People rarely leave shopping carts full of groceries at the supermarket and walk out without buying anything. But shopping cart abandonment happens all too often when it comes to eCommerce.
Barilliance, an eCommerce data company, found almost 74% of online shopping carts were abandoned in 2013. That’s up from 72% in 2012 and 69% in 2011. Shopping cart abandonment is going to happen, but there are way to recover those customers.
How often are shopping carts abandoned?
Almost $4 trillion worth of merchandise will be left in online shopping carts this year according to estimates from Business Insider’s Intelligence department. But while shopping cart abandonment is certainly an issue, they also found nearly 63% of that merchandise can be recovered by retailers who know how to approach the situation. In case you were wondering, and didn't feel like doing any math today, 63% of $4 trillion is $2.52 trillion. Paying attention now?
Why does shopping cart abandonment happen?
First off, it should be noted that just because a shopper leaves your site with items still in their cart it doesn't mean they aren't planning to returning later on to complete their purchase.
There are a plethora of valid reasons as to why someone might abandon their shopping cart. They might be at work and don’t want to complete their purchase at that time, or they may be shopping from a mobile device and don’t have their credit card information on hand. Yes, shopping cart abandonment can be frustrating but it doesn't have to be the end of the road.
What can you do?
Provide a Seamless Checkout:
Shopping cart abandonment may be a sign that the checkout process on your site is too complicated. Users may give up halfway through because they’re frustrated or simply don’t want to spend the time it takes to complete their purchase. Streamlining the steps to complete a purchase can have a profound effect on the rate at which customers leave items in their cart. Make checking out easy, don’t give people a reason to leave your site without finalizing their purchase.
Create Email Reminders:
Another step to eliminating shopping cart abandonment is a follow-up email. Emails sent to customers three hours after abandoning their shopping cart are opened on average 40% of the time and have a 20% click-through rate according to Listrak. That alone should tell you how important it is to send an email. With the busy schedule everyone seems to have these days, it’s easy to for people to forget what they were shopping for in the morning now that they’re home from work. A friendly email to remind them is a great way to get them thinking about it once again.
Moving forward
Whether or not customers have a legitimate reason for not completing their purchase, they can be recovered. If you’re seeing a high percentage of shopping cart abandonment there are steps you need to take to help combat the issue. It may be something as simple as reaching out to customers or it could be re-working the checkout process. But whatever it is, with $2.52 trillion on the table, it deserves some serious attention. Download our free guide to learn how to combat shopping cart abandonment.
