Why Shopping Carts Get Abandoned

Customers add items to the shopping cart, arrive at the checkout page, but then do not complete the checkout process.

Why do so many customers go through the time and trouble to load up their shopping carts, only to leave without the merchandise?

There are a variety of reasons. Global Millennia Marketing conducted a survey of 833 online shoppers to find out how they use shopping carts on a variety of e-commerce sites. Their findings offer some key insight. According to the survey, the top 15 reasons for shopping cart abandonment, and the percentage of shoppers citing each as a reason, include:

1. Cost of shipping too high and not shown until checkout (69%)

2. Changed mind and discarded cart contents (61%)

3. Comparison shopping or browsing (57%)

4. Total cost of items too high (49%)

5. Saving items for later purchase (47%)

6. Checkout process too long (44%)

7. Out of stock products at checkout time (39%)

8. Checkout requires too much personal information (35%)

9. Poor site navigation and long download times (31%)

10.Lack of sufficient product or contact information (31%)

11.Checkout process confusing (27%)

12.Site requires registration before purchase (23%) 13.Site unclear on delivery times (17%)

14.No order tracking options (16%)

15.No gift certificates (11%)

These are all important factors that should be addressed by your checkout process and shopping cart design.

But the question remains ' how you can bring someone back to complete a purchase?

We've identified a powerful technique that can boost sales by 4% to 12% when applied correctly. Even more important, it can increase your profits by up to 20%!

Why? Because you have already incurred all of the online marketing expenses to get these customers to come to your site. So if you can get more of them to complete their transactions then your profits will rise significantly.

This tactic works on customers who abandon your cart for the following reasons:

1. Changed mind and discarded cart contents

2. Comparison shopping or browsing

3. Saving items for later purchase

4. Checkout process too long

5. Out of stock products at checkout time

6. Lack of sufficient product or contact information 7. Checkout process confusing

The problems mentioned above are primarily faced by customers who are dedicated to buying your product but simply cannot understand how to complete the checkout process OR who are waiting for more information before finalizing their purchase..

Recapturing these customers can significantly boost your sales. As in all our tactics, it is important to understand why the customer behaves the way he does. Consider the design of your checkout process and understand what problems and fears your potential customers may have.

By understanding what keeps your customers from buying, you can work on eliminating these barriers and close more sales.

A friendly and informative email that addresses the possible fears that you've identified can do the trick to help you recapture a significant portion of those potentially lost sales.