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Online retailers face many challenges. Conversion rates, website design, customer satisfaction, pricing, and more all influence the success of an online store. The lifetime of a business is always influenced by how well it can overcome all the hurdles involved, so smart entrepreneurs stay on the lookout for every solution they can find. Of course, each business is unique. The specific challenges you face will often depend on your industry, target audience, business model, location, and other factors. But there’s one obstacle that every ecommerce website faces, no matter the size of the business and no matter how successful otherwise: shopping cart abandonment.
Shopping cart abandonment is when a customer puts products in their online shopping cart but then leaves the website without completing the purchasing process. Every year, billions of dollars are lost to abandoned carts, and it may surprise you to learn that ecommerce market statistics show that an average of 69% of all online shopping carts were abandoned in the first quarter of 2022. However, the numbers were also high in the last couple of years too due to the pandemic.
Likely because competition continues to grow and customers are presented with ever more choices when it comes to where they shop. The world of ecommerce has expanded so much that customers can afford to be very picky, so it’s easier than ever to lose them — even when they’ve already loaded their cart with products. There are so many reasons that you need to adopt multiple essential features to reduce cart abandonment. Let’s discuss the 10 main reasons behind shopping cart abandonment so you can get started on implementing solutions.
1. Unexpected Costs
It can be also called a pricing discrepancy and occurs when a customer arrives at checkout and the total for their order is higher than expected. This usually happens when the shopping cart only displays the base price of the items and a subtotal, without adding the additional charges for tax and shipping. Even the most experienced online shoppers can forget about these charges until they appear during checkout!
You can alleviate nasty surprises by implementing real-time tax and shipping calculations in your shopping cart. Another option is to provide free shipping if your business can afford it. Because free shipping is one of the most significant in-debt to completing an order. 48% of customers say they’re more likely to complete a purchase if the merchant offers free shipping.
Alternatively, offer free shipping once a certain minimum order total is reached. Customers will often purchase an additional item if it means they can get free shipping, which has the side benefit of raising your average order value. Also, expanding your shipping area will help you cover more customers.
2. Confusing and Difficult Checkout Procedure
Some customers abandon their carts because they run into problems while checking out. For example, the checkout page loads very slowly, making the customer wonder if their order even went through.
Other checkout mistakes factor in too, like forcing the customer to enter redundant information or splitting checkout over multiple pages unnecessarily.
%24 of online shoppers abandon their carts if guest checkout is not an option and it is obligatory to create an account before completing their order. To prevent customers from getting fed up with checkout, streamline the process as much as possible. Use modern ecommerce software hosted on a reliable server that provides both bug-free stability and speed. Instead of making them enter their address twice, provide a checkbox that lets the customer indicate their billing and shipping addresses are the same. Use a page layout that makes the required fields obvious (and doesn’t force the customer to start over if they do make a mistake). If your shopping cart software supports it, consider using a single-page checkout as well.
3. No Coupon or Discount Is Not Working
Almost all the users check out using coupon codes and expect you to offer coupons. If a coupon code doesn’t work, 46% of users will abandon their carts. Are your coupon codes up to date?
Be sure that your coupon codes work. Because non-working coupons will affect the purchase. Consumers who want to buy because there is a coupon may give up. In addition, this is a critical point for brand reliability.
If there is a problem in the discount application or when a coupon does not work, you can immediately intervene with the help center section, which is activated quickly. It is useful to check discounts and coupons frequently.
4. The Customer Doesn’t Trust the Website
Being a reliable and trustworthy brand is one of the most important checks for selling better. But of course, you need to reflect this aspect also on your website. If the customer doesn’t trust your payment options or sending the right product, shipping arrangements, and returning process; your sales will decrease significantly.
Customer reviews are very effective to gain trust. Incorporating user comments on your site, and highlighting positive feedback allows users to choose you more easily and comfortably.
5. The Customer Can’t Use Their Preferred Payment Method
While credit cards remain the most popular payment method for shopping online, more options are becoming available and some customers will strictly prefer one payment method over another. It’s common today for an online shopper to have money sitting in PayPal or another service, and if they can’t access the funds for their purchase from your store, they’ll turn away.Depending on your target customers, look into accepting multiple payment methods at checkout. Because that 7% percent of shoppers will ditch their carts because you didn’t offer their preferred payment method.
6. The Customer Found the Product Elsewhere at A Lower Price
You can be sure your customers are checking your prices against those of your competitors. In fact, some customers fill carts in multiple competing stores as a method of comparing the total price of their order. While trust, shipping time and costs, and other factors do come into play, the customer’s decision often comes down to the price of the actual items.
It is a known fact that December is the month with the most abandoned carts, and it’s easy to understand why. Holiday sales like Black Friday etc. and significant competition from retailers give people more reasons to compare-shop. Customers will be searching for the best prices which means they will be checking your competitors’ prices.
If your prices are monitored and changed to match the landscape of your competitors, you’ll never have to worry about being undercut by another store. You’ll be able to use competitive pricing while staying within your store’s costs. Prisync will help on this part for sure. If you can offer a better deal to customers who are actively comparing their cart total on your store with another, it’s your competitor whose cart will be abandoned — not you.
7. You Have to Log In to Buy
The average internet user already has multiple logins and passwords to remember, and many people are not likely to create yet another. The prevalence of passwords like “123456,” “password,” “letmein,” “qwerty” and other most common passwords tells you that millions of people just don’t want to bother. If a website demands registration with password requirements (like “at least 12 characters with one uppercase letter, lowercase letter, number, and special character”), many users will just give up. They’d rather use a simple, weak password than take account creation seriously. If a shopper runs into a registration requirement when they go to check out on your store, chances are they’ll abandon their cart.
Unless your business model absolutely relies on membership at your site, always allow customers to check out as guests. You can still require an email address to send them to order updates. Instead of making them log in or register at the beginning of checkout, offer them the opportunity to create an account at the end of the process
8. Customer Got Distracted or Forgot
The internet and life, in general, are full of distractions. A customer could be about to complete their order, but then the phone rings or dinner is ready, or the power goes out. Unfortunately, this sometimes means the customer forgets to come back and check out your store. Forgetfulness also comes into play when a customer loads up their cart but then decides to wait on the purchase (perhaps until payday), and then it slips their mind. Or they are just doing research and have the idea of a buy-in store. Anything can happen!
A cart recovery email campaign can remind shoppers and entice them back to finish their transactions. This consists of timed emails automatically sent to customers when they abandon a cart. Sometimes just a single email a week later can do the trick, and if you toss in an exclusive discount, that gives you an even bigger chance to draw them back — even if it’s just 10% off.
9. Slow Website Performance
53% percent of customers will leave your site if your pages take longer than three seconds to load. And 80% of those customers who left your site due to slow loading speeds will never return. These statistics are quite high, right?
In a period where technology and internet speed are constantly developing, being on the shore of a slow-loading online store is a big disadvantage. Moreover, at a time when we are almost completely sure that most customers do not have the patience to wait. You should offer a very practical and fast-running sales environment.
For this, you can avoid sections that you think are slowing your site down, or you can use accelerators. Make sure you don’t deliver a slow experience by running various test runs.
10. Are You Mobile-Friendly?
Cart abandonment differs by device. Smaller devices have a higher cart abandonment rate. Desktop users abandon carts at 73.07%, tablet users at 80.74%, and mobile users at 85.65%. For this reason, it is very important to optimize your site and the platforms on which you sell products in a mobile-friendly way too. Prevent the users coming from mobile from leaving their cards abandoned by arranging your store in a mobile-friendly manner.
Final Words
Since cart abandonment has so many root causes, your strategy needs to approach it from every angle. The first requirement is knowledge of these causes and how to deal with them. Then, it’s time to look at your website and identify areas for improvement. Is your checkout slow? Are your customers being surprised by shipping costs? Are there popular payment methods you’ve overlooked? Ask yourself these questions and the others raised in this article.
Shoring up your eCommerce website’s weaknesses isn’t all there is to it, however — you can implement tools like price-matching software, abandoned cart recovery emails, guest checkout, and more. Your overall goal is to create the most convenient, best-priced online store in your industry with a streamlined checkout that takes down all the barriers between your customers and their purchase. Put your abandoned cart prevention strategy into play and you’ll stop leaving money on the table.
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