start, they’re much more likely to follow through with their purchase.
Omar Dalberry of 5 Kings Marketing explains that “most shoppers are now hoping and expecting free shipping. So, if shipping costs are not clear and the shipping time is lengthy, then usually buyers look elsewhere online for a better deal. Free shipping should be promoted upfront. This increases shopping cart conversions tremendously and allows for proper retargeting campaigns.”
James Hook of Neurogan Health says that “we live in the age of Amazon, which has normalized purchasing with no extra costs.”
“Even a simple addition of $2.99 for delivery could now turn away a consumer who is within seconds of purchasing. It’s just the way of the world now, and people want to know what their true cost is upfront or they will feel betrayed and quickly look elsewhere (or will even try to find out if your product is on Amazon without any extra fees). You are far stronger sucking those costs into the charge you give at the start and making sure you have covered what you need to. The consumer is far more likely to accept this than sudden charges on a payment page.”
Slow-loading pages, unresponsive buttons, and lag during checkout can all lead to customer frustration.
With modern online shopping, people expect everything to run smoothly – and if it doesn’t, they’re likely to move on to the next business.
Businesses should focus on speeding up their site, making it mobile-friendly, and keeping the checkout process quick and seamless as possible.
Ashwini Dave of Middleware agrees that “high shopping cart abandonment rates can often be attributed to poor site performance, such as slow loading times.”
“When a website takes too long to load, potential customers are likely to leave out of frustration, leading to lost sales. One effective solution is to utilize monitoring tools to continuously track and analyze your site’s performance. These tools allow you to monitor real-time site speed, detect issues like large image files or inefficient code, and offer actionable recommendations to optimize performance.”
When customers have to go through too many steps, fill out too many forms, or can’t check out as a guest, they often get frustrated and bail.
The more complicated it is, the less likely they are to finish their purchase. To fix this, businesses should make the checkout process as simple as possible—fewer steps, an option for guest checkout, and using autofill.
Colt Agar of Red Stag Fulfillment shares that:
“As someone who ran, managed, and helped optimize hundreds of eCommerce websites, I noticed that the checkout process is the primary reason why customers abandon their carts when shopping online. Whenever a buyer faces a challenging, annoying, difficult checkout process that requires them to, for example, sign up and create an account or use only specific payment methods, they tend to lose interest and move on without ever completing the purchase.”
Colt Agar
Head of SEO at Red Stag Fulfillment
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C Shakhawat Sultan of WPFunnels also says that “the most common reason for cart abandonment is distraction during the checkout process.”
“We’ve seen sites that are busy including product suggestions, collecting too much information, displaying Ads, etc., on the checkout page. I think these are very distracting and easily sway the customer away from completing the purchase. Sure, some attempt to increase AOV, maybe using a quick order bump offer, is fine. But the goal here should really be to ensure the customer completes the order.”
PRO TIP: Want an easier way to track your Shopify store’s sales and performance? Check out our free Shopify Store Overview Dashboard to get an at-glance overview of your most relevant metrics, all in one place and in real-time.
As customers approach the final stages of checkout, they may begin to second-guess their decision —whether it’s about the price, if they really need the product, or if it’s worth it.
This hesitation often leads them to abandon the purchase. To stop this from happening, businesses can offer things like discounts or free returns to give buyers that extra push.
Matt Aird of Custom Neon shared that one of the “primary reasons for cart abandonment on our site have been buyer cold feet. Higher-value items often cause prospects to leave the purchase page to check for reviews, compare prices, or verify their cart items. Any deviation from the purchase page can be problematic for an eCommerce business, as it increases the likelihood of abandonment.”
If customers don’t feel safe buying from a site they don’t know well, they might worry about security, payment issues, or privacy concerns.
It can be especially concerning if the customers can’t find many positive reviews and updates on other platforms like the brand’s Facebook, Instagram, or even Google reviews.
AJ Saunders of Audacious Commerce says that this “lack of trust on third-party platforms can significantly impact cart abandonment rates. For example, having a Facebook page that hasn’t been updated for 3 years or bad reviews on their Google Business profile that haven’t been answered.”
According to our respondents, free shipping and simplified checkout are the most efficient in solving the problem of an abandoned shopping cart.
To reduce your cart abandonment, you need to understand the most common barriers and create targeted strategies to mitigate them.
Below, we’ll go over some of the most effective ways our respondents used to reduce cart abandonment:
Letting customers know the shipping costs early is key to cutting down on cart abandonment. When unexpected fees pop up at checkout, it throws off their buying decision.
That’s why it’s always a better idea for businesses to disclose shipping fees on product pages or early in the process.
Muhammed Ilyasy of Acowebs says that they “implemented a progressive disclosure of shipping costs by showing estimated shipping fees earlier in the shopping process. This change made costs more transparent and led to a 15% reduction in cart abandonment, as customers had clearer expectations of total prices.”
A well-designed, attention-grabbing CTA button, with clear, action-oriented text, can encourage hesitant buyers to proceed with the purchase.
Businesses should ensure that the button stands out visually, is mobile-friendly, and includes persuasive language that’s in line with the buyer’s intent, such as “Complete Purchase” or “Checkout Now.”
You can also integrate the button with popular payment options based on the customer’s purchase history and preference.
Here’s how Sajad Entesari of Republic Marketing leverages dynamic CTA buttons:
“For our clients using Shopify, we made a significant improvement by adding a Dynamic CTA button. This button integrates with Google Pay, Apple Pay, and Shop Payments based on the user’s preference and previous purchase history.
After implementing this change, abandoned checkouts for a supplement brand decreased by 20% within 2 weeks. Additionally, by improving the communication of shipping and return policies on the product page, we further reduced cart abandonment by 10%.”
Customers get frustrated easily when a website takes too long to load – so make sure your site runs fast on both desktop and mobile devices.
Simple changes like compressing images, cutting down on redirects, and using faster servers can make a big difference in reducing abandoned carts.
Ian Feder of Elite CMO Services shared how “we did a bunch of Google site speed recommendations and nearly cut the load time in half and saw over 25% reduction in cart abandonment.”
PRO TIP: If you want to get a better overview of your most relevant website performance metrics, you can use our free Website Engagement Overview Dashboard. You can track everything from traffic and lead demographics to website performance indicators.
When buyers run into any issues or have questions at checkout, having access to agent chat in real-time can put their minds at ease and keep them moving forward.
Live chat makes customers feel supported and helps them solve problems quickly, so they’re more likely to finish their purchase instead of leaving.
AJ Saunders of Audacious Commerce says that “live chat with real agents will always help people during purchasing as they can provide advice and confirm the order has been placed.”
Long, complicated forms and multiple unnecessary steps in the checkout process can easily overwhelm customers.
The best way to avoid this is to reduce the number of steps, let people check out as guests, and use autofill for quicker entries.
Keenan Beavis of Longhouse Media shares that:
“While looking at a client’s Shopify performance, we noticed the abandonment rate stemmed mostly from a long checkout process. We removed some steps, and implemented a guest checkout process which has greatly increased the number of clients that follow through and purchase.”
Keenan Beavis
Founder at Longhouse Media
Matt Aird of Custom Neon also shared their strategy for simplifying it via a one-step checkout process:
“One significant change we implemented was introducing a one-step checkout process. We streamlined the checkout process by minimizing the number of steps required to complete a purchase and simplifying the form fields.”
When you offer a discount for completing their purchase and referring a friend, it creates an extra nudge to finish the order. The best part is, the person they refer is more likely to trust your brand since it’s coming from someone they know.
Plus, customers love getting a quick reward—and when their friends get a deal too, it’s even more of an incentive.
Gary Gray of Coupon Chief says that “a lot changed the moment we implemented our Pay 2 Share program which incentivizes users to share coupons with others, earning them 2% of the purchase price when someone uses their shared coupon.”
“By offering users the chance to earn a percentage of the purchase price when someone else uses a coupon they shared, we created a more dynamic and engaging environment. Users were not only motivated to find and share coupons but also to complete their purchases on our site to maximize their earnings. This resulted in a decrease in cart abandonment as users were more incentivized to follow through with their transactions, knowing they could benefit financially from the Pay 2 Share program.”
Feedback from abandoned carts can give you some incredible insights into the pain points and obstacles customers face during the shopping process.
But what’s the best way to actually collect this feedback?
Here’s what our respondents recommend:
Exit-intent surveys are a great way to get feedback from shoppers just as they’re about to leave your site without buying.
These pop up when customers are about to close the tab or leave the page, asking something simple like, “What stopped you from finishing your purchase?” It’s a quick and easy way to figure out what went wrong, whether it’s pricing or a frustrating checkout process.
The insights you get from these surveys can help you make changes to improve the shopping experience and cut down on cart abandonment going forward.
Dhawal Shah of 2Stallions also says that “to gather feedback from customers who abandon their carts, consider using Exit-Intent Surveys. These pop-ups appear when a customer is about to leave your site, prompting them to share why they’re leaving.”
Follow-up emails are typically sent shortly after the abandonment, asking a few quick questions about what stopped them from buying.
You should include a brief survey with questions about their shopping experience—such as whether pricing, payment options, or shipping details were an issue—to help find specific barriers.
Matt Aird of Custom Neon says that “follow-up emails are sent within a few hours of abandonment, offering an incentive like a discount or free add-ons if they complete their purchase, along with a brief survey asking for their feedback.”
He explains that “analyzing this feedback has been invaluable. For instance, many users mentioned confusion over additional costs, a desire for more payment options, and the need for social proof. This led us to clarify add-on costs, such as hanging kits, earlier in the checkout process, introduce BNPL options, and list our reviews. All of which significantly improved our conversion rates. Additionally, the feedback helped us identify and remove friction points, further enhancing the customer experience.”
Colt Agar of Red Stag Fulfillment recommends that “you don’t want to make it lengthy—a simple, one-question poll asking about their hesitation to purchase will do. If the customer’s reason was related to an internal issue, take note of it and assess the frequency of those responses at the end of the quarter. If there are substantial complaints, then it’s worth improving that aspect of your system.”
Whether through email, phone, or live chat, agents can ask customers if they have any problems—like issues with the product, the checkout process, or shipping.
This personal touch not only helps get valuable feedback but can also solve the problem right away, sometimes even saving the sale.
Dealing with high shopping cart abandonment rates is a challenge nearly every eCommerce business faces – but as our experts have shown, there are clear steps you can take to address this issue.
From simplifying the checkout process to offering flexible payment options, the solutions are out there. But how will you know if the steps you’re taking are actually making a difference?
Well, that’s where Databox comes in.
With the General Ecommerce Performance Benchmarks Benchmark Group, you can anonymously compare your most important ecommerce metrics and KPIs to similar businesses – in real-time and in one instant view.
And once you create a free account, you also get access to Databox Dashboards. You can build customizable dashboards in just minutes and keep all of your most relevant metrics and KPIs in one easy-to-monitor place.
Sign up for a free trial and take the guesswork out of your eCommerce strategies with Databox.
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Filip Stojanovic is a content writer who studies Business and Political Sciences. Also, I am a huge tennis enthusiast. Although my dream is to win a Grand Slam, working as a content writer is also interesting.
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