While ecommerce growth looks rosy, small online retailers know that making a sale is not always easy. Even if you can get consumers interested enough to visit your website, you have to prevent shopping cart abandonment in order to grow your business. In this article, we explore the reasons why shoppers abandon their carts plus give you other interesting shopping cart abandonment statistics.
Here are 15 shopping cart abandonment statistics that you should know:
1. How much product is going to be abandoned in online shopping carts in 2017?
It is predicted that a whopping $4 trillion worth of merchandise will be abandoned in online shopping carts this year. (Source: Marketing Carts 2017)
2. Why do online shoppers abandon their carts?
Consumers leave their carts behind for the following reasons:
Why online shoppers abandon carts
(Source: Baymard Institute 2016)
3. What is the best way to prevent abandoned online carts?
Free shipping is one of the best methods to encourage shoppers to complete their purchase. 93 percent of consumers reported that they would be motivated to buy more products if the retailer offered free shipping in some form.
(Source: Shopify 2017)
4. Should online retailers consider making registration optional?
Yes, they should because a guest checkout option encourages consumers to complete the transaction. There’s one less step that consumers have to complete before making their purchase. A website and product usability firm saw that sales rose by 45 percent after removing mandatory registration on their site.
(Source: Aionhill 2017)
5. What are the shopping cart abandonment rates in different sectors?
In the first quarter of 2017, online shoppers abandoned their carts at the following rates by category:
- Finance – 83.6 percent
- Non-profit – 83.1 percent
- Travel – 81.7 percent
- Retail – 72.8 percent
- Fashion – 68.3 percent
- Gaming – 64.2 percent
More than 60 % of consumers abandoned their carts across categories!
(Source: Digital Doughnut 2017)
6. How important is it to make sure that your website loads fast to avoid shopping cart abandonment?
Very important. For each passing second that your website takes to load, cart abandonment climbs by 7 percent.
(Source: ReadyCloud 2017)
7. What are the checkout completion rates for various devices?
Checkout completion rates are low across all devices. Desktops and tablets are tied at 13 percent while mobile phone completion rate stands at 8.5 percent.
(Source: Acquire Convert 2017)
8. What is the average number of checkout form elements in the US?
Checkout form elements are fields that shoppers have to fill out with their personal details, such as billing address, shipping address, and telephone number. On average, checkout flows in the US have 23.48 elements.
(Source: Spot Studio 2016)
(Source: Baymard)
9. What is the ideal number of checkout form elements to improve checkout completion rates?
A study revealed that the ideal number of checkout form elements is 12.
(Source: HW Creative Marketing 2017)
10. Should online retailers make it a point to display trust badges such as the Norton Secured or VeriSign logo?
Yes. Around 6 out of 10 online shoppers abandoned their purchase because trust badges were not available.
(Source: WordStream 2016)
11. What are the most recognizable online trust badges?
42 percent of online shoppers are familiar with the Visa-Mastercard logo, followed by Norton Secured at 15 percent, and Google Trusted Store at 6 percent.
(Source: ConversionXL 2016)
Trust badges that consumers are familiar with
(Source: ConversionXL)
12. When are carts abandoned the most during the day?
Most carts are left behind by online consumers between 8 – 9 pm in the evening.
(Source: EyeStudios 2016)
13. What days of the week have the highest cart abandonment rates?
Saturday and Sunday have the highest cart drop off rates. Nearly 9 out 10 carts are abandoned during those days.
(Source: Formisimo)
Cart drop off rates throughout the week
(Source: Formisimo)
14. How long should an online retailer wait before sending abandoned cart emails?
Retailers should not wait longer than three hours if they want to enjoy relatively high open rates and click-through rates. Those who send abandoned cart emails within this time period get an average of a 40 percent open rate and a 20 percent click-through rate.
(Source: Business Insider 2016)
15. Are retargeting ads effective in converting online shoppers who abandoned their carts?
Yes, retargeting ads are very effective. 7 out of 10 online consumers are more likely to convert if they are retargeted after leaving their cart behind on other websites that they visit.
(Source: TB Media 2016)
Bottom Line: Shopping Cart Abandonment Statistics That You Should Know
Online retailers are losing money because a significant number of shoppers leave without completing their transaction. Consider these statistics when coming up with a plan to combat shopping cart abandonment.
Do you have other insightful shopping cart abandonment statistics? Feel free to share them in the comments section.
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