It’s no secret that basket abandonment is a huge issue for retailers – as of 2023, the industry average stands at 70%.
An increasing number of brands are emerging onto the e-commerce scene, creating more competition for businesses. In an already booming marketplace with so much choice out there, how do you ensure shoppers buy from you and stop them from getting cold feet at the checkout?
Take a look at our top 10 tips for how to reduce cart abandonment rates to ensure shoppers don’t leave their baskets behind.
Let’s start with the basics…
What is shopping cart abandonment?
Shopping cart abandonment is the practice of adding items to an online basket, then getting to the checkout and leaving, either by not completing the purchase process or exiting the webpage or the site entirely.
From hidden fees to a lack of trust, there are so many reasons why a shopper may not decide to complete their purchase. For customers, it might mean choosing another brand instead or coming back to complete their order at a later date. For businesses, however, it can be a sign that something is amiss with their product, service, or overall shopping experience.
How to calculate cart abandonment rate
To calculate cart abandonment rate, divide the total number of purchases by the number of adds to basket. Then, subtract the result from the number one and multiply by 100.
For example, if you have 450 completed purchases and 2,000 adds to cart, the basket abandonment rate would be 77.5%.
The equation would be: 1 - (450/2000) x 100 = 77.5%
Why do customers abandon their shopping carts?
Of course, it’s impossible to determine every reason for each individual who exits the purchase process before completing checkout and actually finishing their purchase. Still, there are some recurring themes across customer complaints. These include, but are by no means limited to:
1. Using the checkout process to identify shipping or delivery costs
Often, customers might only discover the true cost of their purchases, including shipping or delivery fees, at the checkout stage. This is usually the case for online stores that don’t clearly display their delivery costs on their product pages.
This late disclosure can lead to a sense of surprise or deception, prompting them to reconsider their order and abandon their cart. Transparency from the onset about total costs can help avoid this issue.
2. A lack of trust in inputting credit/debit card details
Security concerns are crucial when it comes to online shopping. If a site appears outdated, unsecure, or unfamiliar, customers might hesitate to enter their sensitive financial information, causing them to abandon their cart.
Ensuring and communicating site security and offering a secure payment gateway can help build trust and reassure potential customers.
3. A lack of relevant payment options
Modern shoppers expect a variety of payment choices, including digital wallets and newer payment methods like PayPal or Klarna. As well as convenience, options like Apple Pay and Google Wallet allow customers to complete the checkout process without having to hand over their card details – which can be deemed a safer and more secure way of paying.
Incorporating a wider array of payment options and displaying them prominently can cater to different customer preferences.
4. A lack of buying intent while browsing
Many window shoppers browse without a strong intention to purchase immediately. They might add items to the cart as a form of saving or bookmarking before returning to it later.
Offering wish-list functionalities or reminding customers about their abandoned items through retargeting or follow-up emails can help convert these browsing sessions into sales later.
5. Complex and convoluted purchase processes
A lengthy or complex checkout process can frustrate customers and lead to cart abandonment. Streamlining the checkout process, reducing the number of steps, and offering a guest checkout option can make for a more user-friendly experience, increasing the likelihood of purchase completion.
6. Technical issues
Technical glitches or a poorly designed interface can significantly hinder the purchasing process. Ensuring that the website functions smoothly across all devices, resolving bugs promptly, and providing clear instructions can prevent technical issues from interfering with purchases and a customer’s perception of a business.
How to reduce cart abandonment
Understanding why your customers leave their baskets behind is the first step to improving your cart abandonment rate. Once you have your findings, plenty can be done to encourage your shoppers to stay and complete their transactions.
1. Exit intent popups
An exit intent popup is a smart popup technique used by online retailers that can track when a cursor moves outside of the main page boundary – that is, usually, to leave the webpage or website. It can be programmed to be seamlessly branded within the business’ site and could feature a discount code, incentive, or other call-to-action to encourage a purchase.
Overall, consumers don’t always love popups, and they won’t always work on every device. But when introducing a discount or solid call to action, they can be a valuable tool to help give that final nudge over the finish line of the purchase process.
2. InactivitySensor™ popups
InactivitySensor™ popups are a method of monitoring user behaviour on an eCommerce site in real time. The built-in sensor detects how long a user has been on a webpage, how far they’ve navigated away from your content and when they’ve become idle (that is, stopped all activity on the site). Depending on the business’ required parameters, the InactivitySensor™ popup can trigger a popup campaign designed to reactivate the user, reinvigorate their interest, and retain them on the site.
The InactivitySensor™ popup technology is used in different ways by different companies depending on their objectives. It’s used most often to offer a special, time-limited discount or coupon code to encourage an immediate purchase or to encourage a mailing list sign-up to receive a discount or further special offers.
Using an InactivitySensor™ popup can bring distracted shoppers back to your page and, in turn, reduce shopping cart abandonment rates.
3. Be transparent with shipping costs
A common cause of shopping cart abandonment is that communication on pricing isn’t clear enough on dedicated product pages or the rest of the site. Even when there are variable rates of postage for different products or locations, making exact costs as transparent as possible before the checkout process can help alleviate shopping cart abandonment and avoid customers being surprised when they see the prices.
If it’s affordable and doesn’t dent profits too much, free shipping as a blanket standard can work wonders to keep communication and costs clear and encourage further purchases.
Many successful online retailers have permanent banners across the header of their site's advertising ‘Free delivery on orders over £X’. This offers immediate pricing communication and encourages customers to increase the value of their shopping cart to a higher amount to gain the benefit of free postage.
4. Add customer reviews to the checkout
Brand trust is critical to the purchase process, and, unfortunately, smaller businesses are less likely to enjoy widespread loyalty and trust amongst online shoppers – often simply because they don’t know enough about them. As a result, anything that can be done to boost the profile of the brand and increase levels of trust is beneficial.
Putting genuine positive customer reviews, particularly specific product reviews relating to the items in their basket, in the shopping cart area of a site reinforces a reliable and valued brand image right when it could spur a purchase.
5. Offer incentives based on basket value
As mentioned above, basing shipping costs on shopping basket value can encourage further purchases, but other incentives reliant on the shopping cart total can also stimulate acquisition.
The most commonly used incentives that help reduce shopping cart abandonment rates are ones that appeal to consumers to encourage them to spend more. These work without too heavily impacting the profit margins on products or services. Depending on the target audience, this might be spending a certain amount to receive a free gift (or at least an item perceived as free) or receiving a percentage discount on orders over a certain amount.
6. Use trust badges and create social proof
Adding a Feefo Trusted Service Award Badge to reinforce social proof can help further boost trust and increase confidence in your brand.
For the ultimate review of genuine exemplary service, as dictated by real, verified customers, nothing beats the Feefo Trusted Service Award Badge. Awarded only to those brands whose customers really 'wax lyrical' about their experiences, the Badge is recognised by brands and consumers alike as a reliable indicator of outstanding service.
However, the Feefo Trusted Service Award is not available to everyone. Only those with the highest-ranked reviews and continued improvement will qualify, at which point Feefo will notify them. Winners of the Feefo Trusted Service Award are sent a whole range of digital assets, a certificate, and a media pack so that the accolade can be properly promoted and used as a positive PR tool.
Seeing the Feefo Trusted Service Award throughout the online shopping process reiterates the fantastic level of service the brand offers as well as providing an element of social proof to prospective shoppers – because customers are more likely to go through the full process and purchase with a business they know they can truly trust.
7. Remarketing to target abandoners
Remarketing and retargeting may not be a popular marketing technique with consumers in banner ad format, but it has been proven to be very effective. Whilst it won’t necessarily lower a company’s shopping cart abandonment rates, it can help complete the purchase even after the initial abandonment has occurred.
Remarketing to users who have abandoned their cart is often completed via email by reminding them of the items they placed in the cart and encouraging the purchase. This may even be through offering an additional discount or incentive based on their specific product choices.
Remarketing is an ideal tool for those who have inadvertently lost interest or been distracted by something else and could not complete the process, encouraging them to return.
8. Simplify the checkout process
We all know that businesses value customer data, but lengthy payment forms and registration processes can make buying something way more tedious and time-consuming than it needs to be. Don’t just take our word for it: research revealed that 25% of people leave the checkout page because they were asked to create an account.
Whether your visitors want to save time or are wary of giving away too much personal information, give them the option to make a purchase without having to create a username and password. You’ll guarantee to make more sales, and if you provide your “guest” customers with excellent service, they’re more than likely to shop with you again, allowing you to encourage them to sign them up in the future.
Whilst we’re on the subject of jumping through hoops, keep your checkout process as short as possible. The more pages they have to load each time they click ‘confirm’ or ‘buy now’, the more opportunities you have for something to go wrong or for the customer to get fed up and start looking elsewhere.
9. Remove any distractions
Flashy sales banners and additional upsell calls to action are great, but keep it simple once shoppers get to the checkout.
People get distracted easily, and with so many choices around, you need to focus their attention to get them checked out ASAP. For example, adding thumbnail pictures of the products can be a nice way of keeping the checkout process engaging while removing the distraction to go back to the product pages to take another look.
10. Don’t skip on the user experience
As well as stripping back on the bells and whistles that may distract your potential customers, giving them an indication as to how long the checkout process is can convince them to stick around – especially if they’re close to completing the transaction.
A progress bar tells shoppers how many more steps are left in the user flow and can act as a visual reinforcement to finishing their purchase, whether it’s because they can see how few steps are required or because it shows how invested they are in the process so far.
Managing your cart abandonment rates
Cart abandonment is a difficult issue faced by online retailers, but there is huge potential in managing the gap between the number of customers who reach that stage and the number who complete the sale.
Looking at the opportunities in this ever-growing chasm and working to improve it is an area that allows for innovation and plenty of trials and tests. Increasing consumer trust will overall increase sales and profits – and what more could you ask for than that?
If you're ready to take the plunge, get in touch with Feefo today.
