What Is Cart Abandonment and How to Get the Customer Back to Purchase

During August 2022 – July 2023, an average of 72.2% of shopping carts were abandoned. Such an indicator is a real challenge for online businesses.

So, how can you encourage your potential customers to make the final step and place an order? In this article, we will explain why customers leave an online store without a purchase and how to reduce cart abandonment.

What Is Cart Abandonment

An abandoned cart refers to the situation when the customer adds the item to the shopping cart but leaves the website without completing the purchase. The reasons for this consumer behavior are different, but they all lead to the main consequence – loss of profit. eCommerce brands lose $18 billion in revenue annually due to cart abandonment.

Card Abandonment Reasons: Why Shoppers Don’t Finalize the Purchase

The majority of online store visitors aren’t ready to purchase something immediately. They can browse the range of available products, compare prices and features, look for inspiration, or just research a brand.

However, statistics reveal the 10 most common cart abandonment reasons.

Extra Costs Are Too High

47% of respondents noted that they didn’t want to complete a purchase if shipping, taxes, or other fees were too high for them. Also, users do not like it when additional expenses appear unexpectedly.

The Need to Create an Account

25% of people surveyed do not want to create an account to buy something. A potential customer might be planning a one-time purchase or a quick checkout, and creating an account becomes a hurdle. Some users don't want to share their own emails. Others don't want to remember another password that they might not even need in the future.

Delivery Is Too Slow

Every year, customers become more impatient and want to receive their orders as quickly as possible. This is why 24% of respondents leave abandoned carts due to long order delivery times.

Financial Data Security

A potential buyer may be hesitant to share credit card information if the site lacks:

• An SSL certificate that confirms a secure connection between a client and a server;
• Familiar payment gateway – Fondy, LiqPay, Payoneer, etc.;
• Customer reviews;
• Modern and clear design that inspires confidence.

Statistics show that 19% of respondents abandon their carts because they don’t want to share their financial data.

The Checkout Is Too Long or Difficult

18% of people surveyed do not complete a purchase if:

• placing an order takes too long;
• there are difficulties with placing an order.

Inconsistent checkout, as well as requesting too much personal information, can lead to shopping cart abandonment.

Inconsistent checkout violates the logical chain “product in cart → delivery and payment information → customer data → delivery method → order preview → payment → confirmation.”

Lack of Final Order Cost

Suppose a potential customer has visited your website, chose the necessary items, and added them to the shopping cart, but there is no, or they can’t see the final cost of the order. In such a case, the user is forced to summarize the prices per item on their own. This is time-consuming and inconvenient. What’s more, the result the user got and the real cost of the order may be different because of the calculation mistake.

Because of this reason, 17% of people surveyed abandon their shopping carts.

Unsatisfactory Return Policy

Online shopping is always about risks because the item may not fit or be damaged. That’s why the convenient possibility to return the product, exchange it, or get a guarantee is important for customers. According to statistics, 16% of respondents leave their cart unpaid if the online store does not comply with such conditions.

Technical Issues on the Website

14% of people surveyed do not complete purchases if they experience slow loading, website crashes, incorrect display, or other technical problems with the store.

Lack of Payment Methods

Your website visitors may be eager to pay in installments via Apple Pay or Google Pay or use a payment upon delivery opportunity. Each of them is a potential client that you don’t want to lose.

If a site doesn't have enough payment methods, its visitors risk falling into the 11% for whom this is a reason to abandon their cart.

Credit Card Declined

According to statistics, 6% of respondents will not repeat a transaction if it has been declined and will abandon the purchase.

Why It Is Important to Decrease the Cart Abandonment Rate

Every abandoned purchase means a potential customer who was interested in your products but changed their mind or encountered problems placing their order. By reducing the cart abandonment rate, you can increase conversions, sales, and customer loyalty.

How to Calculate a Cart Abandonment Rate

To find your cart abandonment rate, use the formula:

1 – number of completed transactions / number of created carts x 100

For example, the number of completed transactions on your website is 200; and the number of created shopping carts is 600.

Let’s calculate:

200 / 600 = 0.33

1 – 0.33 = 0.66

0.66 x 100 = 66

So, your cart abandonment rate is 66%.

5 Abandoned Cart Recovery Strategies

Before implementing cart abandonment solutions, ensure that all technical issues and potential causes of an abandoned cart error are fixed. Even the most effective marketing efforts will not help reduce cart abandonment rates if your website is malfunctioning and only one payment system is available to pay for the order. After this, consider implementing an omnichannel approach. It aims to create a seamless experience between the brand and customers across various channels.

This is an effective solution for reducing cart abandonment and increasing conversions because it allows you to:

• Choose the purchasing method that suits the user most. For example, a potential client can start a purchase on a website and end in a mobile application.
• Collect more data about visitors from different sources and use this information to create personalized emails, push notifications, SMS, etc.
• Analyze the results of mailings and improve their performance by regulating the number of channels involved, the content of messages, etc.

To create effective personalized newsletters, you need to know exactly who they are intended for. This is where web tracking and behavioral segmentation will help. You can create different user groups and then develop relevant abandoned cart recovery scenarios for each segment. For example:

• those who abandoned the cart for no longer than 10 hours – group 1;
• those who added products from a certain brand to their cart – group 2;
• those who abandoned the cart but continued to look for something – group 3;
• those who left the cart a long time ago – group 4.

For each segment, you need to find the most effective way to communicate and seamlessly get users back to the purchase. Let's discover five proven eCommerce cart abandonment solutions that will also help create a positive shopping experience for your customers.

Standard Abandoned Cart Reminder

Collect information about the forgotten product and send the user an abandoned cart email inviting them to continue shopping. It may contain:

• product image;
• product rating and reviews;
• order amount with a discount;
• a noticeable CTA that will lead to the cart.

The open rate of such letters is 45%, which is almost 2.5 times higher than the rate for regular emails. Every fifth recipient of such a message clicks on it, and 11% definitely buy something.

In addition to email newsletters, abandoned cart reminders can come in the form of:

• widgets

• web push messages

• Viber messages

• SMS

• App Inbox

• mobile push notifications

An Offer with a Discount or Promo Code

To increase user retention on your app and website, encourage potential customers with a bonus. Offer a discount, free shipping, a personal promo code, or a gift in exchange for completing an order.

Provide Social Proof

Show users that the product they added to their cart has already been liked by other customers. Use customer reviews or UGC (user-generated content) as evidence. For example:

• Send a web push with the text: “2 new reviews have just appeared for *product name*. See what others think of it."
• Send a message on Viber with the text: “*product name* has become the favorite of more than 123 women. Try it too."
• Send an email with the text “I've been using *product name* for 2 weeks now, and it has made my life so much easier,” – our customer *name* shared 3 reasons why they would come back for *product name* again and again.”

Product Recommendations

As for another strategy, you can send emails with items related to the ones abandoned by the customer. Perhaps your customers didn't complete the purchase because they didn't find what they were looking for, while your personalized selection may help them with it.

Survey

Feel free to ask questions about abandoned carts. Create a survey for those who forgot about their order. The reasons can be different: someone was distracted, postponed the purchase, or delivery times were not satisfactory. Offer help to complete the purchase.

In addition to letters, you can conduct such surveys using widgets. According to the study, their conversion rate is 12.62%.

However, do not send all messages to buyers at once. It is best to divide the process into several stages. For example, send a message:

• 60 minutes after the potential client abandoned the cart because such emails have a better conversion rate (CR) – 20.3% instead of 12.2%;
• after 24-36 hours – Barilliance believes that the second timely sent cart abandonment message gives 17.7% CR instead of 7.7%;
• after 72 hours – the conversion rates are the same as in the previous case.

Examples of Effective Triggers

Well-known eCommerce brands know how to hook a potential client. Let's analyze five interesting cases and unlock the secret of trigger campaigns for abandoned carts.

Dyson

The company created a short, clear, and caring text. “All is not lost” and “We have saved the contents” emphasize that this letter is not primarily about Dyson but about and for the customer. The message also includes a larger image of the product and what the user's abandoned cart looks like now.

They also didn’t forget about the sense of urgency: Dyson noted that they kept the promotional offer, but it will be valid for a limited time.

These 2 points are no less effective:

• 4 great reasons for shopping at Dyson;
• 2 CTA buttons. The company took care of both PC and mobile users – the call to action is visible on all devices while scrolling the page.

Shafa.ua

Using Yespo functionality, Shafa.ua created personalized omnichannel campaigns for the abandoned cart trigger: it involves mobile pushes, emails, and web pushes. Product recommendations have also been added to emails.

The email text used a popular caring technique: “We saved this item for you.” Next, the company offers to complete the order without returning to the site because the customer can do it directly from the letter.

The average conversion rate for an abandoned cart trigger across all eСommerce niches is 8.76%. Shafa.ua managed to reach 25%.

Pandora

This case is an excellent example of mailing personalization and effective email copywriting. The letter has the following items that convert:

• an image of a product that is already in the customer’s cart;
• praise – “You have great taste”;
• encouragement to purchase through social proof – “177 people are viewing this item”;
• simple and clear CTA button.

Kitaec

Kitaec, a spare part supplier for Chinese cars, has implemented advanced segmentation and created an omnichannel workflow for an abandoned cart trigger using Yespo:

• 20 minutes after the user abandoned a cart, they receive a Viber message with an offer to complete the purchase;
• if the order is not made, an email is sent after 10 minutes;
• if this does not produce results, a push is sent a day later;
• if the purchase is not completed after the push, 2 last reminder emails about the abandoned cart are sent.

The number of orders increased by 1872%, and the profitability of this trigger increased by 3983%.

Adidas

“Is your Wi-Fi okay?” is a headline from Adidas that is great for attracting attention. The company states: “Maybe your browser crashed when looking at the Iconic Gazelle silhouette?”

Anticipating that not everyone will like the color and design of the shoes, Adidas offers to customize the sneakers. Accordingly, there are 2 CTA buttons:

• "Shop now"
• "Customize"

To finally motivate the client to complete the purchase, social proof was added as well – UGC photos and reviews from happy owners of sneakers.

Use Yespo to Get Your Customers Back to the Shopping Cart

Yespo is an omnichannel CDP, where all data and channels are located in a single system. We help automate the marketing process for businesses that want to use large amounts of information to communicate with existing and potential customers.

With the help of Yespo, you can minimize abandoned carts using the functionality of the service:

• setting up and editing triggered workflows, in particular abandoned carts;
• running omnichannel workflows using various channels: email, Viber, push messages, popups, SMS, in-app and app inbox;
• using segmentation capabilities to gain a deeper understanding of your business and customer needs;
• receiving regular reports to increase the effectiveness of all communication channels;
• using multilingual features to communicate in the language spoken by your potential and existing customers;
• unifying customer data in order to identify visitors through any communication channel and collect information about them in a single profile;
• using artificial intelligence to implement product recommendations, reactivation, clustering, customer lifecycle optimization, etc.

Conclusion

Abandoned carts are a challenge for businesses in different niches. Perfectly, the abandoned cart rate should be as low as possible because every unfilled order is a lost profit for the company.

After you have fixed all the issues that lead to cart abandonment, proceed with implementing your chosen strategy. Using an omnichannel approach is one of the most effective tactics since it allows for communicating with users through all marketing channels and collecting customer data from different sources.

Thanks to the omnichannel tactic, Shafa.ua achieved a 25% conversion rate for the abandoned cart trigger. This is 16.24% higher than the average for ecommerce brands.

Regularly study customer behavior, continue to select the best communication options for them, and use an omnichannel approach together with Yespo CDP to ensure that your business constantly grows.

Special Request Inline