Tips on how to improve ecommerce shopping cart abandonment

Cart abandonment is a big challenge for many ecommerce managers and owners. How can you deal with this problem and really convert potential customers into actual customers?

In this article, we explore a range of data and a number of effective strategies to improve the cart abandonment rate.

 

What is cart abandonment

Cart abandonment occurs when one or more products are added to the cart during the purchase phase, but then these products are not purchased and the site is abandoned with no payment made. The customer then 'abandons' the shopping cart without completing any transaction. 

This is a very frequent phenomenom in the world of e-commerce and clearly has negative implications on both conversions and sales revenue, as they are missed opportunities where prospects become full customers.

Shopping cart abandonment is never coincidental, and is almost always caused by some factor that the potential customer finds discouraging in the navigation of ecommerce. We go into this in a little more detail in the next section with some statistics and the main causes of abandonment.

 

Some statistics on cart abandonment

According to a study by SaleCycle, the global abandoned cart rate is 80.68%. Another important fact is that the majority of abandoned shopping carts are from mobile devices, 83.76%. 

Furthermore, according to Barclaycard's research, as much as 18 billion dollars are burned annually due to abandoned shopping carts. 

And in Italy? According to data collected by Statista, in the last quarter of 2022 almost 90% of potential buyers abandoned their shopping carts from mobile devices. Desktop users in the same period had an abandonment rate of 77%. 

So what are the main causes that lead to shopping cart abandonment? Here are the main ones:

• High shipping costs
• Additional hidden costs
• The creation of an account to pay
• The site does not appear secure for payments
• Errors during navigation
• Few payment options
• Slow site loading

Let us now look at a number of practices that can help reduce shopping cart abandonment on your ecommerce site.

 

Tips for reducing cart abandonment

1) Improving ecommerce performance 

Sooner or later everyone will have ended up on a site that doesn't seem to want to load... who has the patience to wait and then perhaps have to repeat the same thing for individual pages? Nobody. If your site takes more than 3 seconds to load, you should definitely review this aspect to speed up loading times. Some hints to consider in order to improve your site's performance: choose quality hosting, optimise your database structure, reduce the weight of images, reduce the size of HTML, CSS and JavaScript files, make use of the browser cache and reduce HTTP requests.

 

2) Simplify the checkout phase

The longer and complicated the checkout process, the more likely it is that customers will abandon the purchase. A good step to start with is to simplify the checkout by reducing the number of steps required, also avoiding unnecessary requests for information or questions. Also, one thing to consider is adding a progress bar to show customers where they are in the checkout process. And don't forget the CTAs, which should be clear and simple.

 

3) Offer alternative payment methods 

The payment phase must run smoothly, but this is not enough. A flawless payment process also includes offering different payment methods. Some customers prefer to pay directly via PayPal, while others prefer to use a credit card or buy on an account. Do you sell abroad? All the more reason to consider additional payment methods. Read this article if you want to learn more about the best payment methods for ecommerce.

 

4) Offer free shipping 

People on ecommerce often look for cheaper offers and prices, and finding an additional cost in shipping is repulsive. Providing a free shipping service will not only help your potential buyers perceive a certain convenience, but also transparency and simplification, because it is always one less point that the buyer will not have to think about.

 

5) Show reviews or testimonials to build trust

Customers want to be sure that they are shopping on a safe and trustworthy site. To do this, you could include a section of reviews or testimonials about the experience of buying from your ecommerce store. Additionally to lending credibility and authenticity to your ecommerce, keep in mind that a potential buyer tends to trust the opinions of other buyers more, so reviews and testimonials are a great way to build trust and confidence, helping people overcome their buying uncertainties and converting them into actual buyers.

 

6) Offer a solid experience on mobile too

The way a site is viewed on smartphones and tablets plays an extremely important role. If your site is not mobile-friendly, it can have a strong negative impact on both the user experience and the performance of the online shop, and reduced conversions are only one of several negative consequences. In addition to cart abandonment, abandonment of the site itself may occur in case of complex navigation, which is full of errors and incorrect views. In addition to this there is a penalisation on search engines and damage to brand reputation, aspects for which competitors will be happy to thank you.

 

7) Clear return policies

Clarity and transparency on return policies contribute to improving the overall experience a user has on an ecommerce site. Users who are well aware that they can exchange or return a product without too much complexity are more trusting of ecommerce and see this option as convenient. Thus, this is an aspect that can positively affect the cart abandonment rate and consequently also have a considerable impact on the sales and reputation of your online shop.

 

8) Retargeting

With retargeting you can focus on the online behaviour of your users and remind people who abandon their cart that there is still something in their cart. The objective of retargeting is in fact to show personalised ads to users who have already had interactions with your site based on their last behaviour. There are several ways to convince all those potential customers to buy products, e.g. email marketing, banner ads and retargeting via mobile apps.

 

Conclusion

Reducing cart abandonment rates is crucial for improving conversions and sales of your online shop. In case you are experiencing a number of shopping cart abandonments our analysis can provide you with a first overview of the possible causes and also a number of strategies on how to deal with this problem. Keep in mind that DevInterface can be your ally in helping you implement all these strategies in detail and improve the performance of your ecommerce store. With our experience in the field we can provide you with customised solutions and expert advice to optimise the performance of your online shop. Contact us to schedule a non-binding call.