12 Proven Ways To Reduce Your Ecommerce Stores Cart Abandonment

Cart abandonment is a huge problem for ecommerce stores, and it can be frustrating when customers leave before making their purchase. But there are many ways to reduce cart abandonment, so don’t worry! This blog post will discuss the latest trends and methods for reducing cart abandonment for your eCommerce store. We will also include tips on improving conversion rates by getting more people to convert after they have abandoned their carts.

What is Shopping Cart Abandonment?

Shopping cart abandonment is the term used when customers leave your store without purchasing. This can be due to many reasons, such as high shipping costs, unexpected charges, or simply changing their mind about the purchase.

The cart abandonment rate is an important metric for businesses to track, as it can indicate how successful their marketing efforts are. In fact, according to a study by Baymard Institute, the average cart abandonment rate is 69.82%. That’s a lot of lost sales!

How Does Online Shopping Cart Abandonment Affect Inventory?

If you are experiencing high levels of shopping cart abandonment, it’s likely that this is also affecting your inventory levels. When customers abandon their carts, it often means that they were interested in making a purchase but didn’t have a good experience with your store. This could lead to lost revenue and fewer sales overall.

Stock level changes

Stock level changes can be challenging to pinpoint as a reason for shopping cart abandonment, but they can happen. Having too much or not enough stock could lead customers to abandon their carts because you don’t have the items they want in stock.

If two customers can’t add the same items, this can be highly damaging. What if someone leaves their cart and your inventory software doesn’t let a more motivated customer buy?

 Inventory relevance 

Sometimes, people leave their shopping carts because they have not found the right things to buy. It is possible that this might happen because shoppers do not like or want the products you are selling. 

Ecommerce companies cannot know for sure if people do not buy because the product selection was terrible, and it is hard to learn how to improve it. Analysing the data of completed purchases is an excellent way to see what products your customers buy. When something sells out in just a few days, it is clear that people love it. Make sure you get more of it and can meet people’s demands.

Calculate the Shopping Cart Abandonment Rate 

The first step to reducing your shopping cart abandonment rate is calculating it. You can determine the conversion rate by dividing the total number of completed purchases by the number of created carts. Then subtract one, multiply by 100.

Abandoned cart rates vary depending on the industry but typically range from two to five per cent. However, there are a few ways you can decrease this rate and improve your bottom line.

Ecommerce business owners are always looking for ways to increase their revenue. Reducing cart abandonment is one way that can help you make more money while keeping costs low. The rate of abandoned carts in the ecommerce industry has been growing significantly over recent years, with an estimated $18 billion worth of potential sales lost each year due to this problem alone! You’ve worked hard on your product listings and ads, but if they’re not converting into purchases, then it’s time to look at other areas where improvement could be made.

Reasons For Shopping Cart Abandonment

No matter the size of your business, it’s important to keep an eye on customer behaviour and set up new methods for reducing cart abandonment. There are a number of different reasons why customers might abandon their carts at checkout.

The long or confusing checkout process is

One of the main reasons for shopping cart abandonment. According to Baymard Institute, 69 per cent of online shoppers abandon their carts due to a complicated checkout process. Cart abandonment rates are highest when there are more than three steps in the checkout process.

Unexpected shipping costs

Another common reason for cart abandonment is unexpected shipping costs. When customers are browsing and adding items to their carts, they often don’t factor in the cost of shipping until the very end – and this can lead to them abandoning their purchase if the shipping fees turn out to be too high.

Mandatory account creation

In some cases, customers might not complete their purchase because they’re required to create an account with your store before checking out. This can be frustrating for potential buyers and might stop them from buying anything at all.

Payment security concerns

Another reason that customers might abandon their carts is due to payment security concerns. This hesitation is understandable, especially when you consider the number of retail breaches in recent years and how easy it would be for a customer’s card information to get stolen during checkout if they don’t use an SSL connection or encrypted browser session (e.g., with TLS).

Restrictions on product quantity

Some stores place restrictions on the maximum amount of items that can be bought by one person at any given time, which leads some shoppers to give up because they aren’t able to purchase everything they want all at once. Another type of restriction occurs when products are only available for limited amounts of time – such as flash sales, where products are only available for a few hours.

Comparison shopping

Another reason that customers might abandon their carts is that they’re comparison shopping and found a better deal on another site. This is especially common when customers are looking for items like electronics or appliances, where there’s a wide selection of different stores to choose from.

Lack of desirable payment options

Some shoppers might not complete their purchase if they can’t find the payment option they want – such as PayPal, debit cards, or Apple Pay. If your store doesn’t offer all of the popular payment methods, you could be losing out on sales.

Ambiguous return and refund policy

Customers also frequently abandon their carts due to return and refund policies. If it’s unclear how returns and refunds work or if there are too many hoops to jump through, customers might not feel comfortable making a purchase.

Unexpected delivery times

Another factor that can lead to cart abandonment is unexpected delivery times. When potential buyers don’t see an estimate for when their order will arrive, they may get impatient and decide to buy from another store instead.

Site speed and app performance issues

If your site loads slowly or the checkout process doesn’t work properly on mobile devices, you’re likely to experience high rates of cart abandonment. In fact, 47 per cent of online shoppers will leave a website if it takes more than three seconds to load! And given that most people use their smartphones for shopping, it’s important to make sure your site is up to date and runs smoothly on mobile devices.

No discounts and promo codes to use

Finally, some customers choose other stores over yours because they’re not able to find any available coupons or discount vouchers for your store (ranging from a simple percentage off all items to BOGO deals). If you don’t offer these types of promotions, then it’s worth considering adding them so that more people will be willing to shop with you.

Latest proven tactics to reduce cart abandonment in ecommerce business

The checkout process should never be difficult for your customers. Here are some tips to make the checkout process easier. Be transparent about all costs, and tell them how much you are charging for shipping before they buy something. We have listed a few proven shopping cart abandonment solutions below.

Be transparent about all costs

When you tell customers about all costs upfront, like shipping, taxes, and other fees they should expect, it is less likely that they will be surprised by the cost. If they are surprised by the cost, then they will feel like your business is trying to rip them off. This can lead to higher rates of cart abandonment.

Include progress indicators on the checkout page

Include progress indicators on the checkout page. In other words, provide a visual cue to let customers know what step of the process they are currently viewing. This is especially critical when showing your cart contents or payment options during the entire check out process since it gives people a better chance at remaining confident in their purchases and not backing down from buying something they’ve put time into picking out.

If you don’t show this type of information throughout the whole shopping flow, then there’s no way for them to have that peace of mind that everything will work out how it should be later on, so always include some sort of indicator by adding small content such as “checking items” or “loading”. You can also add an indication bar right before the checkout page that shows how long it will take to finish the process.

Include thumbnails of products throughout the checkout process

Include thumbnails of products throughout the checkout process. This way, your customers can get a better idea of what they’re purchasing and know exactly which product is going where in their order before submitting it. You don’t want them buying something only to find out later on that you had another version available (which would explain why they didn’t see an image during the cart phase), so make sure every product has at least one thumbnail associated with it if possible!

Make navigation between cart and store effortless

Make navigation between cart and online store effortless by providing links or buttons leading back and forth between each area rather than making people manually type URLs into their web browser address bar just to switch pages for whatever reason. This can significantly reduce cart abandonment rates and will make your customers happier in the process.

Simplify the checkout process

If you’re using a third-party plugin to power this part of your online store and it has too many features, then consider removing some or finding another solution that is easier for people to use. You want to keep things nice and simple so that every step along the way isn’t filled with more work than necessary, which could lead to higher cart abandonment if everything seems difficult from start to finish during their shopping experience on your site!

Optimise page load speeds

When somebody lands on one of your web pages they have two options: either leave immediately because there’s no information presented within three seconds or stay around and give it a chance to load. Often, people will leave before the page even starts loading because of how impatient they are (this is especially true for mobile users), so make sure that your web pages can be loaded as fast as possible!

Provide guest checkout options

If people want to buy something online, they might not be able to if you make them create an account. So let them do it as a guest instead. You can also collect their email address and other contact information on the confirmation page.

Offer payment plans

Nobody likes paying for something all at once, especially if they are shopping online. Instead of seeing your money disappear in one big chunk, let them pay it off over time with small payments that can be made each month or whatever the case may be. This helps lower cart abandonment rates because you’re giving people more options about how they want to buy what you have available!

Offer live chat support

There’s nothing wrong with offering a contact method such as email, but most customers would rather speak to somebody directly within their own country (or culture) so try adding live chat support now and then see how well it works out for you! You might come across some issues here and there due to language barriers depending on who you have manning the chat rooms, but it’s worth a shot!

Use trust symbols to reassure customers

People tend to be more trusting of sites that look professional and established. You can show your customers how much you value their business by adding some sort of verification or certification seal from companies such as Norton, McAfee, or TRUSTe. This will help reduce cart abandonment rates because your customers will feel safer about parting with their hard-earned money on your site!

Offer several payment options

Not everybody wants to use PayPal when shopping online for various reasons (such as not having an account), so make sure you offer other methods of payment such as debit/credit cards, bank transfers, and even gift cards if possible!

Offer refunds and returns policy

Customers want to know that you will take care of them if a product is damaged or they just don’t like it, which means offering a strong refund and return policy with no questions asked. This might reduce the number of people who complete transactions during their checkout process, so increase your average order value by adding more products for sale before implementing this tactic.

How to Combat Cart Abandonment by integrating marketing tactics?

There are several methods that can be used in order to combat cart abandonment and increase the chances of completed purchase. Some ecommerce platforms, such as Shopify and Woocommerce, have abandoned cart software that can be integrated into your site, which will automatically send emails to customers who have left items in their cart without checking out.

You can also use retargeting for cart abandoners by placing ads on other websites that they visit, which will remind them about the items they left behind in their shopping cart in your store. Personalized follow-up emails are another way of combating abandonment rates, as well as eliminating customer journey hijacking (which is when a customer lands on a page that’s the final destination during their checkout process).

Exit-intent pop-up windows

Exit-intent pop-ups appear when the user is about to leave the website. It can be a form, offer or any type of message that encourages users to stay on the site. These are another way of shopping cart recovery and getting customers to complete their purchase, as well as using retargeting to target abandoners. You can also leverage one-click shopping for repeat customers who have already filled out their information on your site before. Finally, providing incentives based on the cart total is a great way of increasing average order values and decreasing abandonment rates!

Retargeting

Retargeting is a process where we serve ads to people who have visited our website but didn’t make a purchase. This is done by placing a small piece of code on your website that will collect the data of people who visit it. We can then use this information to show them ads for our product on other websites they visit.

Personalised follow-up emails

After a customer has left an item in their cart without checking out, the ecommerce platform you are using will automatically send them personalised follow-up abandoned cart emails. You can use this time to encourage customers to complete their purchase by offering discounts or other incentives that might entice them into doing so! If they don’t respond within 24 hours, then these messages will be sent at regular intervals until they do.

You can easily find abandoned cart email examples in your mail as every e-commerce business understands the vital importance of these emails. You can easily create abandoned cart email templates for your business by keeping only a few elements in consideration. You must test the email by testing out the subject line, email body and graphics to come up with an email that has a maximum open and click rate.

One-click shopping for repeat buyers

Providing users with one-click buying options is another way of preventing abandoned carts and increasing average order values during checkout. This makes it very easy for frequent visitors who have already filled out information on your site before, as all they need to do is click “add to cart” instead of having to fill out all of their information again!

Creating a sense of urgency

Giving incentives based on the cart total is another great way that you can use in order to combat abandoned carts. You could offer free shipping or discounts if people buy products over certain amounts, which will encourage them into completing the transaction before it expires. If they don’t complete their purchase then there are no consequences for them and your store might lose business because of this.

Eliminate customer journey hijacking

This is when someone tries to get your shoppers to buy other products. They do this by distracting them with ads for other products.  It can be very frustrating for customers who are trying to make a purchase and don’t need any extra distractions. You can combat this by making sure that your site is free of any banners or pop-ups that might take their attention away from the checkout process.

Give Incentives Based on Cart Total

Creating a sense of urgency is key to reducing cart abandonment as it encourages customers into completing their purchase before they lose out on whatever incentives you are offering. You can give discounts or free shipping if people buy products over certain amounts, which will encourage them into completing the transaction. 

Adding social proof

Adding social proof to your ecommerce website is another great way of increasing conversion rates. This can be done by displaying customer reviews or testimonials on the product pages, as well as using pictures of customers who have already purchased the products. Doing this will help reassure potential buyers that they are making a good decision by purchasing from your store!

Integrating marketing tactics to combat cart abandonment is key to reducing your ecommerce stores cart abandonment rate. By following these tips, you’ll be able to increase sales and keep more customers from leaving without completing their purchase!

Start Optimizing Your Ecommerce Store to Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment

Reducing your shopping cart abandonment rate will be a process that you need to work on. To do this, you can use data from different sources. Use both qualitative and quantitative data to come up with better ways of doing things.

Analyse user behaviour for conversion funnel leaks

One way to optimise your Ecommerce Store to  Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment is to analyse your conversion funnel leaks. This means going through the process that a user has to do in order to complete their checkout and finding out where they are dropping off during this journey, which can be from various stages, such as adding items into the cart or viewing shipping information.

Collect customer feedback about pain points

Another way of collecting data is by getting direct feedback from your lost customers who have abandoned their carts. You can contact them via email or phone calls asking why they didn’t make a purchase, but you should always give something away for free if someone takes up an offer like this! Once you get some responses, then it’s time to take action with what you learn!

Conduct A/B testing

Set up your A/B tests by using different layouts for the checkout page. You can try out several different things to see which one will help increase conversions and reduce cart abandonment rates, such as placing a phone number or email address on the site so people can contact you if they have any questions when trying to make their purchase!

You should also test out adding in customer testimonials from customers who already bought products in order to give potential buyers more confidence about buying something!

Conclusion

Integrating marketing tactics to combat cart abandonment is key to reducing your ecommerce stores cart abandonment rate. By following these tips, you’ll be able to increase sales and keep more customers from leaving without completing their purchase. Reducing shopping cart abandonment will require a lot of effort on your part, but it’s definitely worth it in order to see an increase in sales.

If you’re still not sure what to do, we can help. We at Abubble know the latest proven tactics, and our team of experts are ready and waiting to partner with you on your ecommerce business strategy. Comment below if any of these tips have helped increase your conversions or engagement in some way