Everything You Should Know About Abandoned Carts
Cart abandonment is a major issue that every online seller will encounter at some point in time. For one reason or another, some shoppers decide to leave online stores during the checkout process, leaving carts full of unpurchased items behind. Abandoned carts cause problems for online sellers, which is why you have to do what you can to keep customers from clicking off. Use the following statistics to try and reduce the amount of abandoned carts you have to deal with.
Cart Abandonment is a Major Factor in Lost Revenue
One of the most important things to know about cart abandonment is that it is a major cause of lost revenue in the business of online selling. According to Small Business Trends, cart abandonment typically leads to a loss of $18 billion for the entire industry each year. A 2016 study done at Baymard Institute stated that at least 68.63% of shoppers abandon their carts every year.
While there is no surefire way to permanently end cart abandonment there are plenty of things you can do to convince shoppers to finish their purchases. Ultimately, it all comes down to fine tuning the checkout process so your customers do not get frustrated before the purchase is finalized.
Some Shoppers Just Want to Browse
One of the primary reasons why shoppers abandon their shopping carts is because some of them go to a website to simply browse. According to Statistica, 40% of shoppers who visited online stores in 2017 did so with the intention of browsing the site’s wares. People who browse first may decide to shop from you later on, but others may leave to see if another website has better prices.
Browsers are always going to be hard to deal with, because they can leave your website even if there are no major problems with it. One way you can deal with this situation is by convincing browsers to come back to your site if they click off. This can be done by sending abandonment emails to customers to remind them of the items they have in their carts. If a customer could not find a better deal elsewhere, a strong reminder might convince that person to come back to your storefront.
Expensive Shipping Deters Shoppers
Another major factor that causes shoppers to abandon their carts is a high price for shipping. According to Statistica, 54% of customers abandoned their carts last year because the cost to ship products was much higher than they anticipated. Some products already cost a decent amount of money, so charging too much for shipping can scare away customers.
Try to offer free shipping to customers who spend a certain amount of money on an order, since this will convince them to buy more of your products. If you do not offer free shipping on your website make sure you put up a reasonable price for shipping. Making your customers spend too much money on shipping can make a lot of customers jump out during the checkout process.
Avoid Long & Complicated Checkouts
If you do not want customers to abandon their shopping carts you need to make sure that the actual process of checking out is as simple as possible. According to the Baymard Institute, 28% of shoppers abandon their carts after dealing with a long or complex checkout process. Customers want to complete their purchases in a short amount of time, so keep the checkout process short and simple.
On top of this, it is generally not a good idea to force customers into creating an account just to finish a purchase. Creating an account can take up a lot of time, and some shoppers simply do not have the time or patience to go through the sign up process. You should give your customers the option to create an account, but you should never force them to create one, because not everyone has the time to do so.
Strong Security Reduces Abandonment
Another reason why many shoppers abandon their carts is because they do not trust a website’s security capabilities. A study from Baymard Institute stated that 15% of digital shoppers abandon their carts because of concerns about security. Fraud is a major issue in the online space, and some shoppers are afraid to shop on certain websites because they fear that their personal information could be at risk.
You need to make sure your website has a secure connection so you can protect the personal information of your customers. If your website already has a secure connection, you can ease your customers’ fears by displaying secure logos during the checkout process. For example, if your website has a secure SSL connection, make sure you display the SSL Secure Seal on the checkout page.
Importance of Multiple Payment Options
Did you know that 8% of customers abandon their carts because a website did not support their preferred payment option? One of the benefits of shopping online is that customer have multiple ways to pay for their orders. Most people use credit or debit cards when they shop, while others use services like PayPal to complete purchases.
You need to offer a few different payment options so you can ensure that most of your customers will finish their purchases. If you cannot afford to offer too many payment options, research your target demographic to learn about the payment options your customers use the most.
If you use Logicblock’s 7cart service you can offer many different payment options during the checkout process, including PayPal.
Want to learn about other ways you can recapture shoppers who abandoned their carts?