Reducing cart abandonment is a simple exercise that e-commerce stores can use to improve ecommerce conversion rate and boost their sales. The shoppers who filled their carts likely intended to buy before their journey was halted.
There are many factors that disrupt the buying process, so there are many ways you can reduce cart abandonment. Fortunately, most of these techniques are pretty simple.
Without further ado, let's explore nine ridiculously easy ways to reduce cart abandonment.
1. Create a Smooth One-to-One Onboarding
If your product is difficult to use, customers are likely to churn. This is particularly apparent during onboarding for SaaS companies that allow users to try for free for a few weeks to a month.
Although this type of "cart abandonment" is a little less conventional than situations where physical products are involved, it's important to discuss.
Ensure you're constantly testing and iterating on your onboarding experience to ensure it's simple to use and quick to show value.
You can use user onboarding software like Hopscotch to improve your product onboarding experience and minimize cart abandonment.
2. Add Multiple Checkout Options
One way to reduce cart abandonment is to add multiple checkout options and payment methods.
However, you can add checkout options for other common payment processing sites, including PayPal, Google Pay, Apple Pay, Shop, and more.
These tools streamline the process by supporting expedited checkout for those with accounts on any of these sites.
Using these alternate checkout methods also allows customers to make a purchase without an account and pay in the way they prefer while also taking advantage of their credit card rewards, which is another way to avoid cart abandonment.
3. Highlight Savings in The Cart
Another way to reduce cart abandonment is to point out how much the shopper saves. Show the deductions from sales, clearance, coupons, and other promo codes.
Many marketers use this psychological sales technique to get buyers to the finish line.
For example, if a buyer has a subtotal of $100 and uses a 20% discount code, their total will be $80. Ensure the $20 discount is prominently displayed at checkout.
4. Use a Chatbot
A chatbot is an excellent tool for decreasing cart abandonment.
By providing easy access to assistance, chatbots can make customers more satisfied with their experience and more likely to complete their purchases.
However, before implementing this solution, there are many steps to consider and set up to ensure everything is properly configured.
For example, if you run a cleaning business that sells car cleaning products like floor mat cleaner or tire shine, adding a chatbot can help site visitors choose the right products, answer their questions, or explain costs such as shipping charges.
5. Follow Up With an Email
Cart abandonment emails are a standard way to reduce online cart abandonment. You send them to remind customers about products they left behind.
The email typically goes out three to five days after a cart is abandoned. More aggressive email strategies send the reminder even sooner.
AI-enabled tools like an AI writer are designed to help marketers craft email content and subject lines that maximize the chances of emails reaching the inbox and increasing open rates.
This same technique can be used with SMS, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger.
6. Improve Your Online Shop’s Navigation
Making it easy for buyers to navigate from your shop to their carts and, eventually, to the checkout is key.
Do whatever you can to reduce the steps in the buying process, because each additional step gives shoppers another opportunity to abandon their cart.
Another way to improve store navigation is by suggesting compatible products on your website. This example of Samsara's fleet dash cams illustrates one way to surface product suggestions based on users' search queries.
7. Offer Free Shipping
Have you ever loaded your online shopping cart with nearly $100 worth of items and then abandoned it when a shipping fee of just a few bucks was tacked on to the total? You're not alone.
Even when shipping costs are just a fraction of the purchase price, they can still create a skewed perception that pushes buyers to abandon their cart.
8. Offer Fair Return and Refund Policies
If you want to make the transition from shopping to buying easier for your customers, create a refund or return policy that removes the risk from the purchase.
Use language that clearly conveys what buyers are entitled to regarding refunds and returns to avoid confusion.
9. Experiment and Iterate
Unfortunately, there's no 100% effective formula for preventing cart abandonment. A lot is written about this issue in startup books and business articles, but no one has found one ultimate solution.
Since every organization is different, with unique customers and goals, businesses should study their customers as much as possible and determine the most effective way to communicate with them when customers abandon their carts.
After trying all the previous steps to reduce cart abandonment, verify that everything is working and monitor your stats to assess your success.
To do this, we recommend using accounting reports software like Digits, so you can see how your stats will improve in a short time.
Having the whole picture allows for telling a story with data, a story of success.
Final Thoughts
Cart abandonment is an issue that plagues many e-commerce businesses.
However, implementing these nine easy tips outlined in this blog can reduce your cart abandonment rate in 2025 and beyond.
Reducing cart abandonment is an easy way to make more sales. As we've discussed, there are many simple techniques you can test to reduce cart abandonment on your online storefront.
Try some of these techniques to see what your customers respond to, and be willing to pivot to achieve the best possible results.
Author Bio
Shane Barker is a digital marketing consultant specializing in influencer marketing, content marketing, and SEO. He is also the co-founder and CEO of Content Solutions, a digital marketing agency. He has consulted with Fortune 500 companies, influencers in the digital space, and a number of A-List celebrities.