Wouldn’t it be great if every customer you came into contact with resulted in a sale? Naturally, not every lead will move all the way through the funnel, but we all want to maximize the number who do. There’s one crucial spot where you may be losing people: your shopping cart. Cart abandonment is frustrating and sometimes mystifying, but luckily for you, there are ways to combat the growing problem of shopping cart abandonment.
What is Shopping Cart Abandonment?
When a customer visits your website and adds something to their cart but then leaves before completing the purchase, that is shopping cart abandonment. Shopping cart abandonment is a global problem, so it’s not just your business experiencing this. SaleCycle puts global cart abandonment rates at 76.63 percent, though Barilliance notes that abandonment rates can range anywhere from 55 to 80 percent.
Reasons for Shopping Cart Abandonment
Consumers have their reasons for why they abandon items in their online shopping carts. Understanding the reasons behind this behavior can help you avoid it.
Customers are Just Browsing
One of the biggest reasons for shopping cart abandonment is that customers are browsing your website for price comparison purposes. If customers find the same or similar products you offer for a lower price somewhere else, they’re going to go with the lower price and leave their cart on your site with product still in it.
Checkout Pages Aren’t Optimized for Mobile Users
We live in a digital world. While people still use desktop and laptop computers, many make their purchases on their smartphones or tablets. If your checkout page isn’t formatted properly for mobile users, customers will leave your website, possibly leaving items in their shopping cart. Similarly, complex websites and forms negatively affect the likelihood of people purchasing a product. The more complex your system, the more likely people will abandon their shopping carts and take their business elsewhere.
How Much Business is Lost Through Shopping Cart Abandonment
People have their reasons for abandoning their shopping cart, but the more often it happens, the more revenue you’re losing. According to Business Insider, in 2016, $4.6 trillion was lost because of shopping cart abandonment. This figure is up from 2013 when $4.2 trillion was lost in sales because of shopping cart abandoned.
While those numbers seem scary, there is proof you can do to cut down on shopping cart abandonment. Usability is a massive problem in shopping cart abandonment. Baymard reports that if site usability is improved upon, websites can gain 35.26 percent in their conversion rates. This translates to $260 billion recovered in sales that previously wouldn’t have completed in the United States and the European Union.
How to Overcome Shopping Cart Abandonment
The good news is, shopping cart abandonment can easily be fixed. We already touched on flawed design on smartphone and tablet checkout pages. Make sure your website is optimized for mobile users to make it easier for them to check out and they won’t have to always resize the page.
You can also remind people their shopping cart has items in it. Different people have different attention spans, and something can distract them from completing their purchases. If they provide an email address or cell phone number, send them a text or email after two or three hours to remind them.
Whichever way you choose to overcome shopping cart abandonment, OptinMonster can help you, whether it’s through campaigns run on your website, timed messages to help you increase conversion rates, and help you make data-driven decisions that are best for your business.
Shopping cart abandonment is a problem in the retail and shopping industries. Just implementing new strategies and techniques can help you grow your sales and keep your business afloat for as long as possible.