How to reduce shopping cart abandonment

You don’t have to lose all those sales. Many of the common reasons consumers give for cart abandonment are problems you can solve, or at least address. Consider these 10 smart strategies for reducing cart abandonment:

To reduce cart abandonment rates, you have to first understand why your visitors aren’t finishing the checkout process. Implementing general best practices to reduce cart abandonment can help, but understanding what’s going on with your business in particular is the best place to start.

Check your website analytics to find out whether you can identify a specific point in the checkout process where you frequently lose people. If a lot of visitors leave the site on the page where they first discover taxes and shipping costs, that suggests that extra costs may be the main culprit to address. Also consider doing QA (quality assurance) testing to check how well your website is functioning on different browsers and devices. Your checkout process may work great on your laptop but have a bug that shows up for users on a certain mobile device.

If someone is ready to buy at the price listed on your product page, getting hit with a notably different amount during the checkout process will be frustrating. Price transparency is important. Don’t surprise customers with hidden fees or abnormally high shipping costs; be upfront about the price they can expect before they start the checkout process.

Consumers expect e-commerce to be convenient. If checking out requires more steps than they expect, they won’t always bother completing the process. Don’t force customers to do any more work than necessary to purchase from you. Some solutions include:

• Reducing the fields you require to just those that are necessary to process and fulfill the order
• Enabling guest checkout (so customers aren’t required to create an account)
• Offering the option for your site or app to securely “remember” the information they provide for future orders, so they don’t have to enter it again
• Considering a one-click checkout experience

Delivery is a big part of the e-commerce experience. The delivery options you make available can play an important role in whether a customer chooses to make a purchase with you. Look for ways to reduce delivery costs for consumers without hurting your bottom line too much, such as:

• Offering free or discounted delivery to new customers
• Making delivery free for orders that reach a certain threshold (like orders over $50)
• Charging a flat fee for delivery and making it clear on your website to help with price transparency
• Offering different delivery options at different price points, so customers can choose what they can afford

Affordable delivery options will help you win over some price-conscious consumers, but others will prioritize getting their orders fast over saving money. In 2023 research from Uber, 75% of consumers said they expect express delivery (meaning within 2 hours) as an option. To accommodate them, offer faster premium delivery options that get items to them on the timeline they choose.

Customers increasingly want convenient payment options. If someone is shopping from their couch, having to get up and find their credit card to complete a purchase can feel like too much work. Alternative payment methods like digital wallets (such as Apple Pay, Google, and PayPal) are becoming more common. According to 2023 research from BCG, offering popular alternatives can increase lower-funnel conversion rates by as much as 50%.

Buying an item without seeing it in person first always comes with risk. The best way to address that risk upfront is with a clear return policy. If customers know they have the option to return or exchange an item if it doesn’t meet their needs, that makes choosing the Purchase button easier. For items where a return doesn’t make sense (like fresh food), clarify your policy. But if customers know they can get a refund or credit for items that don’t meet their expectations, they’ll feel more comfortable placing an order.

Sometimes a consumer is pretty sure they want an item but isn’t quite ready to buy. For these people, keeping your product visible can help nudge them to finish the purchase. If someone has an account with you, you can send an email that reminds them what item they were looking at, with a link to return and complete checkout. If a consumer doesn’t have an account yet, you can use remarketing to keep them thinking about your products. They’ll get reminders of the products they added to their cart where they hang out online, like social media and popular online publications.

Several of the reasons consumers give for cart abandonment directly relate to website design. If your site is slow to load, has errors, crashes, or doesn’t appear to be adequately secure, you may lose consumer trust—and sales. Invest in making sure your website works well.

Your initial analysis and QA testing can help you identify any bugs or bottlenecks in the checkout process to fix. For e-commerce, website security is important to consider. Using an SSL certificate and choosing e-commerce and payment processing software with strong security features can help protect your business and customers.

When a prospective customer has a question during the purchasing process, the ability to get an answer right away can make the difference in whether they complete the order. Live chat support ensures that customers can get the information they need quickly and easily. It gives you the chance to remove any potential obstacles—like sizing issues for clothes, or allergy concerns for food—so they can feel confident in their decision to buy.

Statista reports that mobile e-commerce now makes up around 60% of all e-commerce sales. If your checkout process isn’t designed to work well on mobile devices, you could be losing a notable portion of potential sales. Many of the tips already provided can help improve the mobile experience, but in addition, consider:

• Making sure all text and buttons are large enough on the mobile version of your website to make checkout easy
• Removing any unnecessary links from the checkout pages
• Avoiding pop-ups so visitors don’t face distractions while trying to make a purchase

Operating a simple, distraction-free checkout can make a big difference in keeping mobile customers on the site long enough to finish their purchase.