Ecommerce: Why are carts being abandoned?

There’s no doubt that ecommerce has revolutionized the way consumers shop. The problem is that it also makes it easier for consumers to abandon their carts. Research has found that 67.45% of online shopping carts are abandoned. And that means ecommerce retailers are losing out on scores of potential sales.

But why are online shoppers not turning browsing into buying?

It turns out that a massive 56% of ecommerce shoppers abandon their carts when they’re presented with unexpected costs at checkout. And that makes sense because when you’ve planned to spend a certain amount, you’re not going to want to spend more on charges you hadn’t expected.

According to Statista, there are 14 main reasons why shoppers abandon their carts. These are:

• Presented with unexpected costs

• Just browsing

• Found better price elsewhere

• Price too expensive

• Decided against buying

• Website user experience was too complicated

• Website crashed

• Process was taking too long

• Excessive payment security checks

• Concerns about payment security

• Delivery options were unsuitable

• Website time out

• Price presented in a foreign currency

• Payment was declined

There are two main ways you can ensure these transactions are successful and consumers don’t abandon their carts.

Before cart abandonment

This is all about improving the user experience for consumers by taking the concerns listed above into account. By improving the experience on your website, decreasing the amount of time it takes to complete the transaction, providing clear security details and offering an array of delivery options without charge, you could keep many of your customers from abandoning their carts.

After cart abandonment

Once you've made those changes to your website, it’s important to look at what happens after your lost customer leaves the site. One of the most effective ways to do this is to implement advert retargeting. This ensures photos of the product they almost purchased will follow them around on their internet travels.

Another option is an email recovery campaign. This is effective when the customer was logged into their account before they abandoned their cart. A series of one to three emails should then be sent out to remind customers of their near-purchases. The first email is sent out within 24 hours, the second a day or two later and the third a week later. The email should include photos of the products which were almost purchased, an offer of assistance, testimonials from other customers and a strong call to action to complete the transaction.

These two solutions, before and after cart abandonment, should assist in completing a large portion of these transactions. Learn more about abandoned online shopping carts and how multi-factor authentication can improve security and help curb the problem of abandoned carts. You would never usually leave money lying around. Why are you doing it with abandoned carts?