Reasons for an Abandoned Cart and How To Prevent Them

The world of ecommerce is highly competitive, and even small mistakes can significantly impact your online store’s success. One of the biggest challenges e-commerce businesses face is cart abandonment, that is, when a customer adds items to their shopping cart but fails to complete the purchase. According to a study by Baymard Institute, the average abandonment cart rate across all industries is 69.99%. Pretty high, huh?

So, what are the most common reasons for an abandoned cart, and how can you prevent this from happening on your online store? Let’s take a closer look.

High shipping costs

High shipping costs can be a major turn-off for customers leading to cart abandonment. If you want to avoid this issue, consider offering free shipping, especially for orders over a certain amount, or providing different shipping options so customers can choose the one that best suits their needs. Absorbing the shipping cost in the price of the product itself could mean the difference between a won or lost sale.

Complicated checkout process

A complicated checkout process can frustrate customers and cause them to abandon their carts. In fact, according to a study by Smart Insights, 27% of customers abandon their carts when coming into contact with a complicated checkout process. To prevent this, it’s important to streamline the checkout process, making it as simple and straightforward as possible. Consider offering multiple payment options and ensuring your checkout page is mobile-friendly.

Slow loading pages

Slow-loading pages can also be a significant issue for e-commerce businesses. According to a study by Kissmetrics, 47% of consumers expect a page to load in 2 seconds or less, and 40% of customers abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load. To avoid this issue, we suggest optimising your website for speed. Using techniques such as compressing images, minimising plugins, and using a fast hosting provider can make a world of difference.

Read more about how you can speed up your website.

Hidden fees

Hidden fees can come as a surprise to customers and can cause them to abandon their carts. This can include fees for shipping, taxes, or processing. To prevent this, it is important for businesses to be transparent about their fees and to clearly display them before the customer reaches the checkout page.

There are a variety of ecommerce platforms and plugins available to help businesses ensure transparency with their fees, such as WooCommerce and Shopify, which provide built-in tools for displaying fees and calculating shipping costs. Or you can work with your courier provider to find out how to integrate with your systems.

Solutions include adding a shipping calculator to the product page, or providing a detailed breakdown of fees on the checkout page. By doing so, customers can make informed purchasing decisions and will be less likely to abandon their carts due to unexpected fees.

Lack of trust

A lack of trust can also be a significant issue for ecommerce businesses. According to a study, 93% of consumers believe that reviews from other customers are essential when making a purchase decision.

Trust is essential for any ecommerce business, and building trust with your customers is crucial to establishing long-term relationships with them. Here are some additional ways ecommerce businesses can build trust:

1. Provide excellent customer service: Respond promptly to customer inquiries and concerns, offer helpful solutions to any issues they encounter, and go above and beyond to ensure they are satisfied with their purchase.
2. Be transparent: Be upfront about shipping and return policies, pricing, and any other important information that could affect a customer’s decision to make a purchase.
3. Use social proof: In addition to customer reviews, display awards and accolades your business has received, or highlight positive press coverage your products have received.
4. Offer guarantees: Providing a money-back guarantee or a warranty on your products can help reassure customers that they are making a safe and secure purchase.
5. Build a strong brand: By consistently delivering high-quality products and exceptional customer service, your brand will become associated with trust and reliability, making customers more likely to return to your business for future purchases.

To build trust with your customers, providing detailed product information, clear and high-quality images, and making the most of customer reviews is important. Using SSL encryption to protect customer information will also go a long way to ensuring your website is secure.

No option to save cart

Some customers may want to save items in their cart for later, but if your online store doesn’t offer this option, they may abandon their cart. To prevent this, you should consider offering a “Save Cart” or “Wish List” option, which allows customers to save items they’re interested in so they can deliberate and come back later.

Conclusion

Cart abandonment is a major issue for e-commerce businesses as it jeopardises a business’s ability to maximise revenue and growth. By addressing the common causes, including high shipping costs, complicated checkout processes, slow loading pages, hidden fees, and by building trust with your customers, you can significantly reduce the risk of an abandoned cart and increase your conversion rate. By providing a seamless and trustworthy shopping experience, you too can gain customer loyalty and grow your business.