ECommerce Shopping Cart Abandonment: 5 Ways to Reduce It

The concept of shopping cart abandonment doesn’t exist in the brick-and-mortar world. However, thanks to a convenient online shopping journey (or maybe because no one is judging or watching you), this factor is only significant when discussing eCommerce shops.

Typically, every three out of four shopping carts are usually abandoned. However, since the rise in online shopping last year, the shopping cart abandonment rate has increased by 2%.

Cart abandonment reflects a significant loss of future conversions. For example, a 65% cart abandonment rate results in a 97.9% difference in conversions, costing advertisers nearly $2 to $4 trillion each year. However, Forrester Research estimates an $18 trillion annual loss.

Deconstructing the online purchasing operations and improving eCommerce conversion rates can be challenging. However, according to studies, around 75% of visitors return to the store either to complete their research or purchase.

Only 2% of visitors convert into customers on their first visit. At the same time, 92% of the visitors have no intention of buying anything on the first visit.

That might be a lot to digest, but you should have a proper e-commerce business plan as an eCommerce business owner.

As we know, shopping cart abandonment highly affects conversion rates. So today, in this post, we’ll be discussing how to decrease the shopping cart abandonment rate on your eCommerce website.

So, without any further ado, let’s begin.

As we know, many factors influence conversion rate optimization. The same goes for shopping cart abandonment rates. Below are some accessible practices you can follow to decrease the shopping cart abandonment rate.

Page loading speed plays a most significant role in optimization. If your website takes more than 3 seconds to load, sorry, pals, you’ll lose customers. But, according to AliExpress, improving your page loading speed can decrease the shopping cart abandonment rate and boost conversion rates by 27%.

You can improve your page loading speed in the following ways:

• First, optimize your uploaded media files, such as images and videos.
• Cache and offload different files like MP3s and PDFs.
• Install a cache plugin to cache your content as much as possible.
• Fourth, use a CDN if you’re selling globally.
• Lastly, don’t forget to optimize your database correctly.

These are just a few ways to improve your page loading speed. There are plenty of them, so make sure to optimize the speed of your eCommerce website to decrease the shopping cart abandonment rate.

Around 23% of visitors abandon their shopping carts because the checkout process is unnecessarily long and complicated. Therefore, a large-sized eCommerce store can quickly take its conversion rate up to 35.26% if it offers a convenient checkout process.

You can simplify the checkout process of your eCommerce website in the following ways:

• Offer a guest checkout option, making it easier and less time-consuming for customers.
• Simplify the checkout process by eliminating unnecessary steps and items that can distract a visitor.
• Add a one-step checkout option like Amazon.

Now take a step back and examine your eCommerce website checkout process. Look for things that are unnecessary or confusing. Is there anything that you can eliminate? Make sure to quickly test out new changes to decrease your eCommerce website’s shopping cart abandonment rate.

Use multiple payment methods to reduce shopping cart abandonment

When you start an eCommerce business, you must make yourself available to people from across the globe. Knowing this, you need to understand that offering one payment method won’t suffice as customers from various countries will be shopping from your store.

That’s why it’s highly essential to integrate multiple payment methods on your eCommerce store. PayPal, Square, and Stripe (linked to credit cards, debit cards, and bank accounts) are the two most popular payment methods used across the eCommerce industry.

You can also integrate other popular payment methods into your eCommerce store: Amazon Pay, Apple Pay, and Google Play.

Expensive shipping is one of the most popular reasons customers abandon their shopping carts. But that’s not all; low prices also motivate customers to revisit stores and make purchases.

Around 78% of customers prefer free shipping. Plus, they prefer cheaper shipping options over the fastest ones to save more money. Customers can willingly wait for 5 to 7 days for their orders instead of paying a hefty shipping cost.

Also, it’s a great idea to tell your customers about the expected delivery date and time because it can help improve the customer retention rate quickly.

It may be a little difficult for some eCommerce businesses to offer free shipping. But if you can’t offer free shipping, you can add up shopping costs to the original price of the products. Just this simple step and you’re all good to go.

Below are the few practices you should follow when it comes to shipping:

• First, charge shipping for low-cost products but offer free shipping on expensive products.
• Offer free shipping on standard delivery while charging for premium delivery services.
• Finally, allow customers to choose their shipping carriers.

An email marketing strategy is one of the best marketing strategies that also help reduce the shopping cart abandonment rate.

Sometimes, customers add specific products to their shopping cart, but they get distracted and often forget about it or don’t have enough money to pay for the products. So, you can still win a sale.

Use email marketing strategy to target such customers by reminding them about their abandoned shopping cart. You can also offer them additional limited-time offers or discounts to speed up the conversion rate.

Also, sending one email is not enough as it may get lost in their inbox. Send at least two to three follow-up emails. Lastly, you can also personalize the email, especially the subject line, to grab your customers’ attention immediately.

It’s no secret that shopping cart abandonment is one of the leading issues facing eCommerce retailers. According to the Baymard Institute, shopping cart abandonment rates among online shoppers hover around 70%. Unfortunately, that means more than 20% of potential customers leave your site without completing a purchase, detrimental to business growth and profitability. To solve this, you must understand your consumers’ purchasing habits.

Although many shoppers have similar purchasing habits, how they arrive at your website is unique. Therefore, it’s essential to consider buyer journeys and customer personas when building a practical checkout experience. This way, you can customize messages and steps within the checkout process to resonate best with individual audience segments.