No matter how great you might think your products and services are, and how fantastic your e-commerce experience is, cart abandonment is going to happen.
In 2024, on average, a massive 70.19% of e-commerce carts were abandoned. That means seven out of ten of your potential customers leave without completing their purchase.
For smaller e-commerce businesses operating on tighter margins, this directly impacts your revenue and limits your opportunities to cultivate loyal customers. But there are refinements you can make to the customer journey that can reduce your cart abandonment rates.
Article Shortcuts:
- Why Does E-commerce Cart Abandonment Happen?
- Top Barriers to Completing Purchases
- Strategies to Reduce Cart Abandonment
- FAQs
Source: Unsplash
What You Need to Know About Cart Abandonment
Cart abandonment is one of the most frustrating — and costly — challenges for e-commerce businesses.
Despite your best efforts to optimize your product pages and drive traffic, the moment a customer leaves without completing a purchase represents lost revenue and a missed opportunity for loyalty.
In 2024, the global average cart abandonment rate hovered around 70.19%, meaning that 7 out of every 10 shoppers walk away before checkout. That’s a significant leak in your sales funnel.
Understanding why this happens — and how to fix it — is essential for improving conversions, maximizing ROI on ad spend, and building a better shopping experience.
Whether you're a new e-commerce brand or scaling a mature store, tackling cart abandonment isn’t just about plugging a hole — it’s about unlocking hidden revenue.
Why Does E-commerce Cart Abandonment Happen?
Source: Pixabay
Cart abandonment occurs when a customer adds items to their online shopping cart but leaves your site without completing a purchase. It’s fairly simple to calculate your site’s cart abandonment rate.
Just divide the number of completed purchases by the total number of carts created, subtract that result from one, and multiply by 100.
For example, if 50 carts are created and 15 purchases are made, your abandonment rate is 70%.
Beyond the immediate loss of revenue, high abandonment rates can signal deeper issues in your customer experience. Shoppers may encounter friction during checkout, feel uncertain about security, or discover unexpected costs.
Over time, these frustrations erode trust and discourage the repeat visits you need to build a sustainably successful ecommerce business.
To diagnose the root causes, you can use tools like Google Analytics for funnel analysis, A/B testing to compare checkout variations, heatmaps to visualize user behavior, and customer surveys to gather direct feedback.
Top Barriers to Completing Purchases
Source: Pexels
There are plenty of culprits in this case, but you should target your anger and willingness to solve issues towards:
-
Unexpected Costs
Your potential customers abandon carts for a variety of reasons, many of which stem from mismatched expectations. E-commerce shoppers don’t like unexpected extra costs, like shipping fees, taxes, or handling charges.
For example, if a customer adds several items to their cart only to see a steep shipping fee pop up at checkout, the surprise can quickly turn excitement into frustration.
-
Checkout Friction and Account Requirements
Mandatory account creation is another frequent culprit. Many shoppers appreciate a quick, hassle-free experience and aren’t willing to spend extra time filling out lengthy registration forms before they can complete a purchase.
Really, it’s anything that makes the process longer than it needs to be. Slow delivery options and complicated checkout processes also play a significant role. When the checkout flow is cluttered with too many steps or confusing fields, even an interested shopper may decide it’s not worth the effort.
-
Security Concerns and Trust Gaps
Customers can be turned off by security concerns. If a site doesn’t clearly display trust signals like SSL certificates or familiar payment logos, customers may worry about the safety of their personal and financial data.
Not to mention, unclear return policies further contribute to hesitation; when buyers aren’t sure how easy it will be to return or exchange an item, they might simply leave the cart behind.
-
Limited Payment Options
This one seems obvious, but it bears going over: if your customers want to pay you, you should have the channels in place to let them do it! If you have limited payment methods you’re potentially cutting off swathes of customers from doing just that.
With so many options available today, from credit cards and digital wallets to newer “buy now, pay later” services, a lack of variety may force customers to look elsewhere.
Strategies to Reduce Cart Abandonment
Source: Unsplash
Let’s be realistic: it’s highly unlikely that you’ll ever be able to get your cart abandonment rate down to zero (if anyone reading this has managed to do so, please get in touch, because I really want to know your secrets). However, you can reduce the rate to acceptable levels with the right strategies and tactics.
-
Simplify the Checkout Process
One of the biggest barriers to converting your browsers into customers is a cluttered checkout experience. To counter this, start by eliminating unnecessary form fields and ask only for essential information like shipping details and payment.
You might even offer a guest checkout option to avoid forcing account creation and integrate express solutions like Google Pay or Apple Pay for one-click purchases.
If you absolutely need a multi-step checkout, include a progress bar to set expectations. Ensure buttons and calls-to-action (e.g., ‘Proceed to Payment’) are clear and mobile-optimized.
Mobile optimization is particularly important, as more and more e-commerce transactions are being conducted via mobile. In fact, over the 2024 holiday season, 54.5% of online shopping transactions in the US occurred via smartphones.
-
Be Transparent about Costs
Surprise costs at checkout are a top deterrent for customers looking to buy. You need to display all necessary fees, including shipping, taxes, and discounts, on product pages or early in the checkout flow.
Often, the simple fact that you have shipping fees can be a big deterrent for e-commerce shoppers.
If you can’t afford to offer free shipping, you could try setting a minimum order threshold to qualify for it. For example, ‘Spend $50 more for free shipping’ could actually incentivize larger purchases.
-
Build Trust and Credibility
Your shoppers will hesitate to share payment details if they doubt your site’s legitimacy and security.
To show you’re a legitimate business, use social proof strategies by showcasing customer reviews and testimonials, and highlight guarantees like free returns or money-back policies.
You can show you’re a secure business by displaying security badges (e.g., Norton or McAfee seals) and SSL certificates prominently, especially near payment fields.
-
Use Targeted Marketing to Contact Cart Abandoners
Exit intent popups are a good example—they are triggered when a user moves to leave the page.
You can offer a limited-time discount or free shipping to incentivize purchase completion. This can be achieved through intelligent data extraction and AI isolation of the best candidates for retargeting.
If this fails, you can follow up with abandoned cart emails that remind customers of their pending items and include visuals of the products.
For example, ‘Your [Product Name] is waiting!’ paired with a 10% discount code. Retargeting ads on platforms like Facebook or Instagram can also re-engage shoppers by showcasing the exact items they viewed.
-
Optimize Website Performance and UX
Nothing tests your shopper’s patience like a slow or glitchy website.
You should regularly audit loading speeds and optimize images and scripts to reduce lag. Make sure you test checkout functionality across multiple browsers and devices to ensure consistency.
You can also try to reduce and block injected ads from competitors that could lead to ‘journey hijacking’ with the right tools. The last thing you want is your site being overloaded with distractions, especially ones that could lead your customers to your competitors.
FAQs
1. What is cart abandonment in e-commerce?
Cart abandonment occurs when a shopper adds items to their online shopping cart but leaves the site without completing the purchase. This metric is calculated by comparing the number of completed transactions to the total number of carts created.
2. Why do people abandon e-commerce carts?
Shoppers typically abandon their carts for a variety of reasons that stem from friction in the purchasing process. Unexpected costs such as steep shipping fees, taxes, or handling charges can quickly dampen enthusiasm, especially when these expenses surface only at the final stage.
3. How can I reduce my e-commerce brand’s cart abandonment rate?
Reducing cart abandonment is all about refining the customer journey to address potential pain points head-on. Simplifying the checkout process by cutting out unnecessary steps and offering options such as guest checkout can make the buying process smoother.
Conclusion
With the right combination of transparency, simplicity, and proactive engagement, you can reduce cart abandonment to acceptable levels. It can be an extensive process, but keep going and optimizing your processes over time, and you’ll start seeing results. Remember, even incremental gains in conversion rates can translate to significant financial growth for your business.
Author Bio
Magnus Eriksen is a copywriter and e-commerce SEO specialist with a degree in Marketing and Brand Management. Before embarking on his copywriting career, he was a content writer for digital marketing agencies such as Synlighet AS and Omega Media, where he mastered on-page and technical SEO.
