How’s this for a shocking fact:
“According to Baymard Institute, a web research company in the UK, 67.45% of online shopping carts are abandoned.” (Macdonald, 2013)
That is an enormous amount of money that is lost, but it doesn’t mean that the sales aren’t happening elsewhere. It just indicates that people are abandoning a cart. They are more than likely making the purchase somewhere else, and this makes a lot of retailer wonder just what it was that forced the buyer to go.
The most common reason (and there are 14 identified) is that the shopper was suddenly, “Presented with unexpected costs.” This is something almost every shopper has experienced, and it is a truly major turn off. You put an item in the cart because the price is so great. You make your way through the registration process, and you may even have the credit card or payment information entered. Then you get to that final review screen, and – boom! – there is a hefty fee for shipping, a dubious “transaction” or “handling” fee, or something else that was not explained along the way.
This is often when the eCommerce shopping cart is abandoned and the deal is broken. Clearly, this is easily avoided by making it abundantly clear in a product description or on a product category main page that such fees or costs will apply.
All of the Other Reasons for eCommerce Shopping Cart Abandonment
What are the other reasons from the study? From “just browsing” to “website problems”, the reasons are a mixture of things you may or may not be able to control. To ensure that you can prevent eCommerce shopping cart abandonment at your sites, let’s look at the issues that you can most certainly work around.
“Concerns about payment security”
This is a big one in the world of eCommerce, and yet there is one of the simplest possible fixes imaginable. This is to just clearly display all of the security logos that apply to your payment processing options. Many random studies indicate that sales increase by up to 6% after these badges begin to appear on the payment screens and in the shopping carts.
“Delivery options were unsuitable”
How horrible does that sound! An eCommerce shopping cart was full and then abandoned because you don’t make any suitable delivery options available. This may not seem fair to you, but it does cause up to 16% of carts to be abandoned, and that is saying a lot.
What shipment options are you making available? Did you know that you could actually turn to a multichannel retail or eCommerce system to get some of the most streamlined solutions? For example, some allow their clients to use the world’s top shipment providers, and even get discounts. Don’t overlook the significance of convenient, affordable, and dependable shippers.
“Price presented in a foreign currency”
The beauty of the Internet is that it opens up the world’s markets. You can buy a blouse from a seller in the Middle East, a ring from a jeweler on eBay, and a pair of shoes from a vendor on Amazon. However, up to 13% of eCommerce shopping cart abandonments happen when the “real” price is revealed at checkout.
Don’t make this mistake. Simply use any of options for choosing an alternate currency available. This will let the shopper understand that it is not $900 but nine hundred shekels or Euros. You never want to see a buyer get all of the way to checkout and then click out of the eCommerce shopping cart because the costs have suddenly escalated.
Summary
There are some well-documented reasons that an eCommerce shopping cart will be abandoned, and many of them are easily avoided.
Source
Macdonald, Mark. Why Online Retailers Are Losing 67.45% of Sales and What to Do About It. Shopify.com. 2013. http://www.shopify.com/blog/8484093-why-online-retailers-are-losing-67-45-of-sales-and-what-to-do-about-it