Just as we walk into physical stores to pick up, touch and look at everything, online users hop from one site to another looking for what they want or need. But once they reach the shopping cart, why do they abandon it?
Cart abandonment means the user made it all the way to the end but didn’t pay. It’s like standing in the supermarket line with your items and deciding you no longer want them. In a physical store, the cashier can persuade you to buy them, and the same is possible in online stores.
What causes cart abandonment?
According to a Quicksprout infographic, the shopping cart abandonment rate is 68%. The study found abandonment peaks on Thursdays from 8–9 p.m. Many factors can cause cart abandonment:
- Window shopping: Just as we stroll down the boulevard or through our city’s shopping mall, online users do the same, comparing prices, browsing products, etc.
- Wrong place to buy: Some users search and compare but don’t buy until they get home or somewhere they can do it calmly.
- High shipping costs: If our eCommerce offers the same as others but with higher shipping costs than competitors, users will likely abandon their cart to avoid paying more for the product.
- Product page without information: If the product page has little information, the user may need more description to be fully convinced to buy that item.
- Promo codes that don’t exist: Promo codes are great, with their discounts and free euros. But it makes no sense to have a field for entering a code if there is no code. Let’s be clear: if you tell me there’s a code, give it to me or make it easy to get, and don’t send users around in circles looking for a code that may have been inactive for 2 months.
- Not having a visible contact phone number: For any question or problem related to VAT or shipping cost calculation, it helps to have a visible phone number so the problem can be solved in a more personal way.
- A very long, outdated checkout process: If the platform and shopping cart don’t inspire trust, customers will hardly buy from you. Likewise, a contact form can block a purchase if it doesn’t work properly or asks for too many required fields.
- Payment methods: The more payment options you offer in your online store, the more likely you are to close a sale. Most eCommerce sites in Spain use 3 payment methods: bank payment gateway, bank transfer and PayPal. Some also add cash on delivery.
How do you win the customer back?
What worries us isn’t that 68% of carts are abandoned; what’s worrying is that eCommerce businesses have no strategy to win back the lost customer.
With personalized emails sent a few hours after abandonment, you can rekindle the user’s interest in the product. And if you also offer a personalized discount or free shipping, the customer is likely to come back and complete the purchase.
What about you? Have you calculated how much cart abandonment is costing you?
