Why Clients Abandon Carts

Cart abandonment is a part of lost profit in any online shop. There are a lot of reasons why users leave website without making a purchase. It can be such an ordinary thing as no door delivery or something more significant as website page download speed or complicated Registration form. In accordance with Gfk online shopping have increased by 16% in Ukraine. Just imagine how much bigger this sales index could have been if clients didn’t abandon shopping carts.

Cart abandonment will always take place and you can do nothing with it. However, cart abandonment rate will be constantly increasing if you don’t trace its reason and try to fix it. Stress level is the same for online and ordinary shopping. Our task is to consider all possible reasons of cart abandonment and to find the ways to deal with it, as well as to decide what email campaigns should be sent to convince a client to click «Buy» button.

Why clients don’t want to buy and abandon carts?

Behavior factors which can be fixed with the help of email campaigns

1. Wanted to compare prices

A user just wanted to view some products and to compare the prices. With this aim a product is added to shopping cart. Try to convince this user that there is no need to browse anymore and that you have all he/she looks for. You could send email with selected goods and offer accessories. For example, if a client looks for a laptop, offer a cooling pad, a mouse, a headset, mini speakers, laptop bags or case, etc. Tell him/her about benefits and economy in amount of … % if they buy these products together.

2. Distractions

Based on seewhy.com, оabout 20% of surveyed have abandoned carts, because they are not ready to buy at the moment. There can be numerous reasons for this: they are distracted by somebody, they need to consult somebody, they have doubts and decide to look up in Google etc.
Don’t hesitate to send follow-up email to remind a client about abandoned cart and to offer some bonus or discount.

3. Postpone a purchase

A client is happy with everything, but never comes back to make an order. Perhaps a client just browsed products and instead of wish list added them to shopping cart. In this case you should be as engaging and charming in you email campaign as you can, tell about delivery, make a limited offer etc. You know better what your clients need, so use it. 

4. Clients distrust

A smallest doubt or distrust at any stage of checkout process can reject a client.

In email campaign: tell your client about benefits of cooperation with you, so that your he\she should have no doubts.

On website:

• give your clients guaranties that it is safe to make purchase in you online shop;

• add certificates so that you client could be sure that the information they give is safe;

• organize an easy process of product return;

• explain that your goods are insured;

• provide a possibility to print an order form with stamp and signature etc.

5. No clients’ feedback

Maybe you offer a good price, but there is no feedback about this product. Your client can go to another website to search some comments and can make an order on this another website with comments provided.

In email campaign: In email you could tell your clients about top sales, the most popular products often buy on your website and provide a link to clients’ feedback. Clients’ comments about your company or your production can increase brand value and confidence in you.

On website: People trust other people comments, provide your clients with possibility to give feedback about your products on website.

6. Inconvenient delivery options

It is annoying when you need to fill in all stages of checkout process and only at one of the final stages you find out that delivery options are inconvenient for you. Please note that delivery is one of the most important aspects in online shopping and for a client it may be better to pay $10 more and to get their order in the most appropriate way with no headache.

In email campaign: Offer delivery discounts. For example, a client has added products for the amount of RUB 1,500 to the cart. Send him/her email and offer to add some more products for RUB 500 and to get a free delivery to the door.

On website: Make delivery options available any time, otherwise it may be an unpleasant surprise for your client.

Behavior factors which require technical solutions

7. Long order forms

Nobody likes filling in long forms. The required fields are only those ones you need for delivery, the other fields should be optional.

8. No contact information

It is better to provide your clients with support, than to let them look for help on other websites. Online chat is a good option for communication in real time at the stage of placing an order. Customer support helps to convince clients to make an order and to influence their decision. Your clients might not use it, but anyway they know that they can contact you in case of any questions.

It is vital that online chat works properly and doesn’t respond that consultant is busy at the moment.

9. Complicated cart

Make your cart as attractive as possible. Images and product descriptions will help to improve user’s experience.

Your cart should not just look nice, but be also user-friendly. For example, a button or icon «Quantity» at the stage of checkout process let clients make changes in their order with no effort.

10. Constant redirection to shopping cart

Don’t push your clients with «Buy now», it is better to use such СТА as «Continue shopping» or «Go to shopping cart», to let your client make a choice.

11. Slow page load

Make sure that your website works quickly. Slow web page load equals to such familiar situation in a supermarket when you stand in a long queue with a really slow cashier, while you here «Next, please» next to you and all buyers go there. You know pretty well that feeling, don’t you?

12. Real info is not displayed

A situation when a client browses website and adds goods to a shopping cart without haste and finally discovers that some goods are no longer available may also result in cart abandonment. If some of goods aren’t in stock, make sure that your client knows it before making an order.

13. No «Buy it now» button in general list

A client doesn’t abandon order just because of no «Buy it now» button, but remember about distractions and risks that your client can forget what he/she wants while just browsing your website. Get rid of any unnecessary redirections on website and let your client make an order from general list. The more actions are required to make a purchase, the smaller are the chances that your client will do them. A client may already know what he\she wants and visits website to buy specific goods. Let him read about what he/she needs without any pressure.    

Goods requiring additional specification, such as size, color, etc, may be an exclusion from this rule. A good option for such goods can be a quick view.

14. No optimization for mobile devices

According to BBC.research about 32% of respondents make orders on mobile devices. It is important that your website is optimized for it. Attempts to fill in inconvenient forms, scrolling small pages, reading small descriptions on a small device - all this is very annoying.

As far as it is a problem to click a link, a client is likely to give up trying and to make an order on another website.

Maybe you have something to add to these 15 factors of abandonment basket emails. Tell us why you abandoned shopping carts or may do it, and we will definitely add them to the list above.