Ecommerce Encyclopedia

‟Ecommerce is a powerful means to connect the unconnected to global trade” - Arancha Gonzalez

What is abandoned cart and why it happens?

1. What is Abandoned Cart?

Abandoned cart is the situation when customers put items on their online shopping cart but exit the website without placing orders. The cart abandonment rate shows the proportion of the items added to the shopping cart are abandoned. It is calculated by this formula: 

  • (Added to cart+create conversions)/added to cart
  • Or making a Google Analytics report for cart withdrawal, which uses the same formula.

2. Abandoned Cart: the reason consumers abandon Shopping Carts

To improve the store’s performance, shop owners should investigate and fully understand the reason why carts got cancelled. After that, retailers can figure the solution to minimize the rate of cart abandonment.

  • Price of Shipping

The simplest resolution, in this case, is offering free shipping. 61% of purchasers reconsider their buying process if free shipping is not available, as ComScore’s report. Allowing free shipping can significantly improve conversion rates, but it is only when you can handle the shipping fee, which affects the net profit. However, according to Kissmetrics, the revenue gained by offering free shipping can make a 15-30% increase in net profit. 

  • Total Cost

Customers do not like anything to fall out of their expectations, especially when it is related to money. While there are many variations, there are essentially two solutions for this problem: 

3. Checkout process

Last but not least, the reason that makes buyers hesitate and choose not to make orders is because the checkout system of your store might be too complicated. Therefore, creating a simple and clear payment process should be taken into consideration.

4. Returns, Payment, and Security

22% of US adults say “hassle of return” is the biggest cause to leave the cart while 16% claim “no suitable payment options” and 13% credit “worry about security.” 

For returns, many apps are available to make it easier for customers to return or exchange items after ordering. While using multiple reliable payment standard services can help with both problems of security and payment options.