Most Common Shopping Cart Abandonment Reasons

Shopping cart is a familiar term for all those who engage in online shopping. But when we are talking about abandonment, let us take a closer look at what it actually means. This article is an effort to provide insight into the process and the most common reasons why people would leave shopping cart.

What is shopping cart abandonment and ratio of cart abandonment?

Shopping cart abandonment refers to the process where the visitor is through with all the checkout process but still gives up on buying all the items he has added into the shopping cart just before he completes the entire process. This is a clear indication of loss of order and thereby a loss in the business too. If there are more number of such shopping cart abandonment cases, it is indicative of a simple fact that the conversion rates on the given ecommerce store are very weak and the store owner needs to work harder in order to have better conversion rates.

There could be different reasons of why people would leave shopping cart. Probably they were just engaging in a simple comparison activity across stores or they felt that the shipping cost was very high. There may be other reasons like unavailability of time at that given moment and so they didn’t complete the order or the product chosen was found to be out of stock or in some cases back-ordered. There may be some technical snag in completing the order or the product eventually was not what the customer was actually looking for. There may also be some kind of payment issues too which made the visitor abandon his shopping cart.

As per the recent survey, the average shopping cart abandonment rate is found around 68.53%, a figure that was arrived at after considering 31 different studies which had the relevant statistics on shopping cart abandonment in the ecommerce stores.

This result is indicative of the fact that 2/3rds of the online shoppers are leaving their shopping cart for various reasons. Let us look at it from another perspective too. We also have to consider that shoppers are investing their time in browsing to choose the correct item, put it in their shopping basket and then proceed towards buying. But, there is an impediment in the path that halts the entire process of buying.

As per the survey, the abandonment rate has been consistently above 68% since the past four to five years. So, a businessman should find out the reasons behind shopping cart abandonment and should work in the direction towards reducing the same. Let’s check out the common reasons behind it.

Most Common Reasons for Shopping Cart Abandonment

Why do shoppers generally give up on the items that they have personally added into their shopping cart?

As mentioned earlier, the reasons could be unexpected high shipping costs, complicated checkout process, card security issues, the shopper had to create a new login account to complete the process or they were just casually browsing through the store. All these reasons of course had their own share of significance.

• Unexpected Shipping Costs: It is in the psyche of a buyer to buy products that come at a lesser price. It is a notion that online shopping is cheaper than offline shopping. But, when it comes to shipping charges, even though shoppers do buy the product and add it to their cart, they abandon the same when they find that shipping charge is higher or not free. Therefore, the ecommerce store owner has to be upfront about the shipping charges that are going to be levied on the customers. Good options are either free shipping or multiple flat rate shipping for the product world wide or
• selected country sales
• Creating a New Account: Though the process of buying a product and adding it to the cart will go on at a very rapid speed, there is a sudden brake when it prompts that the user or shopper has to create account to finish the entire process. This one issue makes the person abandon the items in the cart. Very few people feel they have the time to go through the entire process. So, having guest checkouts may minimize the number of abandonments.
• Conducting Research: There are a few people who have all the time in the world to shop at different online stores. They perhaps would want to use the promo code to see how much discount they would get if they purchased a specific item at this store and at another store. This comparison between stores will make them abandon the shopping cart without completing the entire process.
• Not a Responsive Site: Another most prominent area which witnesses a lot of turn down is through mobile device shopping. Though more and more number of people are shopping through their mobile devices, the site is not mobile friendly and does not give the kind of appeal a desktop version can give. The shopper abandon the purchase.
  Recommended Read: What is Responsive Design and How it is Beneficial.
• Payment Security Concerns: The process involved in payment may not be totally secure or they feel insecurity while making an order. So, in this case the shopper abandon the purchase of items in the cart.
• Confusing Checkout: The checkout process that is available at the store may not be a simple one and may involve a lot of complexities which seem to be challenging to the buyer. As a result of which he would choose to give up on buying rather than patiently go through the entire ordeal. A simple checkout process would help to retain the buyers and also make them come back for more.
• Could not get Hold of the Coupon Code: Many a times the ecommerce store owners announce huge discounts in order to entice the customers. They prompt the shoppers to make use of the coupon codes so that they get the discounts that are announced. The shoppers in a few instances will not be able to find the exact coupon code. Obviously, when they are not getting the discount the shopper would give up on purchasing the products that are there in the cart.

At M-Connect Media, we offer Magento ecommerce solution that are user friendly and shoppers can easily finish their checkout process. Apart from that, our eCommerce consultant can also analyse your current site and suggest you why your site shopping cart abandonment rate is high. Contact us for customized solution.

In our upcoming blog post, we will give some tips on how you can reduce shopping cart abandonment rate.