Shopping cart abandonment: the struggle is real!

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This shift in consumer behaviour parallels an upward shift in the number of online businesses. E-commerce may simplify shopping for consumers, but it also has several benefits for retailers. Alongside the benefits are a fair share of complications.

One of the bigger complications online retailers grapple with is the mystery of abandoned shopping carts. What motivates a consumer to begin a check-out process, only to stop part way through? Understanding why this happens may help retailers combat the issue and, in turn, increase conversion. As the online retail space continues to grow, ensuring customers follow through is important.

Why Do People Abandon Shopping Carts?

The below graphic summarises the findings from a survey on common reasons why customers abandon checking-out midway through the process.

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According to the Baymard Institute, there are approximately 260 Billion Dollars in recoverable revenue from abandoned checkouts, with the average retailer being able to increase conversion by approximately 36%. This should serve as motivation to address this behaviour.

So what’s the solution?

Optimise the checkout experience. By doing this, you can combat some of the drop-off caused by a less-than-optimal user experience. This includes reasons such creating an account, a complicated check-out process, and not being able to see the shipping cost up-front.

Account creation

Typically, customers don’t like having to create accounts. This isn’t ideal for merchants since there are many benefits that come with capturing client information. The first way to combat this drop-off cause is to make an account optional. People tend to like choice, and if they don’t have one, there’s a good chance they’ll abandon ship.

The issue is that capturing customer information is extremely beneficial to businesses. Some of these benefits include: 1) building a user distribution list (which has a host of benefits, which includes increasing customer return rates with email marketing campaigns); 2) better understanding your customers; and 3) understanding user behaviour and purchasing habits in the context of a customer profile.

So what’s a business to do? Make account creation simple and optional, but give customers a reason to sign up.

A few ideas to encourage account creation:

• Offer a special discount, such as 10% off and/or free shipping, for creating an account;
• Offer a rewards program for account-holders;
• Offer easily-accessible order tracking and purchase history.

A few ideas to simplify the sign-up process:

• Cut out any unnecessary steps, and try to keep the required information minimal;
• Include a progress indicator — customers like to know where they are in a process.

An example of a well-executed sign-up prompt:

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