12 Best Solutions to Reducing Cart Abandonment for E-Commerce

Cart abandonment is one of the most common problems for online sellers in the eCommerce world today.

Despite spending an extensive amount of effort and resources marketing your products and services, you are not getting the sales you expected.

You spend lots of money on branding, social media, PPC, SEO, referral marketing, and many more techniques to drive more visitors to your site, but you do not see much revenue following.

If this issue has become a serious problem for your business, keep reading to find out more about some of our favorite foolproof cart abandonment solutions!

What Is Cart Abandonment?

First of all, what exactly is cart abandonment?

Cart abandonment occurs when a shopper visits your site, adds a product to their cart, then leaves the site without completing the purchase.

It typically occurs as a result of a poor user experience or a complicated checkout process. Cart abandonment is the biggest concern among retailers because it takes a toll on revenue.

According to the Digital Marketing Institute, 44% of people shopping online leave their cart because of shipping and handling costs, and another 27% leave because they are comparing prices on other sites.

What Is the Average Shopping Cart Abandonment Rate?

Based on a Baymard Institute study analyzing more than 44 different abandonment cart rate reports, 69.57% of online shopping carts are abandoned. That’s a whole lot of potential revenue down the drain.

This means that for every 100 potential customers checking out from your website, 70 of them will leave without purchasing.

The study also showed that eCommerce brands could regain back about $260B from abandoned orders through checkout optimization.

How To Calculate the Shopping Cart Abandonment Rate

So how do you calculate the shopping cart abandonment rate on your website? It’s quite a simple formula.

Divide the total number of completed purchases by the number of created carts. Subtract from one, then multiply by 100.

Whatever your percentage is, it’s important to remember that your shopping cart abandonment rate will never be zero.

In fact, around 40% of shoppers place items in the shopping cart without the intention of buying them!

‍Nevertheless, a lower percentage means increased conversions.

But before we get into our cart abandonment solutions, let’s explore the most common reasons behind shopping cart abandonment.

Most Common Reasons for Shopping Cart Abandonment

Now let’s look into why your website visitors are abandoning their shopping carts:

Unexpected shipping costs

• When a shopper enters their shipping information and finds out they incurred additional charges including shipping and tax fees, they will likely abandon their cart.

Having to create a new user account

• Shoppers want a seamless, quick process to check out. Having them create a new user account will deter them from purchasing your product.

Long checkout process

• A complicated checkout process with many steps can slow your shoppers down. It might even stop them from visiting your site again.

Website speed

• A slow website will frustrate shoppers and make them lose trust in your shop. They might think they will be charged twice when paying.

Price comparison

• Since 27% of shoppers are only comparing prices online, they are most likely to abandon their shopping cart.

Payment options

• With more paying options like ApplePay, PayPal, Buy Now – Pay Later, and much more, missing any of these might deter the shopper from checking out.

No discounts and promo codes to use

• Shoppers who are deal seekers expect your online store to have discounts and promo codes from other vendors.

Return and refund policy

• Shoppers want to know what the return policy will be if something goes wrong or the product does not meet their expectations. Having an unclear return policy might make them leave your website.

Delivery time

• Websites like Amazon Prime are offering same-day delivery. Shoppers expect their items to be delivered in a reasonable timeframe, so if they have to wait too long, the value of shopping on your website will decrease.

The more things get complicated for shoppers, the more likely they will abandon and leave your website.

How To Decrease Cart Abandonment Rate

Now that we understand the factors that cause shoppers to drop, let’s explore some cart abandonment solutions.

1. Simplify the Checkout Process

The checkout process should not be a complicated one for your shoppers. Give the customer the choice to enter their information only once, and give them an option to shop as a guest without the need to create a username.

2. Pop-Ups

Add a feedback pop-up that is triggered when customers abandon their shopping cart. These pop-ups can offer a special discount.

Sometimes all that’s needed to get your shoppers to complete the purchase is a discount code for a percentage off their purchase.

3. Email Marketing

Email marketing is one of the most tried and true cart abandonment solutions.

Send abandonment emails to your website visitors after they leave their cart. This is an easy strategy that can help you re-engage with potential customers.

Here are some tips to write effective abandoned cart emails:

• Grab their attention with a catchy subject line (and maybe add a few emojis in there!)
• Create urgency by using terms like “hurry before it’s too late!”
• Include prominent links to the cart
• Feature purchases with discounts, coupons, etc.

Since 29% of abandonment emails sent lead to a recovered sale, this gives you an opportunity to recapture the customer even after they have left your website.

4. Making Navigation Seamless

Customers like to easily navigate the checkout process. They want to quickly add items to their shopping cart and then get back to browsing the rest of the website.

Creating a visual progress indicator for the steps of the checkout process on top of the page (1-2-3-4) will make it a more user-friendly experience for the shoppers.

5. Shipping Fees

Make it clear and simple! Any additional or unexpected shipping cost will make your shopper abandon their cart and not come back to your website. Give your shoppers more shipping options.

6. Building Trust

Add trust badges which are small icons or markers that let your visitors know that your website is secure. These are things like a money-back guarantee stamp or secure payment options at the checkout.

Another way to build trust is to include testimonials from real customers on the website.

7. Strong CTA

It is important to have a strong Call-To-Action (CTA) on the check-out page. This is considered one of the best options for strengthening the prospect and motive of completing the purchase.

The CTA message should be strong, conversational, and has a sense of urgency.

You can include a limited special promotion under the CTA button. This is an essential cart abandonment solution, as it clarifies what the next action should be for your users.

8. Retargeting Ads

Today you can retarget visitors to your website through PPC ads. And since some shoppers require multiple touchpoints before they are ready to commit to a purchase.

Retargeting your cart abandoners with relevant ads helps keep the items they viewed or placed in their cart on top of their mind.

The goal is to keep reminding them of the items they left in their shopping cart.

9. One-Click Shopping

One-click shopping is the technique of allowing customers to make purchases with the payment information they previously entered needed to complete the purchase with a click of a button.

Today, Amazon and many online stores are doing it- it’s a game-changer.

When you make shopping on your website as easy as loading a basket and clicking a “Buy Now” button, shopper loyalty will grow.

10. Include Thumbnails of Products

Including thumbnails of products throughout the check-out process can be a way to reassure customers of their current purchase.

It is also useful for keeping these products on top of their mind during the entire process.

11. Create a Sense of Urgency

Another cart abandonment solution you can use to reduce the shopping cart abandonment rate is to create a sense of urgency.

That means letting customers know that whatever discount or promotional offer you have won’t last forever.

One of the best ways to do this is with a countdown timer. That means the timer starts when the user first sees the campaign, rather than beginning on a specific date.

This allows you to fairly create urgency for all of your site’s visitors and motivate hesitant buyers to go through the entire checkout process.

12. Payment Options

Another tactic you can use to reduce shopping cart abandonment rare is to offer more paying options like ApplePay, PayPal, Amazon Pay, Google Wallet, and much more.

This also builds more trust in your brand and strengthens your reputation.

Reduce Cart Abandonment With These 12 Cart Abandonment Solutions

Navigation through your website should be clear and simple. The better the user experience is, the more sales you can expect to make. Clarity and simplicity are hallmarks of reducing the shopping cart abandonment rate.

Perform A/B testing on your website. It’s relatively easy to perform and can deliver valuable insights into your customer journey.

At Chatter Buzz Media, we have skilled and experienced professionals who can optimize your website and checkout process to get your website back on track.

Contact us to claim a free website strategy session with one of our strategists!