Shopping Cart Abandonment Rates and Solutions

I have been doing quite a bit of online shopping recently, and I noticed how often I got to a certain point in the shopping cart and then abandoned my purchase.  I have done quite a bit of research and analysis on my clients’ behalves on this very subject, so I am well aware of the major roadblocks that affect the completion of a sale online.  Experiencing it from the purchaser’s perspective inspired this week’s Five Minute Friday blog post.

What are the major causes of shopping cart abandonment?
The average shopping cart abandonment rate is a whopping 67.45% this is based on an average rate aggregated over 22 different studies and was last updated this month. Source: Baymard.com

Statista.com has come up with 14 principle reasons that shopping carts are abandoned

Reasons for consumers to drop out of an online purchase in 2012

What these Statistics Mean

Obviously some website visitors abandon for more than 1 reason but these reasons can be broken down into 4 main categories:

 

Issues Possible Solution
Price Issues Display a best price guarantee.

Avoid hidden costs. Display the final price.

Offer free shipping

Website Issues Test website navigation is user friendly and layout is intuitive

Ensure the website is mobile friendly

Host website on a reliable server and monitor server issues & timeouts

Payment Issues Trust is important – display security badges but test where and how they appearOffer multiple payment options

Ensure price is displayed in the home currency of the visitor

Other Issues Many people are just browsing – send a reminder email with a click to complete purchase option.

Simplify the process – make editing the cart easy and avoid compulsory registration

Show images of the products in the cart and offer customer support if buyers have questions.

I hope that these tips are useful, and I look forward to sharing more tips and advice next Friday. Until then…happy shopping and happy selling 🙂