A Guide to Cart Abandonment

C art abandonment may bring up pictures of trolleys full of items left on aisle 6 at your local supermarket. Well, your imagination is not too far from the truth. Let's find out what cart abandonment means, and how it is relevant to you as a business owner, website designer, or sales manager of a company.

What is Cart Abandonment?

Cart abandonment refers to a situation in online retail where the prospective buyer adds items to their cart, but doesn't follow through at the moment of check out. This leaves business owners with a sense of loss: they could have made a sale but they didn't. For a small enough business, it may even make the difference between making a profit this month or not. So, why is it that so many people abandon their carts while shopping online? There must be a reason.

The good news is, that there have been many surveys and questionnaires that asked prospective buyers the same question. Discover what they said and it might lead you to understand why your particular website is yielding so many abandoned carts. Read on to learn more!Why Do Customers Abandon Their Carts?

As mentioned earlier, there are several reasons for prospective buyers to abandon their cart before they check out and seal the deal. According to a survey conducted by SaleCycle, there are about five to six different reasons this could happen.

Just Looking

When asked to fill in a survey about cart abandonment, more than 35 percent of all people mentioned that they were simply looking. They might have added items to their cart and enjoyed the momentary satisfaction that comes with window shopping, but they stopped short of their retail therapy. Some people just enjoy the act of selecting items and not spending their hard-earned money on them. The statistics suggest that there are a lot of such people! So, the next time you hear that a cart was left abandoned on your website, worry not! It was most likely someone not intending to buy anything in the first place.

Shipping Issues

A very common problem that might plague even the giants like Amazon is shipping. Sometimes, they may painstakingly select the perfect product in the right color and size, only to realize that the company does not ship to their location! That is a sad realization indeed. Or, the shipping fee might be so high that the customer opts out of buying the item as well. This has happened to all of us countless times, so the same likely happened to 23 percent of the other cart abandoners as well.

Price Comparison

Another reason that prospective customers don’t check out is that they want to compare your prices with another brand or store to make sure they are getting the best out of this deal. People never want to feel cheated, and one way of making sure is to see whether the price is the same everywhere. If they see a better price, you will probably see an abandoned cart.

In-Store Preference

There are a few customers not yet accustomed to or satisfied with online shopping. They may view the product online and even add it to their cart, but they prefer making the actual purchase online. About 15 percent of abandoned carts turned out to be from people who prefer buying in-person according to the survey.

Technical Issue

In a few cases, there may be a technical issue while signing out. Either the website stopped working, or the items disappeared from the cart– it could be anything. Technology is an extremely dependable addition to human life until it is not.

Lack of Payment Options

One last reason, cited by 7 percent of all people surveyed, was the lack of sufficient payment options. Some brands prefer their payments to be made via bank transfer, some prefer credit cards only. The fact of the matter is, a successful business must make sure that a large number of payment options are present to suit all sorts of people. Otherwise, they will inadvertently lose a lot of customers to this solvable issue.

Finally, it must be clear to you that cart abandonment is not always about a viable customer’s lack of interest in your product. It can be related to several reasons, all able to be addressed and solved.