10 Best Ways to Reduce Abandoned Carts

Wondering why your eCommerce store has so much traffic but can’t meet the sales target? Here’s an answer – you are not paying attention to the customers who proceed to checkout, but end up abandoning the shopping cart! Unless you have an idea on how to reduce cart abandonment rate, you can’t reach your profit goals.

Average rate of cart abandonment is 70% and around $18 billion is lost every year (Convertcart).

No matter how successful your business is, it’s tough to eradicate this problem permanently. Some people will just desert your store even if they are used to spending a fortune in digital shopping. And sometimes, there’s not even a specific reason behind it!

Then what’s the trick to bring the leavers back? In this article, we’ll try to explain some reasons and solutions.

Why do customers abandon a cart?

Leaving a shopping cart at checkout without finishing the purchase is cart-abandonment in eCommerce businesses. All the items in the cart that don’t make it further than checkout are “abandoned” by customers.

To reduce cart abandonment, first of all, you should know why it happens. Here are some top reasons for shopping cart abandonment.

• High shipping costs or taxes.
• Mandatory account creation to complete purchasing.
• Lengthy checkout process.
• There’s not enough information on total cost (full pricing details, shipping, or taxes).
• The customer has security concerns.
• No details on delivery duration.
• Lack of return policy and refund.
• Your site only accepts a particular payment method.
• Unreasonable pricing.
• The store is not mobile-friendly.

There might be some more factors, but these are the ones you can definitely control!

10 recommendations on how to reduce cart abandonment rate

You might be thinking, “okay, prevent the cart abandonment, that’s all I have to do, right?” But do you have plans or tricks that can effectively solve this issue?

It won’t be easy even if you understand all the causes behind this mess. So, sit back and relax as we unravel all the twists of how to reduce cart abandonment rate.

• Be upfront about costs and delivery details
• Use exit-intent popups
• Allow guest checkout
• Send abandoned cart emails
• Add “Save the cart” option
• Include chat and Q/A features during checkout
• Ensure security
• Make the checkout process faster
• Accept all payment methods
• Leverage FOMO

1) Be upfront about costs and delivery details

Suppose a customer really liked a product and added it to their cart. But when he moves to checkout, he drops out because the shipping costs too much, and you didn’t provide any information on the delivery time.

Do you think he will proceed with the transaction? Of course not!

Mention every detail clearly regarding the price of the product, the cost of shipping, and taxes upfront so that you don’t have to face a deserted cart filled with products.

55% of shoppers leave the cart because they find shipping and taxes cost an unreasonable amount. As a result, they go to some other eCommerce store with lower additional expenses.

You can offer free shipping to those who have previously left their cart before the actual purchase.

Similarly, you should make sure to add information about how long it will take to deliver too. If someone ordered a birthday cake, would it be any use if it arrives after the birthday?

Also, don’t forget to include the product size. Customers would like to know if the product they ordered can fit through the door!

2) Use exit-intent pop ups

You can maximize the conversion rate during checkout with an attention driving pop up.

Try to detect if the visitor is about to leave your page and send an automatic pop up that encourages them to stay. For example, a lightbox displaying an offer, coupon, discount code, a free download, or a slideshow of some of your best products!

Here’s Neil Patel suggesting viewers to wait before they go.

When you see a door getting closed, you can surely shove a foot in and try to stop it! So, if you see the visitor is leaving your site, a pop up with anything intriguing can hold them back.

3) Allow guest checkout

Mandatory account creation for buyers to complete the purchase is a big NO! People love to window-shop. So, if such a shopper gets through the purchasing funnel and sees that your website requires his user account to purchase, he’ll immediately leave.

They leave because it elongates the checkout process, and maybe they’d just like to buy the product without having to share any information. You have to remember that they can always find an alternative to your product somewhere else. Your target should be keeping these customers with you!

So, the first thing to do when you’re setting up your eCommerce store is to enable the “guest checkout” option so that customers can get through checkout hassle-free. With a plugin like CartFlows, you can enable quick checkout without making signups mandatory.  It also lets your customers sign up and use the details they use during checkout to create the account with a single click!

4) Send abandoned cart emails 

Yep! Emails are still in the “cool” category in the marketing world.

From what we know, 75% of people usually come back to their abandoned carts. Maybe they left because they were distracted by something else or needed to recheck the price on another site. So, you can stay in touch with them via emails.

Stir their memory so that they don’t forget about you. Get into their inbox with cart abandonment emails and let them know what they’re missing out. Black Milk Clothing seeks attention in a unique way like this-

You can recover from the abandoned cart problem around 20.3% if you send an email within 1 hour. Send a series of emails to win them back. For instance, ThemeIsle’s recovery emails are-

• “Forgot something? Looks like you have items in your cart.” – after 1 hour.
• “What’s that in your shopping cart?” – after 24 hours.
• “Are you sure? One last reminder about the items in your cart” – after 5 days with a discount offer.

Focus on the timing, frequency, and content of your recovery emails. After receiving personalized emails about their shopping carts, they’ll return eventually.

5) Add “Save the cart” option

When you are looking for something to decorate the house, it’s wise to discuss it with your family. So, you wait a little before you hit “buy now”. You can also be distracted by other stuff. The same thing can happen to your customer as well. Maybe they are not even sure if they need it and have to rethink.

If they’re not confident about buying it, they will leave the cart before checkout. They might want to come back later after they have made up their mind. So, if their cart had multiple products the first time, it would be annoying to search and select all those again!

This is why you should include a “Save the cart” option on your website. It works as a wishlist, and the cart details can also help you with personalization.

6) Include chat and Q/A features during checkout

Online shoppers are mostly impatient and easily distracted since they’re using their phones to shop. A new notification or a call can drive them away from you. Besides, they might need to contact you for some more information or assurance about your service.

If you are not reachable when they need you, their cart won’t make it to checkout!

So, add a “Live Chat” feature and Q/A section where curious customers can always get the answer they need.

7) Ensure security

When it comes to online shopping, security is the most critical factor. No one will want to give you their credit card details and email address if you can’t assure about how secure your site is.

Promise to keep customer information safe and build trust by implementing website security. Display trust badges to increase the conversion rate.

Your customers should believe in you, and you should stay far from online retail fraud. Help them realize that their personal details are safe with you so that they can proceed to checkout.

8) Make the checkout process faster

Cart and checkout flow has to be smooth! It’s crucial to have a fast loading checkout page and a short process of checking out.

Customers will fall out if they have to go through multiple pages to actually purchase something. Here’s Dribble with a simple checkout page (From Optinmonster).

Nobody wants to go through more than 2 pages for checkout. 18% of consumers tend to turn back if the checkout process is. too lengthy.

You can also try a progress indicator with as few steps as possible. Shipping, payment, place order – these 3 steps are ideal.

9) Accept all payment methods

If you don’t show different payment options, then you can’t have new customers! You must offer multiple payment options to your customer so they can pay according to their preference. It’s better to keep it accessible for all by accepting payment from various services.

MindMeister accepts payment from American Express, Mastercard, Discover Card, Visa, PayPal, Diners Club, and JCB.

Learn to make the payment process easy for customer’s convenience.

10) Leverage FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out)

Creating urgency and a false sense of scarcity to reduce shopping cart abandonment works every time! Customers might need a little nudge to finish their purchase.

Neiman Marcus knows how to intrigue shoppers with FOMO!

Suppose someone searched up a pair of sneakers to buy. You can display how many pairs you have left in stock and how many people are currently viewing it.

As soon as you start to show details like that, customers will switch to panic-buying mode and complete the transaction faster before you run out of the product.

You can also add a countdown timer for your sales. When customers see the time is running out, and so is the stock, they’re less likely to waste any time.

Some more?

It’s frustrating to see customers have reached checkout but no sales actively happened! Apart from the 10 points above, here are some more cart abandonment solutions.

• Display the cart icon and make the items in it visible.
• Show the thumbnail of every product when customers are on a shopping spree.
• Ensure customer-friendly navigation, and don’t forget mobile users.
• Let them know why your product is worth it.
• If it’s about the budget, then show them how your product can save their money.
• Highlight the best features of your product.
• Throw in a bonus for a limited-time product.
• A/B test the checkout form.

After adopting the ways to prevent cart abandonment, you should check how they worked.

To calculate cart abandonment rate, you simply follow this formula-
[{1 – (completed transaction/shopping carts created)} x 100]

Final notes

High shopping cart abandonment rate is one of the most severe issues behind lost sales and profit. You can have tons of online customers surfing your site, adding your products to cart, but then suddenly dropping out at checkout!

Hopefully, our suggestions on how to reduce cart abandonment rate can help you recover from the high cart abandonment rate. If you have something more to add, feel free to reach us.

Take a look at the 19 tricks on how to grow eCommerce sales and revenues.

---