Let’s imagine for a moment that shopping in person was exactly like shopping online. You’re in a store, happily filling your cart, when suddenly, you spot a playful kitten in Aisle 3, batting at a nerf gun. Your shopping list vanishes from your mind as you become completely engrossed in the adorable scene. After a while, you simply stroll out of the store, forgetting all about the items you intended to buy.
While this situation seems absurd in real life, it’s a constant reality in the world of e-commerce. Visitors come to your site, add items to their carts, and then, just like that, they’re gone – lured away by the latest episode of their favorite show or countless other distractions. This is the essence of shopping cart abandonment. It happens when potential customers add items to their cart but leave your site before completing the purchase.
This is a major hurdle for online businesses. It’s impossible to completely eliminate, as some people will inevitably abandon their carts. However, there are ways to make your online store more user-friendly and reduce this abandonment rate. In this article, we’ll explore 13 strategies to achieve just that.
But first, let’s see how big this problem really is.
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Shopping Cart Abandonment Statistics
Shopping cart abandonment is the biggest challenge e-commerce retailers face, and the numbers are staggering.
According to Listrak, a retail marketing firm that tracks shopping cart abandonment, on average, a whopping 81% of online shoppers abandon their carts (as of this writing). Just six months ago, the average rate was 75%. This means that, at best, most e-commerce sites lose three-quarters of their potential sales to cart abandonment. At worst, four out of every five shoppers leave without buying anything.
Here’s some more eye-opening data for e-commerce marketers:
- The travel industry has the highest abandonment rate among all e-commerce sectors, at almost 85% (source)
- Completion rates for desktops and tablets hover around 13%, while mobile completion rates are a dismal 8.5% (source)
- Checkout page abandonment rates average a shocking 87% and climb even higher on weekends, reaching almost 90% (Ibid.)
Now that we’ve seen the grim reality, let’s explore what you can do to reduce shopping cart abandonment on your site. Here are 13 of our favorite tactics, culminating in our top recommendation for recovering abandoned carts.
1. Build Trust From the Get-Go with Secure Transaction Forms
Some online retailers treat transaction forms as a mere afterthought. They assume that once they’ve enticed you with their products, you’ll gladly fill out any form they throw at you. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Your transaction forms are crucial for establishing trust, just like every other aspect of your website.
When you ask customers to complete a transaction form, you’re asking them to trust you with sensitive personal information, not just their contact details. You’re requesting their credit card information – something many people are rightfully cautious about sharing.
To ease concerns about handing over financial details and personal information, use your transaction forms as an opportunity to build trust. Display recognizable security logos prominently near these forms.
Ensure the logos you use are familiar and widely trusted, such as the “Norton Secured” logo, which replaced the commonly used “VeriSign Secured” logo. Research from Shopify found that while nearly 61% of consumers had not purchased something online because trust logos were missing, over 75% of consumers have backed out of a purchase due to unfamiliar trust logos.
Data via Shopify
2. Guide Customers with a Progress Indicator on Checkout Pages
Imagine waiting in a checkout line at a store, and the cashier bombards you with questions: zip code, phone number, loyalty program membership, special offers. Each question adds another layer of frustration and prolongs the checkout process. Your online store should be a haven from these irritations, and a progress indicator on your checkout pages is a great way to achieve this.
A progress indicator clearly shows customers where they are in the checkout process, easing any worries that completing the purchase will take too long. It reassures them that they’re almost done and can soon return to browsing cat videos or whatever else they’d rather be doing. By removing ambiguity, it simplifies the process and makes it easier to understand. Studies have consistently shown that a majority of consumers prefer having a clear indication of their status in the process of completing a task, and this principle holds true for e-commerce.
The most effective progress indicators have as few steps as possible. The example above clearly shows a simple three-step process, making the experience straightforward and less daunting. Compare it to the example below – which one seems more appealing?
While the second example might not actually be longer, it appears significantly more cumbersome, potentially discouraging customers from completing their purchase. In this case, combining the delivery address and delivery method into one step, along with merging the payment and confirmation stages, would streamline the process.
As with any aspect of your website, A/B testing variations of your progress indicators is crucial. What works well for one site may not work for another, so base your decisions on data from your own site visitors’ behavior.
3. Keep Purchases Front and Center with Product Thumbnails Throughout Checkout
While most shoppers remember what’s in their carts (unless they’re on a major shopping spree), displaying product thumbnails during checkout, much like a progress indicator, serves as a reassuring reminder of their selections.
In a physical store, you can constantly see the items you’re buying. In an online store, that’s not always the case. By including thumbnails of the products in the customer’s cart, you not only refresh their memory but also minimize distractions and hesitation that might arise from not immediately recalling their choices.
The checkout page above demonstrates this technique effectively. Not only does it include small but clear thumbnails of the cart items, but it also streamlines the checkout into a single page. This is far less intimidating than a multi-page process, and customers have a constant visual reminder of their selections. These thumbnails keep the products at the forefront of the shopper’s mind, reinforcing their desire to complete the purchase.
Optimizing your e-commerce checkout process is all about removing friction and making it as smooth and effortless as possible for customers to buy from you. Including thumbnails of their chosen products provides a sense of grounding throughout the process and significantly reduces the likelihood of cart abandonment due to hesitation.
4. Seamlessly Connect Cart and Store Navigation
The online shopping journey is rarely a straight line from product discovery to checkout. Customers browse, compare, and reconsider, just like in a physical store. The easier you make it for them to move between their cart and your product pages, the more likely they’ll stay engaged and complete their purchase.
However, designing intuitive navigation between the shopping cart and the rest of your e-commerce store is easier said than done. Even giants like Amazon are constantly tweaking their checkout flow to create the most seamless and purchase-friendly experience.
Many principles of good web navigation apply to your checkout pages. The age-old adage, “The Back button doesn’t exist,” is especially relevant here. If a customer feels compelled to hit the “Back” button (or commit other crimes against web navigation) it’s time to reevaluate your navigation flow.
Make it effortless for customers to save their carts and return to them later. Offer clear, logical navigation options between the checkout page and your product pages. The more effort you require from your potential customers, the less likely they are to complete their purchase.
5. Cater to Everyone with Multiple Payment Options
Your goal is to remove any obstacle that might prevent a customer from having a smooth and enjoyable shopping experience. Offering only a single payment option, or very few, is a surefire way to introduce unnecessary friction and drive customers away.
Credit cards are a must-have, but today’s consumers have more payment options than ever. PayPal remains popular, and mobile payment systems like Apple Pay and Google Wallet are gaining traction, especially among younger demographics.
By offering a variety of payment options, you eliminate yet another reason for customers to abandon their carts and seek out competitors. While managing multiple payment gateways might seem like a hassle, it’s a small price to pay for providing your customers with the convenience they expect.
6. Guide Customers with Clear Calls to Action on Checkout Pages
Many websites neglect to include clear calls to action (CTAs) on their checkout pages. The flawed reasoning behind this seems to be that if a customer has added items to their cart, they need no further encouragement to buy. In reality, checkout pages are a prime location for strong, compelling CTAs that solidify the customer’s decision to complete their purchase.
While it’s important to feature strong CTAs on your checkout pages, ensure they align with the messaging and tone used throughout your website and marketing materials. Strive for a cohesive experience from product discovery to purchase. Suddenly changing your CTA style on the checkout page can be jarring for visitors, even if they can’t quite put their finger on why.
Clarity is key. If your CTAs use vague language like “Continue,” test them against clearer, more active verbs. This helps visitors understand exactly what action is expected of them.
Maintain consistent messaging throughout your CTAs, from your marketing materials to your checkout process. If your brand uses a friendly, conversational tone, carry that through to the checkout experience. If you’re using urgency or other incentives, don’t let up during checkout. Use appropriate and consistent CTAs based on the customer’s stage in the checkout process, especially if you’re using a progress indicator. Don’t make assumptions about their understanding of where they are in the process.
7. Make Saving Carts a Breeze
In a physical store, you either buy what’s in your cart or you don’t. Online shopping offers more flexibility. Customers expect to be able to save their carts and return to them later, sometimes multiple times. To improve your conversion rates, make it effortless for them to resume their shopping journey.
Ideally, saving a cart should be as simple as clicking a button. With countless potential distractions both online and offline, interruptions during checkout are almost inevitable. Allow shoppers to easily save their carts and return later at their convenience.
There are several ways to achieve this. You can require users to create an account, which isn’t always ideal as we’ll discuss in tip #8. Alternatively, you can use browser cookies to remember their carts without forcing them to log in. While this can be convenient, it can also feel invasive depending on the user’s privacy preferences. Many browsers allow users to save login information for sites like Amazon, reducing friction and making it easier for them to save their carts and return later, a convenience most online shoppers appreciate.
Prioritize ease of use when designing your cart-saving functionality. You might even test automatically saving carts by default, as some customers may not think to do it manually. Regardless of your approach, be transparent about it. Don’t make customers uncomfortable by saving their data without their knowledge or consent.
8. Welcome Everyone with Guest Checkout Options
While the checkout process can be a goldmine of customer data, forcing account creation can deter many from completing their purchase.
According to Invesp, not offering a guest checkout option is a leading cause of shopping cart abandonment. Approximately 14% of online shoppers said that being forced to create an account was enough to make them abandon their cart – a bigger deterrent than excessive information requests or overly complex checkout processes:
Image via Invesp Offering a guest checkout option means sacrificing some valuable customer data. However, it significantly simplifies the shopping experience for your customers. The easier it is to buy from you, the more sales you’ll make. Plus, a frictionless experience might encourage those one-time buyers to create accounts later to take advantage of loyalty programs and other perks.
9. Instill Confidence with a Strong Money-Back Guarantee
Hesitation and uncertainty are the bane of any e-commerce business. The more you can do to proactively address potential objections and continuously reassure your customers, the higher your conversion rates will climb. A strong, no-questions-asked money-back guarantee is one of the best ways to achieve this.
E-commerce relies heavily on trust. Customers can’t physically interact with the products they’re buying, relying solely on images and descriptions. Adding to this is the unease some people feel about sending their credit card information into the digital void. While online shopping has evolved significantly since the early days of Amazon, hesitation and uncertainty persist.
Great examples of preemptively overcoming risk aversion by Neil Patel Offering a money-back guarantee effectively eliminates the risk for the customer. It shifts the focus from the price and terms of sale to the product itself. If a customer hesitates, it won’t be out of fear of losing their money.
Go the extra mile to reassure your customers. Take inspiration from Zappos, known for its exceptional customer service and generous 365-day return policy with free return shipping. Be bold in your commitment to customer satisfaction. Don’t bury your return policy in the fine print. Feature it prominently during the checkout process to alleviate any potential concerns, as Neil Patel does in the example above.
10. Be Upfront About Costs - Especially Shipping
Few things are more frustrating than hidden costs during online checkout, and exorbitant shipping fees are among the worst offenders.
According to UPS, shipping costs are the most universally loathed of all online retail costs. Consumers loathe shipping fees, so much so that they are the primary driver of cart abandonment.
Data via UPS Not only do shoppers go to great lengths to avoid shipping costs, but they are also highly sensitive to how those costs are presented. Research from KISSmetrics reveals that unexpected shipping costs account for almost one-third of all abandoned ecommerce shopping carts:
Image via KISSmetrics Therefore, transparency regarding shipping costs is paramount. Don’t try to sneak them in at the last minute; your customers deserve better. Be upfront about all costs associated with getting your products into their hands.
Delivery estimates are another crucial factor. Vague, open-ended estimates can be incredibly frustrating. Consider this example from Shopify:
This “Standard Shipping” option not only fails to provide a clear delivery timeframe but also forces customers to hunt for a vague “production timeline” mentioned elsewhere. In this case, the production timeline was equally unclear (1-2 weeks), meaning customers could wait up to SIX WEEKS for their order to arrive.
Now, let’s look at how a little transparency can make a world of difference:
This approach sets clear expectations. Not only do we know the estimated delivery timeframe for standard shipping, but the company uses the potentially long wait as an opportunity to highlight a selling point – the handcrafted nature of their products.
11. Identify and Patch the ‘Leaks’ in Your Conversion Funnel
One of the biggest mistakes you can make is assuming you know how users will interact with your site. While something might seem obvious, the actual flow of visitors through your site, especially during checkout, can be anything but straightforward. That’s why it’s crucial to analyze your conversion pathways and identify any weak points.
You likely have a good understanding of your traffic sources. However, visualizing how visitors actually navigate your site to reach the checkout page can be eye-opening. This analysis can help you formulate and answer important questions about your e-commerce strategy. Are your conversion rates affected by international customers abandoning their carts due to shipping options? Is there an unexpected bottleneck on specific product pages? Is your site navigation less intuitive than you thought? Examining your visitor flow and conversion pathways in Google Analytics is a great way to uncover these insights and refine your e-commerce strategy.
12. Speed Things Up by Optimizing Your Page Load Times
Visual Website Optimizer reports that e-commerce shopping cart conversion rates drop 7% for every one-second delay to your page loading speed. Slow-loading checkout pages are a recipe for disaster, practically inviting impatient shoppers to abandon their carts and seek faster alternatives. Optimize your checkout pages for speed to keep those customers engaged.
Some on-page technical elements are easier to optimize than others. Image optimization, for example, is crucial for balancing quality and speed. You can also minimize the use of ad network trackers, poorly implemented tags, social plugins, and other unnecessary elements that can bloat your pages and increase load times.
Other elements, such as the delay between clicking “Place Order” and your payment processor finalizing the transaction, are less within your control. If you know there will be an unavoidable delay, consider using visual cues like loading bars or progress indicators to reassure customers that the transaction is being processed. The last thing you want is a customer unsure if their order went through. Be proactive and keep them informed.
13. Bring Back Lost Customers with Remarketing
The most effective way to combat shopping cart abandonment is to accept that some customers will inevitably abandon their carts and target them with remarketing campaigns.
Remarketing is crucial for e-commerce retailers, perhaps more so than any other type of online business. If you’re not re-engaging visitors who were on the verge of buying, you’re limiting yourself to a single opportunity to convert them in a single session – an unrealistic expectation in today’s multi-device online world.
Facebook remarketing is ideal for targeting cart abandoners. The visual nature of Facebook ads (with limited space for text) makes them perfect for showcasing the desirable qualities of your products that initially attracted those visitors. Remarketing with Google AdWords and Bing Ads is also effective, especially for products that might not have the same visual appeal or whose unique selling points are difficult to convey through images alone.
No matter your preferred method, remarketing to customers who abandon their carts is a must. While the previous tips can help reduce cart abandonment, remarketing helps you win back those potential customers who slip through the cracks.
Summary: 13 Ways to Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment
To summarize, here’s how to minimize shopping cart abandonment on your site:
- Remarket to cart abandoners.
- Optimize your page load times.
- Identify and fix leaks in your conversion funnels.
- Be transparent about all costs, especially shipping.
- Offer a strong money-back guarantee.
- Provide a guest checkout option.
- Make it easy to save shopping carts.
- Use clear and compelling CTAs on checkout pages.
- Offer multiple payment options.
- Ensure seamless navigation between the shopping cart and product pages.
- Display product thumbnails throughout the checkout process.
- Guide customers with a progress indicator during checkout.
- Build trust with recognizable security logos.