Question: What’s the average shopping cart abandonment rate and how is it lowered?

Answer: Shopping cart abandonment happens when a potential customer initiates the order by starting the check out process, but leaves before the purchase can be completed. The rate at which your visitors abandon is an important statistic to track for online retailers as it could mean the difference between a profitable eCommerce store and potential loss.

The average shopping cart abandonment rate is currently around 60% – 70% for most online merchants (according to industry publications). On average, most eCommerce stores convert visits-to-sales at a rate of 1% – 2%, which leaves plenty of room for improvement. If the average online storefront fails to convert 98% – 99% of their visitors into buyers, it’s that much more important to reduce the ones that already initiate the check out process and finally the order.

There are several things any eBusiness owner and online merchant can do to lower and improve the shopping cart abandonment rate for their store. Keep in mind that many factors for abandoning carts are out of the merchants control, but there are several proven methods that can be applied during the check out process to lower the abandonment rate.

Be Sure Your Cart Is Bug Free:

One of the main reasons why shopping carts get abandoned during the check out process is that they fail to work properly and the customer gets frustrated, finally leaving without making a purchase. Many merchants fail to test the buying process before launching their store and have no idea whether their are potential bugs or not. Having control over your code, whether the site works properly and any bugs your customers might encounter during the buying process is important and should never be overlooked. To online sellers, having a broken shopping cart or site feature is equally as bad as retailers having to close their brick-and-mortar for remodeling or to fix up the building space. If you can’t use the site, visitors will not buy from you. Make sure the site works like it is supposed to and you can easily cross this off your list of potential problems during check out.

Keep Product Pricing Competitive:

Comparison shopping, user generated content and new technology has made it extremely easy for shoppers to compare prices, and numerous other attributes relating to the products they are interested in buying. If one site offers items for well below what another site offers the same items for, it’s obvious which site is most likely going to get the sale (providing the shopper compares before buying). Merchants can use comparison shopping engines too. Only merchants aren’t looking to buy items, they should be comparing their prices with their competitions prices so that their pricing remains competitive enough with other merchants in their marketplace. A big part of shopping cart abandonment is that shoppers think they can get a better deal. Consider offering competitive pricing if you don’t already. Compare with other companies who sell the same items, or similar items as you do and make any necessary changes to your pricing structure. Consider using calls to action like, “Lowest prices on these items anywhere on the Net,” and other statements that help reassure your customer that they are getting the best deal.

Allowing Guests to Check Out:

Many eCommerce sites will not allow customers to check items out in the shopping cart until they have registered as a user of the site. This means the customers have to take an extra step in the check out process and could cause them to abandon the cart before they buy. Some merchants have found that by allowing guests to check out first and giving them the option to register AFTER they have already bought lowered the rate at which their store shopping cart was abandoned. This subject has been long debated as there are also many pros to having a customer register BEFORE checking out (gain email address for mailing lists, phone number for a more personal contact and potentially a repeat customer).

One-page Check Out Process:

As eCommerce has evolved there have been many advances in the way that shopping carts and their processes work. Recently, as new programming and Web standards have been developed and discovered merchants have found innovative ways, either through their platform provider or coding support, to allow customers to check out of their stores shopping cart on One-page as opposed to paginated navigation or step by step check out.

Cross-sell, Up-sell & Group Products:

A lot of shopping carts get abandoned when a customer finds that they cannot easily edit the cart or that they get redirected back to the home page once they add an item to the cart. This means the customer has to perform another search query or navigate to the page or similar page that they were viewing before the redirect or mistake that would need to be edited. Some merchants have found that by directing their customers back to the page they were previously on, or by allowing them to add accessories or similar items that may accompany the product they are buying to the cart during checkout has improved their abandonment rates. This strategy works particularly well if the customer sees the item groupings or option to add similar items right before they login or enter their payment information.

Clearly Identify Rates & Fees:

One of the main reasons that customers leave before completing the buying process is that the store has not done a good job of clearly stating additional shipping rates or handling fees on items offered in their catalog. When a customer sees the price of an item and adds it to their cart they do not typically see the shipping and handling fees until later in the process (once they have logged in or entered payment information). This may cause the customer to abandon the cart, especially if they were not expecting the shipping to be as high or the handling fees are outrageous. Be sure to state all fees, rates and charges on individual product pages, through links to policy pages and somewhere near the beginning of the check out. If the customer expects to see the fees before they initiate the check out, they will probably not leave for that reason alone. This becomes more important if you sell internationally as shipping is typically higher to those locations. You certainly would not want to state you offer “free shipping” and then charge shipping fees during the check out. This would almost certainly cause more harm than good and will dilute your brand reputation among consumers.

Clearly State Policies & Terms:

In addition to properly displaying information related to shipping and handling charges, it’s equally important to clearly state store return policies, guarantees, user terms, and privacy statements. If a customer cannot return an item in the event that they are unsatisfied it may cause them to take their business to a competing merchant who does offer a return policy or guarantee. Some merchants have found that by offering this information clearly on the store and during check out that the rate at which customers left went down. Linking to these pages is important as your users need to be able to spot them easily upon entering and navigating the store. Some merchants found that by linking to their policy pages above the fold AND near the footer, it was easy for customers to find on the page they were viewing.

Security Badges & Trust Certificates:

One of the biggest reasons why users leave an Online store is because they do not offer a feeling of security and trust during the check out process or upon entering for the first time. Customers expect to see security certificates, trust badges and other forms of identification to let them know it’s safe to enter their private, personal, payment information in your store. Not having these identifying labels in place could mean lower sales, less page views and a higher cart abandonment rate. Merchants have added something as simple as a trust banner in addition to a reputable security certificate and it has done the job, but as all businesses are unique it may depend on what you sell and the customers you sell to as to how secure of a feeling you need to portray.

Check Out Process Is Too Long:

Many online shoppers buy from Web stores rather than traveling to their local shopping malls in order to save time or to find specialty items on available through online purchase. A major reason why many carts get abandoned is simply because the process takes too long, requires too much entering of information, looks intimidating to the customer or simply that they don’t have time to make the purchase at that moment. Merchants can improve their check out processes by offering a One-page check out or by slimming down the current amount of steps within the process. For instance, if you currently use two separate pages for billing and shipping information, consider adding them each to the same page and remove one step from the process for your customers.

Progress Indicators & Page Factors:

When customers check out using a multiple page process (paginated or step by step as opposed to One-page) it helps if they can see what page they are on during the steps they need to take to check out. No matter how many steps your process uses, make sure to let the customer know where they are at in their progress. Clearly label the steps using numbers or progress indicators and be sure to allow them to navigate back and forth through pages easily. Other page factors include using fonts that are large, providing inventory availability, linking back to the product and clear progress indicators.

Multiple Payment Methods:

Many customers are used to using one form of payment or another for their purchases online. For instance, eBay users are very Paypal savy and will almost certainly wish to use that payment method for other transactions. Some users like money orders or pay by check, but the most common forms of payment are major credit card via merchant account, Paypal or Google Checkout. Try to offer as many options to your customers as possible so users do not have a reason to abandon the cart once they have added the item to buy.

Phone, Fax & Email Ordering:

As with multiple payment methods, it is equally important to offer multiple forms of ordering. A decent majority of online buyers prefer to email ahead or order over the phone once they have discovered your store and the product(s) they wish to purchase. At the very least you should consider offering orders by email, but you will almost certainly see an increase if you begin to offer ordering by phone, fax and email. Clearly state the different ways a potential customer can order your items with your store policies and pages.

Visitor Analytics & Data Tracking:

Analyze your store check out to see if there are any steps you might take to make the process easier for your users and more effective for you. There are free tools that can be downloaded or found online that allow you to track where you store visitors go and what pages they enter and exit from, including the check out process. Two reputable tracking tools include Google Analytics and ClickTracks. Although we have mentioned some of the things you can do to improve these suggestions may not work for all stores and you may need to be creative while conducting research and analysis on your store.

Tracking the rate at which your potential customers abandon during the check out process is important for both new and established merchant store owners. As you begin to lower your shopping cart abandonment rate you will begin to see your store generate more revenue per visitor which also helps by making the revenue you spend on marketing more effective.