16 Sep Effective Ways to Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment
‘Shopping cart abandonment is a phenomenon where a shopper on your e-commerce store initiates the checkout process for an order, but leaves before completing the purchase.’
Have you ever experienced having a live sale and seeing a lot of audiences commenting sold on the items they like but then after, only half checked out their cart? Or maybe you have see in your shop analytics that a lot of users add products to their cart only to disappear halfway through the checkout process.
Whether in live sales or in e-commerce shops, shopping cart abandonment is something you can’t avoid.
Shopping cart abandonment is a phenomenon where a shopper on your e-commerce store initiates the checkout process for an order, but leaves your store before completing the purchase. If the item is added to the cart but doesn’t isn’t purchased, it’s considered “abandoned”. A higher shopping cart abandonment rate usually signifies issues with the checkout process. That’s why it’s important for e-commerce store owners to track this metric if they want to regain potentially lost revenue and improve conversions.
Research from Baymard Institute shows that 69.82% of online shopping carts are abandoned. In other words, for every 10 customers who add an item to their shopping cart, seven left without completing the purchase. Ecommerce stores lose $18 billion in sales revenue annually because of cart abandonment. As a business owner, you don’t want to lose that much because of cart abandonment. Although you can’t avoid cart abandonment, you can reduce its impact on your business by knowing the reason why users are doing that and solve it. And that’s what we’re going to discuss in this article.
Whether in live sales or in e-commerce shops, shopping cart abandonment is something you can’t avoid.
Shopping cart abandonment is a phenomenon where a shopper on your e-commerce store initiates the checkout process for an order, but leaves your store before completing the purchase. If the item is added to the cart but doesn’t isn’t purchased, it’s considered “abandoned”. A higher shopping cart abandonment rate usually signifies issues with the checkout process. That’s why it’s important for e-commerce store owners to track this metric if they want to regain potentially lost revenue and improve conversions.
Research from Baymard Institute shows that 69.82% of online shopping carts are abandoned. In other words, for every 10 customers who add an item to their shopping cart, seven left without completing the purchase. Ecommerce stores lose $18 billion in sales revenue annually because of cart abandonment. As a business owner, you don’t want to lose that much because of cart abandonment. Although you can’t avoid cart abandonment, you can reduce its impact on your business by knowing the reason why users are doing that and solve it. And that’s what we’re going to discuss in this article.
What are the reasons why customers abandon shopping carts?
Audiences got Excited with a Live Sale
Claiming a product in a live sale is much easier now with systems that have features like comment selling. Because of this, some audience may have been too excited and just keep on commenting ‘sold’ but then ended up deciding not to purchase the product.
Visitors are doing Comparison shopping
If the product you are selling is something that other stores are also selling, there’s a great chance that your customers will compare your products with the other stores.
Once they found that your competitor’s offer is more enticing — discount codes provided, faster shipping, or cheaper — your would-be customer will abandon their purchase.
Once they found that your competitor’s offer is more enticing — discount codes provided, faster shipping, or cheaper — your would-be customer will abandon their purchase.
Requiring a Guest to Create an Account before Check Out
Account creation is a great way to gather information about your audience that you can use to retarget customers and boost lead generation. But for some customers, it can be troublesome especially if they are only planning on making a one-time purchase.
They can be ready to click “buy now,” but first has to add create an account, and then verify their email. It can get them annoyed or distracted leading them to abandon their cart.
This introduces friction to the checkout process which ruins the user experience.
They can be ready to click “buy now,” but first has to add create an account, and then verify their email. It can get them annoyed or distracted leading them to abandon their cart.
This introduces friction to the checkout process which ruins the user experience.
Not being Transparent about Additional Fees
Nothing turns customers off more than seeing unanticipated fees added on at checkout.
If after they have added items to their cart and headed to the checkout page, they found extra fees like high taxes, delivery costs, and transaction fees, they will more likely to abandon their cart.
In fact, a study by Baymard Institute found that 48% of shoppers with actual purchase intent abandoned shopping carts because the extra costs (shipping, taxes, and fees) were too high.
If after they have added items to their cart and headed to the checkout page, they found extra fees like high taxes, delivery costs, and transaction fees, they will more likely to abandon their cart.
In fact, a study by Baymard Institute found that 48% of shoppers with actual purchase intent abandoned shopping carts because the extra costs (shipping, taxes, and fees) were too high.
Lack of Payment Options
In a recent study, it is found that retailers risk losing 42% of their customers if they don’t offer their users preferred payment methods.
Credit or debit cards aren’t the only way to pay online anymore. Today, there are more options that shoppers prefer such as online wallets, cards, PayPal, Amazon Pay, Apple Pay, and dozens of others.
If they found out that their preferred payment method isn’t available in your store, they are more likely to leave and buy in other stores that accept payment from their preferred payment method.
Credit or debit cards aren’t the only way to pay online anymore. Today, there are more options that shoppers prefer such as online wallets, cards, PayPal, Amazon Pay, Apple Pay, and dozens of others.
If they found out that their preferred payment method isn’t available in your store, they are more likely to leave and buy in other stores that accept payment from their preferred payment method.
Shoppers Do Not Trust Your Site
Users who land on your site for the first time, or who do not have an existing connection or relationship with your platform may take some time to trust you with their credit card.
Customers are afraid of filling out transaction forms. They do not like the idea of providing personal details such as phone numbers, email addresses, credit card details, and addresses to people they do not trust.
Outdated website design, no SSL certificate, an unfamiliar brand name, or an unfamiliar payment gateway can make it hard for customers to trust you and dissuade them from making a purchase.
According to Baymard Institute, 18% of consumers are hesitant to surrender their credit card details to e-commerce sites they don’t trust.
Customers are afraid of filling out transaction forms. They do not like the idea of providing personal details such as phone numbers, email addresses, credit card details, and addresses to people they do not trust.
Outdated website design, no SSL certificate, an unfamiliar brand name, or an unfamiliar payment gateway can make it hard for customers to trust you and dissuade them from making a purchase.
According to Baymard Institute, 18% of consumers are hesitant to surrender their credit card details to e-commerce sites they don’t trust.
Long and Complicated Checkout Process
Buyers are typically in a hurry to purchase. They don’t like unnecessarily lengthy and complicated checkout processes.
About 17% percent of online buyers will abandon a purchase if they find the process too complex.
If your check-out process involves a lot of steps and if you’re asking for too much information before they can complete the purchase, your customers will more likely to abandon their cart.
About 17% percent of online buyers will abandon a purchase if they find the process too complex.
If your check-out process involves a lot of steps and if you’re asking for too much information before they can complete the purchase, your customers will more likely to abandon their cart.
How to Decrease Your Shopping Cart Abandonment Rate
Provide Guest Checkout Options
Guest checkout means customers don’t have to store their credit card information and their email address will only be used for delivery updates.
Allowing guest checkout reduces the time it takes to check out by removing additional steps. It also enables your customers who don’t wish to share their personal information to complete a purchase confidently. It shows that you value your customer’s time. It can help you reduce cart abandonment rates considerably.
You can always ask your customers to sign up or create an account for additional promotions once they’ve completed their purchase.
Allowing guest checkout reduces the time it takes to check out by removing additional steps. It also enables your customers who don’t wish to share their personal information to complete a purchase confidently. It shows that you value your customer’s time. It can help you reduce cart abandonment rates considerably.
You can always ask your customers to sign up or create an account for additional promotions once they’ve completed their purchase.
Be transparent about all the Additional Fees
Finding ‘hidden’ costs within checkout is a common reason for abandonment. So, don’t surprise customers with unexpected taxes and fees at checkout. Be upfront about the extra fees such as shipping, handling, and taxes. Ideally, display this information on the product page.
However, fees often depend on the user’s location or shipping address. So be sure to provide updated pricing information immediately after the customer enters their shipping address.
If you are doing live sales, set expectations early about pricing, shipping fee, and other extra costs. Also keep on reminding audience about it during your live sales so customers won’t get surprised with the additional fees.
However, fees often depend on the user’s location or shipping address. So be sure to provide updated pricing information immediately after the customer enters their shipping address.
If you are doing live sales, set expectations early about pricing, shipping fee, and other extra costs. Also keep on reminding audience about it during your live sales so customers won’t get surprised with the additional fees.
Offer Several Payment Options
Debit and credit card payments are still popular, but various alternatives have emerged recently. In addition, different customers have different payment habits.
Having multiple payment options can make shopping easier and more convenient for customers since they don’t have to enter their billing information every time they purchase from a new brand. It can instill trust in customers, as they feel safer in using payment methods that they’re more accustomed to.
Find out what payment options your customers prefer and offer the right integrations. Here are some of the most popular payment methods include:
Having multiple payment options can make shopping easier and more convenient for customers since they don’t have to enter their billing information every time they purchase from a new brand. It can instill trust in customers, as they feel safer in using payment methods that they’re more accustomed to.
Find out what payment options your customers prefer and offer the right integrations. Here are some of the most popular payment methods include:
- Amazon Pay
- Apple Pay
- Square
- Google Pay
- PayPal
- Stripe
Add Social Proof Signals
It is only natural for people to be hesitant when adding their credit card details and other personal information when they are new to your shop. You need to understand their hesitance and give them a reason to trust you.
Putting user-generated content such as reviews, ratings, and customer photos can build trust with your potential customers. If prospects see that other customers are buying from you and rating your products positively, they will want to do the same. This is called social proof.
Social proof refers to a psychological phenomenon where people assume the actions of others in a given situation.
Other things you need to add to your site:
Putting user-generated content such as reviews, ratings, and customer photos can build trust with your potential customers. If prospects see that other customers are buying from you and rating your products positively, they will want to do the same. This is called social proof.
Social proof refers to a psychological phenomenon where people assume the actions of others in a given situation.
Other things you need to add to your site:
- Reviews of your brand
- Trusted payment processors like Paypal or Amazon Pay
- Customer service contact information
- A generous money-back guarantee
- Your own social media handles
- An SSL certificate.
Simplify Your Checkout Process
You would want to simplify the checkout process as much as possible to reduce your users’ effort to complete a purchase from your store.
According to a case study, switching from a multi-page checkout to a single-page checkout produced significant results. As per the results, the single-page checkout outperformed the multi-page checkout experience by 21.8%.
Of course, this is not always the right move. In some cases, multi-page checkout is the better option, but if you want to reduce your cart abandonment rate, this is definitely something to consider.
According to a case study, switching from a multi-page checkout to a single-page checkout produced significant results. As per the results, the single-page checkout outperformed the multi-page checkout experience by 21.8%.
Of course, this is not always the right move. In some cases, multi-page checkout is the better option, but if you want to reduce your cart abandonment rate, this is definitely something to consider.
More Ways to Reduce Abandoned Shopping Carts with Live Butler
Retailers who are selling whether through e-commerce or live sale with Live Butler can take advantage of these features to reduce abandoned carts:
- Enable the Waitlist feature to automatically add customers to a waitlist if they reserved a product that’s already sold out. They will be notified when the product they wanted is back in stock.
- Enable cart expirations so customers have a limited time to check out before their cart expires.
- Customers don’t have to create an account and can check out as a guest in your e-commerce store.
- All the reservations of a customer in a live sale are put in one cart only.
- Set up all the preferred payment methods of your customers.
Live Butler has the tools that can help you monitor and reduce your shopping cart abandonment rate not just in your e-commerce shop but also in your live sales.
Live Butler is an all-in-one social commerce solution designed to automate your live selling and offer free e-commerce store. From accepting orders, updating inventory to sending invoices, Live Butler will do it for you.
Live Butler is an all-in-one social commerce solution designed to automate your live selling and offer free e-commerce store. From accepting orders, updating inventory to sending invoices, Live Butler will do it for you.
Get Lifetime access. No creditcard needed.
Final Thoughts
Shopping cart abandonment is a crucial issue and has the power to make or break your online business. Retailers must take extra steps to reduce abandonment rates and ensure better conversion during and after live sales.
So, just to recap, here are some ways that are highly effective for reducing shopping cart abandonment:
By knowing the cause of shopping cart abandonment and taking the steps needed, retailers can reduce their abandonment rate and gain better returns.
So, just to recap, here are some ways that are highly effective for reducing shopping cart abandonment:
- Provide guest checkout options
- Be transparent about all the Additional Fees
- Offer several payment options
- Add social proof signals
- Simplify Your Checkout Process
By knowing the cause of shopping cart abandonment and taking the steps needed, retailers can reduce their abandonment rate and gain better returns.
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