It is estimated that nearly 70%of all online shoppers leave their carts without making any purchase. It means ecommerce businesses are losing almost three-fourth of their prospective income.
That’s huge!
As a direct result of this customer behavior, ecommerce websites in the United States have an average conversion rate of2.57%.
Rosie Bailey, CEO of Nibble, an interactive chatbot that enables you to haggle for a product you’re interested in purchasing,said;
“It is a bit of a leaky bucket. You spend a huge amount of effort inviting someone to come to your website and they could leave at any stage in that journey”.
Clearly, the key to running a successful online store is to convert as many visitors into paying customers as possible.
To increase the number of sales that come from carts that customers leave behind, marketers need to keep track of why customers leave their carts behind.
Before we can address the issue of customers abandoning their shopping carts, we must first understand how to count the number of uncompleted transactions.
How to calculate shopping cart abandonment rate?
Start by dividing the total number of completed purchases by the total number of shopping carts created, then deduct 1 from that figure, and multiply by 100 to get the proportion of shopping carts that are not completed.
For instance, if you have 300 carts that have been created but only 100 customers have actually completed their transactions, then your cart abandonment rate is 66%.
cart-abandonment-reasons-formula 
An overview
Now that you know how to calculate the cart abandonment rate, the next step is to find out why people leave their carts.
Check out the below bar chart from statista that shows the most common reasons why people abandon their shopping carts. Post that, we’ll look into each of these problems in more depth and offer hot tips on how to fix them.
cart-abandonment-reasons-statistics 
1) Unexpected costs at checkout
Nearly half of the shoppers leave items in their carts due to unexpected costs like shipping, taxes, and additional fees that show up at checkout. Customers may reassess their purchase after they discover such expenses, then abandon their cart if they believe their requirements aren’t being met.
Hot tip: This can be avoided by informing customers upfront about shipping prices, taxes, and other fees. You can show these details on the product detail page by asking for the customer’s zip code.
Also, bear in mind that you can always raise the price of your goods to cover the shipping costs, allowing you to keep your shipping expenses as low as possible without scaring away customers.
Here’s an example of an ecommerce storeMissguidedthat sells outfits.
cart-abandonment-reasons-missguided-product-detail-page 
On the product detail page, they make a point of clearly outlining all of the costs associated with purchasing their products.
2) Asking users to create a new account
The majority of first-time customers want a quick and easy checkout experience. They do not want to enter their information or go through a lengthy account creation process, which causes them to become frustrated and abandon the transaction.
Some fields, such as address, phone number, and other contact information, are required. Anything more, however, risks alienating customers and losing the sale.
Hot tip: Give customers the option to check out as a guest to make their lives easier. This enables them to complete an online purchase quickly and easily without disclosing all of their personal information. To expedite the checkout process, you might also want to use a social login feature.
3) Delayed shipping
Delayed delivery and lack of shipping options are causing nearly one out of every four customers to abandon their shopping carts. In today’s ecommerce world, where there is so much competition, faster shipping has become a necessity for all online store owners.
Hot tip: If you want to make your customers happy, you need to work with multiple shipping and logistics providers. Also, make sure that these shipping partners are providing real-time tracking information to your customers.
4) Complicated checkout process
According to Statista, 18% of customers abandon their shopping cart if the checkout process takes too long or becomes complicated. Customers are looking for a simple and hassle-free process so any additional steps can degrade the user experience.
Hot tip: Optimizing the checkout process to make it more streamlined and simple is one idea. Repeat users can benefit from prefilled fields to speed up the checkout process.
5) Payment security concerns
It’s hardly surprising that the vast majority of shoppers are extremely cautious when it comes to making payments online. Any hint of uncertainty about the trustworthiness of your site, the absence of payment security measures, or the absence of reputable payment providers, when it comes to customers’ essential information, is all it takes for them to leave and go somewhere else.
Hot tip: Customers may be less suspicious of a website if trust badges, SSL seals, and other visual indicators of trust are displayed prominently on the site. There is also the option of using fraud detection and protection systems for your online store.
6) Poor website performance
When websites or apps load slowly or even crash, customers have a far more difficult time completing their purchases. Due to the risk of being charged twice or having their payment attempt fail, shoppers are less likely to enter their payment information after a crash or slow page load.
Hot tip: Conduct performance tests on your shopping cart and checkout process, focusing on evaluating load times, downtime, and responsiveness. Find the bugs and weak spots in your shopping cart’s performance, and fix them as necessary so that it can better serve your customers.
7) Unclear return & refunds policy
Customers want to know how easy it is to return anything (and/or get refunds) to your online store, especially if you sell apparels. It’s possible they’ll change their minds if the return policy isn’t clear or acceptable. Almost all customers want the peace of mind that comes with knowing they can return an item for a full refund if something goes wrong.
Hot tip: Make it easy for customers to return items by providing a straightforward return policy and a quick customer support system. Customers will feel more secure making a purchase if the return and refunds policy is made clear early on.
8) Limited payment methods
Almost 7% of people who shop online aren’t completing their purchase because they are unable to use their preferred form of payment. Another 4% of customers abandon their carts during the checkout process if their credit card is declined.
Hot tip: If you can, provide customers with a variety of payment alternatives. Prioritize the most popular payment methods first, then add more as your business grows.
Expand your payment alternatives to include more specialized ones when they become feasible, such as MasterCard, Visa, and PayPal. When it comes to payment plans and digital wallets, the more flexible you can be, the more likely your consumers are to stick around throughout checkout.
For instance, theebagsonline retail store sells a wide range of bags from various manufacturers. Customers can choose from a variety of payment methods when they check out.
cart-abandonment-reasons-ebags-payment-methods 
9) No discount coupon available
Customers who shop online are constantly being offered discount codes and other types of specials. Because shoppers have become so accustomed to this practice, a significant number of them actively seek out discount codes or postpone making a purchase until they have located one.
Hot tip: Keep providing coupon codes to your customers. Also, design your checkout in such a way that it does not discourage customers who do not have a code from completing their transaction, while at the same time making it simple to locate for customers who do have a code.
10) Lack of customer support
Last, but not the least, shopping cart abandonment rates are negatively impacted when there is insufficient support. Customers who have access to customer care options like live chat are more likely to make a purchase from a given retailer.
Hot tip: To ensure that your consumers have the very best experience possible, ensure that they can easily and quickly get in touch with you.
One of the advantages of shopping in-store is that customers have access to helpful employees who are ready to assist them in locating things or answer any queries they may have.
Live chat and customer support is one of the best ways of mimicking this experience online.
How to decrease cart abandonment rate?
1) Retarget using automation tools
Some customers need multiple touchpoints before buying. By providing relevant ads to shoppers who have abandoned their carts, you may help them remember things they viewed or added.
Retargeting can be beneficial even if customers haven’t provided their email addresses. Retargeting is more expensive than emailing or texting.
DTC and ecommerce brands can save money on remarketing by using optimized retargeting through automation tools like customer data platforms.
A centralized customer data platform (CDP) software allows you to access all of your customers’ data for all of your marketing initiatives. When all of your customers’ data is in one place, you have a complete picture of who they are and what they do. The CDP can then be linked to marketing platforms, such as email, Facebook, or SMS to activate this data.
On Lifesight, you can set up automated cart abandonment workflows with retargeting on Facebook and Google.
Sign uphereto get Moda Early Access!
2) Hyper-personalized cart abandonment messages
Sending cart recovery emails to consumers who have abandoned their checkout is a good way to regain their business.
Customers should be reminded that they have not yet completed their purchase, and they should be given the option to start from where they left off in the process. To make the process run more smoothly, you might want to consider adding a link that leads people back to the exact step they were on before they exited the page.
3) Offer discount coupons in your cart abandonment messages
Customers of online stores get a lot of discount codes and special offers. They are used to this so much that many look for coupon codes or wait to buy something until they find one.
It is also a good idea to consider offering customers a little discount as an incentive for them to complete their abandoned cart , as this will increase the likelihood that they will do so.
Here’s an example of a vegan candle brandEvil Queenthat does their cart abandon emails right!
cart-abandonment-reasons-evil-queen-email 
Wrapping it up
Customers may still abandon their shopping carts despite the fact that your website is well-designed and the products you sell are great. Nevertheless, you should focus more on making the customer experience better and remember to use our suggested hot tips!
