The Main Reasons for Cart Abandonment and How to Avoid Them

One of the biggest issues with selling online is cart abandonment. It’s often easy for people to simply leave an eCommerce website and neglect to complete their purchases when online shopping is considerably more passive than shopping in a retail store.

According to recent data from Baymard Institute, 69.99% of shopping carts are abandoned. If you want to avoid this issue, it’s important to understand specifically why people abandon their carts and what strategies you can implement to prevent this issue from hurting your sales.

The following are some of the main reasons why people abandon their carts and how you can avoid them.

Unexpected Expenses for Shipping and Other Costs

People want to know exactly what they’re going to pay before paying it. If they see any unexpected costs pop up just as they’re about to complete their orders, they’re likely to turn away.

These costs often pertain to shipping, which the customer may not see until they’re just about to click “Buy Now.” Therefore, it’s best to be transparent with pricing and avoid giving your customers any unpleasant surprises when it comes to cost.

The Need to Research the Product

Customers often research the products they buy online and the brands behind them. If a customer isn’t sure whether a purchase is a good idea, the shopper might add the item to the cart for future reference.

You can meet the needs of customers in the research phase by making it even easier for them to get back to their shopping cart. For instance, you can use an exit intent pop-up that offers users a discount to encourage them to complete the purchase if they try to leave.

If they do leave the website and you were fortunate enough to capture their email, you can send them abandoned cart emails reminding them to checkout. You can also retarget these folks with Google and Social ads to get them back to your website.

Requiring Users to Create New Accounts

Another roadblock that could turn off potential customers is the need for them to create an account before buying. Shoppers already spend enough time entering their personal information and billing details—they often don’t want to create login credentials at the same time.

If you want to keep people from abandoning their carts for this reason, make sure you give people the ability to check out as guests and encourage signups through other methods. One way to encourage signups while getting people to buy is to give people an incentive to create an account. For instance, many companies offer a discount on people’s first orders if they sign up to the email list.

A Lengthy Checkout Process

People want an easy and quick way to check out on eCommerce websites. If people spend too much time entering information or face confusing steps along the way to completing their orders, they’ll be inclined to take their business elsewhere.

To improve the customer experience and streamline the checkout process, keep checkout smooth and simple. Only ask for relevant and necessary details and make it easy for customers to navigate every step.

Security Concerns

With so many hackers and other malicious parties online today, it’s understandable why online shoppers are wary about buying through eCommerce sites, especially from brands they don’t know well.

To eliminate concerns over your customers’ online security, ensure your product pages look and function their best, without any broken images or other suspicious elements.

You should also ensure your website has an SSL certificate that clearly indicates to customers that their information is secure. It may also be prudent to include some copy on your site that states their personal information will not be shared.

Technical Issues with the Website

One critical problem that can prevent people from completing a purchase is a website that doesn’t function properly. If your web pages fail to load on time or load all of their elements, or if your website frequently crashes and experiences other errors, this could frustrate users and lead them to abandon not just their cart, but your website.

A website that isn’t functioning well also reflects poorly on your brand and can make people distrust your business and, subsequently, your products.

Poor Customer Support

Customers want reliable support from the brands they buy from, with many people requiring assistance at some point during the customer journey before buying. To answer any questions or address any concerns that customers may have before committing to a purchase, offer proactive customer support.

In providing top-tier customer support, use live chat on your website if possible, remain responsive via email, and enable people to easily reach out to you with a private message on your social media channels.

Optimize Your eCommerce Experience to Minimize Cart Abandonment

Every business will experience issues with cart abandonment, but there are plenty of ways to get around them and drive more sales. By closely monitoring your website and the customer experience, you can make any necessary changes to eliminate bottlenecks that keep people from completing their orders.

For more help with growing your online business and getting the most from your eCommerce operations, connect with the experts at Gray Growth Logistics today.