Recent statistics show that, on average, more than 70 percent of shopping carts are never converted into actual purchases. This means that out of 10 users who place products in the cart, only 4 complete the payment. The rest, however, for whatever reason, choose not to continue with the purchase.

Having a very high cart abandonment rate (especially compared to the average) means you are losing a lot of customers and a lot of revenue opportunities. But don’t panic, surely there is room for improvement.

Surveys and studies are conducted every year to understand the reasons behind these behaviors. In fact, by understanding the most common reasons, it is much easier to reason about effective strategies to improve your online store’s results.

Let’s get started right away! What you will find in this article:

What is cart abandonment rate and how is it calculated?

Cart abandonment rate is a metric that measures the percentage of online shopping sessions that are aborted before payment is completed.

It is calculated by dividing the number of abandoned carts by the total number of carts started, multiplying the result by 100 to get a percentage.

What are the most common reasons for shopping cart abandonment?

The reasons behind the abandonment of the trolley are many and vary by sector and audience.

However, we can give you some data, taken from a Baymard Institute study that compiled the results of 49 different studies and calculated an average cart abandonment rate of around 70.19 percent.

So what are the most common reasons?

Also according to Baymard Institute, much of the abandonment of shopping carts is due to no real intention to purchase, this about 48 percent of the abandonments.

If we leave out this motivation and focus on the abandonments that occur when there is a true purchase intent, a ranking of the most recurrent causes has been compiled:

  • 48% for extra costs that are too high (such as shipping, taxes and fees)
  • 26% for therequirement to create an account to register on the site
  • 25% don’t trust leaving their credit card information on the site
  • 23% for delivery too slow
  • 22% for checkout process too long or complex
  • 21% because he could not read the total costs in advance
  • 18% for incomplete or unsatisfactory return policy
  • 17% because they found the site crashed or with issues
  • 13% because the site does not allow multiple payment methods
  • 9% because the credit card was declined

Here are some effective strategies to reduce cart abandonment

Before delving into specific strategies, it is critical to understand that small changes can have a big impact on a customer’s final decision. If you adopt targeted tactics to address your customers’ main concerns, you can significantly improve your e-commerce conversion rate.

1. Try to limit shipping costs

The first most common reason for cart abandonment is too costly shipping.

Opt for free shipping when a certain spending threshold is exceeded and choose a multi-courier strategy, so work with multiple couriers and give the customer a way to choose the one they want most.

Indeed, there are couriers known to be cheaper, for example, Poste Italiane; or to be very fast, such as UPS.

Then add in the checkout of your shop the different shipping methods. Remember that your customers always have a preferred carrier!

2. Do not make site registration mandatory

Mandatory registration is the second most common reason for non-purchase.

To limit these losses, allow users to complete purchases as guests, without the need to create an account.

After purchase, you can invite the user to register by promising a discount code that will arrive by e-mail.

3. Improves reliability and a sense of trust toward your site

When the site does not convey trust, it is very difficult to get sales. You can increase the trustworthiness of your brand by highlighting your company’s pluses and benefits of purchasing on the site, such as shipping costs, any welcome coupons, and the policy on free shipping and returns.

Also add a FAQ section to answer the most frequently asked questions about shopping and your products. The clearer and more transparent you are, the more the sense of uncertainty about your e-commerce will decrease.

Also very useful are reviews and testimonials from your customers, which you can add directly to your site, but also externally, for example through Trustpilot.

4. Speed up the delivery time of orders

Promoting fast delivery times can convince undecided customers to complete their purchase, especially if they are purchasing items they want to receive promptly. Choose couriers that are known to be very fast and make explicit at checkout the delivery timeframe for products.

5. Simplify the checkout process

22% of of of the customers stop their purchase because of an overly complex and lengthy checkout procedure.

Our advice is to reduce the steps required to complete the purchase and request only essential data.

In addition, it is imperative to optimize thecheckout experience for mobile devices, as traffic from smartphones accounts for more than â…” of the total e-commerce sessions (68%) and the cart abandonment rate is higher than desktop sessions. Make sure your site is responsive, that buttons are easy to click even on small screens, and that input forms are properly sized for easy typing.

You might also be interested in our article on:
How to improve your business website to make it more attractive

6. Make the total order costs visible before payment

Arriving at checkout and finding a higher total than the one in the cart can stiffen the customer and lead them not to complete the purchase.

Have customers be able to see additional costs (such as tax and shipping) before they begin the payment process or by browsing the site in clearly visible sections.

7. Provide for real-time support service

Often users do not complete the purchase because they do not feel reassured about cases where the product does not fit or is not as expected. In fact, 18 percent of shopping cart abandonments are due precisely to an incomplete or unsatisfactory return policy.
To address this, you can integrate real-time support through chatbots and phone support into your e-commerce and thus facilitate immediate communication. Customers will be able to receive quick answers on concerns about orders, returns, shipments, etc.

8. Improve website speed and do maintenance

As anticipated above, a whopping 17% of shopping cart abandonments are due to the site crashing or other issues inherent in the operation of the site. That’s why you should always ensure efficient online sales service. And how to do that?

  1. First try to optimize page loading speed. Eliminate unnecessary elements, reduce the weight of images, and use file compression.
  2. Second, regularly plan to maintain and update your site to ensure that all features are up and running, thus preventing any disruptions.

Remember that regular site maintenance is crucial to ensure asmooth and professional user experience.

In this regard, discover our website maintenance service!

9. Expand the payment methods accepted by your website

Instead, a 13 percent of dropouts are caused by the absence of different payment methods and thus the inability to select the one you prefer.

The solution is to expand the range of payment options to accommodate the preferences of all customers and reduce cart abandonment.
We also recommend integrating instant payment methods such as ApplePay o Paypal which simplify the checkout process by allowing the purchase to be completed in just a few taps or clicks.

10. Motivate purchase with coupons or discounts at checkout

Finally, we give you one last tip to apply directly on the site: incentivize purchase with coupons and discounts at checkout. A pleasant and unexpected surprise that can motivate the customer to finish the process.
You can opt for time-limited discounts or automatically applied special offers that create a sense of urgency and increase the likelihood of conversion. These stimuli, by the way, not only reduce the cart abandonment rate, but can also increase customer loyalty, leading them to return for future shopping opportunities.

Some techniques for recovering abandoned carts

If earlier we provided you with tips to implement directly on the site, now we want to suggest tactics to retrieve customers who did not complete the purchase.

1. Retargeting techniques.

Retargeting is a powerful technique that allows you to target precisely those visitors who have abandoned the shopping cart with personalized ads as they browse other parts of the Web.

With these ads you can promote the products they have left in their shopping cart and perhaps offer an incentive, such as a discount, to prompt them to complete their purchase.

You can advertise by retargeting with social media or Google Ads, two very valid tools to get users back and which we invite you to learn more about with our services:

Would you like to learn more about the campaigns for online sales?

2. E-mail marketing techniques.

Users who have suspended their purchase can be retrieved with a reminder e-mail, reminding them what they left in their cart and inviting them to complete their purchase. A very effective strategy is to include in the reminder e-mail a discount code to be applied on the uncompleted purchase or free shipping.
There are automated systems for sending the e-mail, such as Mailchimp or MailUp, that offer advanced options for setting up automated e-mail sequences based on specific user behaviors.

Learn how to create a newsletter and make it a powerful marketing asset!

3. Recovery phone call

For customers who have provided their phone number during the checkout process, a phone call can be a direct and personal way to investigate the reasons for cart abandonment and offer immediate solutions.

This approach is especially useful for high-value products or for customers who have shown a high degree of purchase intent. A direct conversation can also strengthen the customer relationship and increase trust and satisfaction.

Would you like a personalized consultation to identify areas for improvement and action on your e-commerce site?

Contact us

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May 6, 2024

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