5 Reasons Why Shopping Carts Are Abandoned Even Today!

If you are an eCommerce store owner, you must be really worried about your worst nightmare – shopping cart abandonment.  Shopping carts get abandoned because of several reasons. Your customer goes as far as the checkout page, and then because of a certain distraction or the other, the customer decides to abandon the purchase.  This development is really hurtful for your business and you lose a potential sale in the process.

According to current statistics, the shopping cart abandonment figure is pegged at 70% across the whole web. This is certainly huge! Thus, out of every 100 potential customers, more than 70% leave without purchasing anything from the store. Let’s suppose you manage to persuade even half of this figure to stay back and make a purchase. You will certainly reap huge benefits if you did so!

Some of the reasons why shopping carts are abandoned are as follows:

1. Mandatory to create an account before a purchase: Some merchants make it compulsory for customers to create an account before they complete a purchase. Some customers are reluctant to share too much personal information before making a purchase, while others find it too cumbersome to fill out long forms in order to complete purchasing formalities.

2. High shipping costs: Some merchants indicate a very high shipping cost for the products purchase. Customers who find this cumbersome or too expensive will abandon the shopping cart instantly. Customers who see that the merchants charge high shipping costs despite not shipping the products reasonably soon also discard the products and abandon the shopping cart.

3. Long Checkout Processes: If the checkout process in your eCommerce website is too complicated, then too your customers will abandon your eCommerce website and move on. Simplify your checkout process and the chances are customers will stay.

4. Aggressive up-selling in the middle of a transaction: Some websites insert pop-ups while a transaction is proceeding, thus distracting and annoying the buyer. Therefore, the buyer will move on in frustration and avoid getting distracted while the payment process is underway. 

5. Doubts about payment security: Some customers may find your website risky to share their payment or card details. Therefore, they will opt to quit the website and seek a safer alternative.

One of the best ways to recover from the ghastly effects of shopping cart abandonment is to send email reminders about abandoned shopping carts. Chances are the shopping cart was abandoned in a hurry or the shopper was distracted due to something more urgent. Such customers can be persuaded to visit your store once again and complete their purchase.

Nevertheless, you still will have a few abandoned shopping carts even after implementing measures to stop them.  But, correctly implementing measures to prevent abandonment should help you recover a large percentage of abandoned shopping carts and get these customers back. I’m sure you will find some of the reasons applicable to your website too, so don’t hesitate to discover the solutions for shopping cart abandonment.  In the next article, we shall discuss some solutions to the aforementioned problems. Good luck!