Shopping cart abandonment: How to prevent it?

You’ve succeeded to grab your potential customers’ attention and lead them all the way to check out. You already envision how you’re making a sale but then something happens and the user exits your website without finalizing the purchasing process.

What are the most common reasons behind this shopping cart abandonment and what can you do?

One quick and efficient solution is Catchfull – our easy-to-use popup builder. With its help, you’ll display eye-catching popups that retain visitors and increase conversions and sales. Learn more about how we can help you reduce your shopping cart abandonment rate here.

You can also read on to find out the rest of the working strategies.

What is shopping cart abandonment?

This is one of the most frequent and serious problems that online retailers face. It’s when online shoppers add an item to their online shopping cart but leave before the transaction is complete.

Shockingly, the average cart abandonment rate is 69.57% – in other words, you lose every 7 out of 10 customers.

Luckily, there are easy ways in which you can improve customer experience and retain their attention. This will prevent more people from abandoning their carts.

Check out the reasons behind shopping cart abandonment and what you can do to improve your conversion rate ASAP.

Shopping cart abandonment: Problems and solutions

Issues with the checkout process

Is your checkout process somewhat long or confusing? This is what might be driving shoppers away. If they have to fill in numerous forms and go through many steps, there’s a high chance you’ll discourage them.

Think how you can create a smooth checkout flow. Remove excessive form fields and steps. Besides, it will be great if you add a progress indicator on your checkout pages so that people know they’re almost done and shouldn’t give up. 

Hidden costs

Another thing that will push many shoppers away is unexpected costs. No one likes such surprises.

It’s important to be clear about shipping costs from the beginning instead of trying to sneak them in just before the user is about to pay. Otherwise, people can get annoyed or reevaluate their purchase once they see the additional charges and leave.

Questions about the shipping and return policies

It’s not difficult to predict what shoppers want to know more about before deciding whether to buy something or not. If you clearly state whether there’s free shipping or not, how much it will take, as well as what the return and replacement policies are, you’ll help customers decide. If they are on the fence and can’t find the information they need, you’re more likely to lose them.

Another great idea which will reduce shopping cart abandonment is offering customers a live chat. That way, if there are any uncertainties and worries, you can contact them directly and stop visitors from leaving.

Requirement to create an account

Many websites now provide users with a choice whether to create an account or to continue as a guest to complete their purchase. Naturally, you would want your customers to have an account so that you can collect more information about them. However, especially if they’re first time purchasers, they would probably rather go without one.

It’s important to offer shoppers the option to buy without registering because often, this step can frustrate them and make them abandon their cart.

If they return for another purchase later, then they’ll be more likely to take the time to register, especially if you entice them with loyalty programs and rewards.

Not enough payment options or lack of trust in them

Most customers are very cautious about online payments – understandably so. If they have any concerns about your website or the payment process, they will probably leave – never to return again.

Moreover, if there aren’t enough payment options, they might not go through with the transaction. That’s why it’s best to provide enough options for shoppers to choose from – credit card payment, PayPal, Google Wallet, Apple Pay, etc.

Poor site performance

It’s crucial to optimize your ecommerce store well for both desktop and mobile so that all product pages, as well as the checkout page, load fast. If the load times are slow, your visitors will get frustrated and leave. And if there are any bugs or crashes on your site, they’re less likely to purchase from you out of fear they’ll be charged twice, for example.

If it takes some time for the payment to go through, it’s best to indicate to them that it’s loading. Otherwise, they’ll be left wondering whether they’ve successfully finalized their purchase, which automatically means bad customer experience.

No incentive

Don’t just assume that your job is done once you manage to drive customers to the checkout page. It’s important that you still display a call to action so that you affirm people’s decision to purchase.

What’s more, many ecommerce websites nowadays offer visitors a discount for a limited amount of time. This adds some urgency and convinces shoppers to act quickly and finish their purchase. It’s a good idea to display discount popups to first-time visitors or during the holiday sales, for example.

Besides, adding a thumbnail of the product(s) throughout the checkout process is another great way to reassure customers of their current purchase and keep them interested.

Poor navigation between cart and store

Users want to be able to quickly add items to their cart, then get back to browsing and when they’re ready, return to the shopping cart and finalize their purchase. That’s why it’s essential to make navigation between the two smooth and effortless. Minimize the number of clicks they need to make.

No option to save cart details

It’s useful to make saving one’s cart effortless. That way, customers can return later and finish their purchase.

There are several ways to do this. You can either ask them to log in to their accounts – but that’s not recommended, as we mentioned in the beginning, or to use browser cookies. Cookies will allow you to “remember” customers’ cart – but they need to accept cookies first.

Lack of marketing emails

You can’t always prevent shoppers from abandoning their baskets. However, there’s something else you can and should always do, and that’s sending them cart abandonment emails. Remind them of the products that are waiting for them and urge them to finish their purchase. You can even add a limited time offer such as free shipping or 10% off.

Shopping cart abandonment: To sum up

Every business owner with an online store will identify shopping cart abandonment as one of their biggest problems.

Fortunately, after reading this article, now you know how to tackle this issue and successfully reduce shopping cart abandonment and in turn increase your conversion rates.

But here’s one bonus tip: Implementing popups and page banners will help you collect emails, convert visitors into customers, increase sales, reduce shopping cart abandonment and much more. With Catchfull, our brand new digital marketing tool, you will be able to effortlessly create amazing on-site messages and skyrocket your business!

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