Shopping cart abandonment is a concern for many professionals and raises doubts about the proper functioning of e-commerce. However, the information we extract from users who interact with the cart, even if they do not convert at first, is very useful for creating new opportunities.
There is no doubt: the online shopping cart abandonment rate is one of the main metrics that marketing and sales managers of a digital project must take into account. It is a necessary KPI in e-commerce , but we must know how to interpret and analyze it in order not to consume time and resources inefficiently.
According to a study by Baymard Institute , the average shopping cart abandonment rate is 69.82%. This figure may seem scary, but it is also a business opportunity if we change our approach. In addition, we must take into account one detail: abandoning the cart is not the same as abandoning the purchase process. Cart abandonment occurs morocco phone number data when the user has chosen to add a product to their cart and leaves without having finally purchased it. Another user may simply browse our website, look at the products and find out more. If they leave at that point, we would talk about abandoning the purchase process. To put it another way, abandoning the purchase process is the equivalent of entering a physical store to look at what is for sale but without taking anything. Abandoning the cart would be leaving the products on the counter before making the payment because, for example, the total amount seemed excessive or you did not like the service received.
Reasons for shopping cart abandonment
Why are shopping carts abandoned? This is the question that many UX managers will ask themselves as they rack their brains to reduce the loss of potential customers. The Baymard Institute summarises the 6 main reasons for abandoned shopping carts:
49% of users abandoned their shopping cart because the added costs were too high (shipping costs, taxes).
24% did so because the website asked them to create an account to make the purchase.
19% of users say that slow product delivery times made them abandon the process.
18% said the purchasing process was too long and complicated.
17% of potential buyers stopped because the e-commerce site did not inspire confidence in entering their credit card details.
Another 17% stopped because they could not calculate the final cost of the product from the start.