37 Shopping Cart Abandonment Statistics to Know for 2023
This article is part of a larger series on Payments.
In 2022, shopping cart abandonment statistics show that approximately 70.63% of online shopping carts are abandoned (across the Americas) before purchase due to extra costs, complicated checkouts, and account creation requirements.
We’ve gathered a list of 37 shopping cart abandonment statistics along with actionable tips and examples to help you set benchmarks and determine what changes need to happen in your customer’s buying experience. We also show how to calculate your store’s abandonment rate to see how it is performing against industry standards.
Average Shopping Cart Abandonment Rates
Quick Take: Global shopping cart abandonment rates remain high, but the Americas have the lowest rate among regions. And if your business hasn’t leveraged abandoned cart recovery emails in your marketing strategies yet, you should. Recovery rates average between 2% to 5%.
1. The global shopping cart abandonment rate is 71.42%
Around the world, the Asia Pacific region (APAC) has the highest cart abandonment rate at 78.89%, followed by Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) at 75.04%, and the Americas at 70.63%. The same study averages the global rate at 71.42%. Baymard Institute collected 49 different studies on online shopping cart abandonment and averaged it at a similar 70.19%.
2. Fashion-related purchases have higher cart abandonment rates
According to SaleCycle, the fashion industry has the highest cart abandonment rate at 84.56%. The travel industry follows closely behind, with retail ranking with the third-highest rate.
3. The average cart abandonment rate stays steady year-round
There isn’t much variation in terms of average abandonment rate by month. According to SaleCycle, the lowest abandonment rates happen in November and December—coinciding with holiday shopping—at 77%. The highest rate of 82% happens from January through April, in the post-holiday slump.
While these metrics don’t represent statistical significance, it’s still important to consider gift-giving events like Black Friday or Cyber Monday sales can contribute to lower abandonment rates and higher traffic volumes. This indicates consumers want to complete their purchases before the sales expire.
During the holidays, add incentives to get shoppers to buy, such as guaranteed shipping or free gift wrapping. Extra touches can be the difference between an abandoned cart and a closed deal. See our Black Friday and Cyber Monday strategies for more tips.
4. The average abandoned cart recovery rate is 2.3%–5.4%
Email platform Klaviyo benchmarks the average abandoned cart recovery rate to be somewhere between 2.3% and 5.4%, depending on average basket sizes and sales. “For instance,” Klaviyo reports, “those with basket sizes under $50 tend to capture around 3% of abandons on average. And in most cases, the top 10% of ecommerce companies are doing AT LEAST 3x the average performance.”
Reasons for Shopping Cart Abandonment
Our Quick Take: It’s all about convenience. Don’t give shoppers any reason not to proceed with their purchases. Optimize the checkout process and make it easy for them to shop.
5. Many carts are abandoned by browsers who aren’t ready to buy
The latest study by Baymard Institute shows that 47.8% of abandoned carts are due to customers just browsing or not being ready to buy. And according to one SaleCycle survey, just over a third of shoppers abandon a purchase because they were “just looking.”
What You Can Do: Make tweaks to convert browsers into buyers. Offer an abundance of payment options, provide saved customer and payment information, and get one-click checkout to make it easy for them to finish checking out your products.
6. Nearly half of customers say unexpected costs are the reason for shopping cart abandonment
When you segment online shoppers who are not ready to buy, 47% cited extra costs as their primary reason for abandoning shopping carts, with shipping as a primary driver of those costs, per Baymard. XP2 data found that the figure reaches 55%—with more than half of shoppers abandoning their carts due to unexpected fees, which include shipping costs.
(Source: Baymard)
Free shipping, in fact, is the expected norm in modern-day shopping because of marketplaces like Amazon; almost 75% of consumers deem free shipping essential to making a purchase, according to Shopify’s Future of Retail 2022 report.
What You Can Do: It can be challenging for small businesses to absorb shipping costs even if offering free shipping is undoubtedly doable. A workaround here is to bundle the shipping cost into the retail product price. And, if you can’t lower costs, fully disclose them on your product pages so you would not run the risk of abandoned carts further.
7. Three of the top five reasons for cart abandonment center around convenience
Customers are looking for convenience when shopping online. In fact, 83% of shoppers in a 2020 survey placed more importance on convenience than they did five years earlier.
It’s not surprising that in Baymard’s 2022 list of reasons customers abandon their carts, three convenience-related issues made the top five—long delivery timeframes, a complicated checkout process, and being required to create an account. According to XP2, 21% of online shoppers will completely abandon a site if it has a complicated or lengthy checkout process.
What You Can Do:
- Make the buying process easy and seamless by ensuring your online store is fast, have fewer checkout fields, and offer saved information and guest checkout options with multiple payment methods.
- To cut down on delivery times, decide whether to fulfill your orders in-house or outsource them to a fulfillment provider. You can read our following articles to help you decide:
8. 9 out of 10 shoppers will also abandon a site if it is too slow
Website speed is another significant factor in shopping cart abandonment. A YOTTAA study in 2020 reported that 90% of shoppers would leave a site if it takes too long to load, with 57% likely to buy from a similar retailer instead and 21% never coming back.
What You Can Do: Every second counts—a one-second page load improvement delivers a 5.7% increase in conversion. Read our tips to optimize the ecommerce experience for online shoppers.
9. The average checkout flow has about 12 form fields—about half as many fields as recommended
About 18% of shoppers have abandoned a cart because the checkout process is too long or convoluted. The average checkout flow is 5.2 steps and has 11.8 form elements—that’s a whole lot of data input. According to Baymard, the ideal checkout has seven to eight form fields.
Did You Know?
Around $260 billion worth of lost orders can be recovered just by having better checkout flow and design, with Baymard Institute documenting a 35.26% increase in conversion rate for an average large online store.
What You Can Do: When building your checkout flow, include only what’s needed to complete the transaction. It’s also a good idea to use an ecommerce platform like Shopify that allows for customer profiles with saved payment information and provides a one-click checkout option to make future checkouts faster and easier.
10. Almost 20% abandon carts because of issues with site security
Aside from website issues, 19% of shoppers abandon their shopping carts if they don’t trust the ecommerce platform’s security. A major red flag for them is a missing SSL certificate on an online store. However, missing images, no user reviews, and an outdated layout design also raise suspicion. Another survey found that 17% of shoppers cite “lack of trust” as the reason for abandoning their cart, mostly fearing credit card theft and similar security-related concerns.
What You Can Do:
- Increase trust with shoppers by displaying your security seals prominently on your homepage and product pages. Add product reviews, link user-generated content (social proof), and display your business contact information (such as an email, phone number, and location).
- Implement our suggested best practices on ecommerce payment security and check your online store checks off each list to be PCI-compliant.
11. More than 15% of shoppers don’t proceed with their checkouts because of unsatisfactory return policies
A generous returns policy is important for online shoppers. About 16% don’t finish their online purchases if a return policy isn’t clearly displayed on an online store or is unsatisfactory. However, up to 66% of shoppers say they would spend more with a generous return policy.
What You Can Do:
- Learn how to write a return policy for your ecommerce business and know the best practices for returns management.
- Calculate your ecommerce return rate to strategize your reverse logistics processes.
12. More than 15% of online shoppers dislike unclear pricing
Unclear pricing or not being able to see the total purchase cost upfront also leads to shopping cart abandonment, with 17% of shoppers saying that they likely won’t push through with their purchase if they don’t see the full product price, including shipping and other fees, before checkout.
What You Can Do: Transparency matters to consumers, and that especially applies to seeing total costs when they are shopping. Rather than luring them in with misleading prices or incomplete information, be honest about what they’ll have to pay upfront—ideally right from your product pages.
13. The lack of a variety of payment options can lead to higher cart abandonment rates
Payment methods expanded in recent years, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, to include more options for shoppers such as buy now, pay later (BNPL). According to Baymard Institute, approximately 11% of shoppers abandon their carts when they see that their preferred payment method isn’t offered during online checkout. SaleCycle’s survey puts this figure at 6%.
Digital wallets have become increasingly popular, and were among the most used payment methods in 2021. More consumers are paying via mobile wallet and consumer financing options than ever before.
What You Can Do:
- Offer a variety of payment options: credit cards, digital wallets, and even cryptocurrency. (See also: Stripe vs Square vs PayPal: Which Is Best for You?)
- Buy now, pay later payment options have increased in popularity—its user base grew 85% between 2020 and 2021. Learn how to accept customer financing.
14. 23% of carts are abandoned because of shipping issues
Nearly a quarter of the respondents to the SaleCycle survey say they’ve abandoned a shopping cart because of shipping. This covers a range of challenges, including cost, timeframe, carrier availability, and more.
What You Can Do:
- Branch out your carrier strategy. Evaluate carrier options for each delivery and return, and give shoppers choices. (See: FedEx vs UPS vs USPS: 2023 Shipping Comparison)
- Related Reading:
15. 18% of shoppers are comparison shopping
As many as 18% of online shoppers add items to their shopping cart with the main intention of comparing prices between different retailers or potentially even products from the same retailer.
What You Can Do: Upfront, transparent pricing is always best to win these shoppers over—no one likes to pay for unexpected fees.
16. 15% of carts are lost to in-store sales
Though this isn’t always a loss per se, 15% of carts are abandoned because the shoppers decided to buy the item in-store instead. The key is to make sure they purchase the item from your store—not a competitor.
What You Can Do: Make it easy to find your locations and even consider going as far as offering click-and-collect to capture those customers.
Related Reading: Buy Online, Pick Up In-store (BOPIS) Statistics for Businesses
17. Technical difficulties are responsible for just 4% of abandoned carts
Just 4% of the respondents to the SaleCycle survey cited technical issues as a reason for abandoning their shopping cart. Though it’s a small issue, it’s easily preventable.
What You Can Do: Choose the best ecommerce platform. If you want to have a separate site from your ecommerce platform, choose the best website builder, pay attention to your content management system, and make sure you have a solid web hosting provider.
Effects of Cart Abandonment
18. Ecommerce brands lose $18 billion in sales due to cart abandonment
Although slightly dated, a frequently referenced stat from Forrester Research says that shopping cart abandonment causes online businesses to lose as much as $18 billion in yearly sales revenue, with the loss estimated to reach up to $4 trillion worth of merchandise in succeeding years.
19. 26% of shoppers buy the same product from a competitor after cart abandonment
According to a survey from Royal Mail in 2020, a quarter of shoppers usually purchase the same item with a different online retailer when they abandon their carts from an online store.
20. About 30% of online shoppers purchase the same product at a later date after cart abandonment
Good news: nearly a third of online shoppers come back to purchase what was in their abandoned carts at a later date. The catch is ensuring that they come back sooner. Cart recovery emails increase the chances of these shoppers converting.
Industry-specific Shopping Cart Abandonment Rates
21. Beauty & personal care has the highest shopping cart abandonment rates
We called out fashion above as the segment with the highest cart abandonment rate, but the beauty and personal care category suffers in that area as well. XP2 figures over the last 12 months actually put that industry at the top of the list for the highest cart abandonment rate. It hovers at around 82.87%.
22. The automotive industry also suffers from high abandonment rates
According to SaleCycle, cart abandonment rates are also high for the automotive industry (79.56%). This is likely because consumers use pricing as part of their research and planning process and don’t always have a high intent to convert.
What You Can Do: Consider integrating third-party booking tools onto your website to make it easier for users to check out. You might also consider some sort of email capture so you can build and nurture relationships and stay top of mind when customers are ready to commit.
23. Consumer goods have the lowest average shopping cart abandonment rate at just under 40%
Of the eight industry categories evaluated by Dynamic Yield, consumer goods, with a 36.08% cat abandonment rate, performed the best.
Mobile Cart Abandonment Statistics
Our Quick Take: Mobile commerce is the future of ecommerce, and ensuring your online store is mobile-ready is crucial to ensure abandonment rates stay low. Consumer doubts about security hound mobile shopping so instilling trust is a core principle of good ecommerce site design—make sure it translates to mobile, too!
24. Most shopping carts are abandoned on mobile phones
An analysis from Kibo Commerce found that mobile’s average cart abandonment rate came in at 84% in the second quarter of 2022. Desktops performed the best in terms of cart abandonment, with 72% of transactions abandoned.
25. Mobile sales now make up the majority of ecommerce
Mobile devices have seen a giant leap in sales in recent years. In 2022, mobile sales made up 55% of all ecommerce revenue.
Though mobile sales have overtaken desktop as the leader in ecommerce revenue, mobile still lags behind desktop in conversion rates and average order value.
26. Mobile users won’t download retail apps due to data security concerns
Mobile retail apps were created to provide convenience to consumers who prefer shopping on their smartphones. However, security concerns, particularly around data privacy, make consumers wary. Some 57% of respondents in a 2021 Wyng report said they refused to download ecommerce apps to avoid sharing personal data.
27. The PayPal Verified seal is the most trustworthy security seal
Research shows that the more familiar a trust symbol is, the higher its perceived security. While 42% of the respondents say they are most familiar with the Visa-Mastercard seal, more consumers trust a PayPal seal. One in four survey respondents said that PayPal gave them the best sense of security, and PayPal was the most chosen seal in every age bracket.
What You Can Do: Consider adding a trusted merchant account or payment processor to your online store or app and incorporating their security symbols on your site and checkout pages. Here are some resources to get you started:
- Best Payment Gateways
- Best Ways to Accept Recurring Payments
- Best Merchant Services for Small Businesses
Abandoned Cart Email Statistics
Our Quick Take: Those emails you send to remind customers about what’s in their carts? They work. Abandoned cart emails have great open rates, click-through rates, AND conversion rates (read: sales). Get inspired by our abandoned cart email examples to make your own.
28. Cart abandonment emails have a 45% open rate
Of all cart abandonment emails sent, about 45% are opened. Half of the users who open a cart abandonment email will engage, and 21% will click through. Meanwhile, about half of the click-throughs result in a purchase. According to Klaviyo benchmark data, the average revenue per recipient is $5.81.
Keep these statistics in mind when building your automated emails and sequences. Make the copy crystal clear, and always include an easy-to-see call to action (CTA) so users know exactly how and where to click to get one step closer to making a purchase.
29. Nearly 40% of abandoned cart emails recover sales
According to Omnisend’s E-commerce Statistics Report in the first half of 2021, abandoned cart emails were among the highest converting automated marketing messages at 39.7%, second to welcome messages (52.9%).
30. More than a third of product abandonment emails get opened
According to the same Omnisend report, product abandonment emails have a 35% open rate, with browse abandonment and post-purchase emails just slightly higher with 38% and 36% open rates, respectively. Order/ship confirmation emails had the highest open rate—56.71%. These numbers indicate that consumers are more likely to open (and read) relevant messages.
31. Three abandoned cart emails is the sweet spot
Klaviyo analyzed abandoned cart email sequences to see how many emails businesses should include in a sequence. It found that three abandoned cart emails generated the most revenue.
32. Descriptive abandoned cart email subject lines generate 4% more opens
A subject line that reminds the recipient they left items behind in their virtual shopping cart tends to perform better than those with clever or less specific subject lines. Abandonment reminder subject lines had a 4% higher open rate, coming in at 47.67%, and generated $11.21 in revenue per recipient. The most effective subject line was “It looks like you left something behind…”
Interestingly, including an emoji in the subject line resulted in slightly lower open rates, at an average 39%.
33. Abandoned cart emails with coupon codes have higher open and click-through rates
Including a coupon or discount code as an incentive to purchase in your abandoned cart emails could also prove fruitful. Per Klaviyo, this tactic generates a higher-than-average open rate of 44.37% and a click-through rate of 10.85%. Dollar-based discounts tend to perform better than percentage-based discounts or free shipping offers.
Cart Abandonment & Retargeted Ads
34. 25% of consumers appreciate being reminded of products they browsed
Retargeting, which is sending ads based on a consumer’s previous actions, can lift ad engagement rates significantly (several sources say up to 400%), so be bold. A quarter of consumers say they actually like seeing retargeted ads because they are reminded of what they had previously been looking for.
35. Personalized retargeted ads can generate 1,300% ROI
Brands that personalize their retargeted ads based on consumer behavior can see very strong return on investment (ROI) in their campaigns (one oft-cited case study of luxury watch retailer Watchfinder showed a 1,300% ROI).
This means you should consider sending retargeted ads that showcase the same products that customers previously added to their shopping carts but failed to buy. Statistics show it is more likely to turn into sales compared to displaying a generic retargeted ad that just promotes your company.
36. 70% of website visitors are likely to convert when retargeted with display ads
Consumers are 70% more likely to convert because of retargeting. Facebook and the Google Display Network are recommended retargeting platforms because of their massive reach. Facebook has 2.91 billion monthly active users, and the Google Display Network reaches a huge 90% of all internet users.
37. Facebook ads can provide at least a 3% conversion rate
Facebook is one of the most effective retargeting platforms. Shoppers who spend more time engaging with your business on Facebook will be more likely to purchase. According to Wolfgang Digital, 3% of users who “like” your post will convert into paid customers, followed by 4% who share, 4.67% who leave a reaction, and 4.91% who comment. By the time your audience contacts you via Messenger, the conversion rate increases to 9.95%.
This illustrates why ecommerce businesses should make an effort to become more active on social media. Posting pictures of new products and providing updates that keep prospects and customers interested are great ways to start.
Calculate Your Cart Abandonment Rate
Now that you have read all the numbers that support the importance of abandoned cart recovery, it’s time to find out your cart abandonment rate. With that knowledge, you can precisely know how your store is performing and address ways to improve conversion rates.
Cart Abandonment rate = [1 – (purchases within X time / carts created within X time)] x 100
To know your cart abandonment rate, get the total number of completed purchases that have occurred over a fixed period of time and divide it by the number of shopping carts created within the same period. Subtract the result from 1, and multiply the result by 100 to calculate cart abandonment rate.
Let’s say, in a span of one month 300 people made purchases while 950 carts were created, your cart abandonment rate would be at 68%.
[1 – (300 / 950)] x 100 = 68%
A good rule of thumb is to keep your cart abandonment rate below the industry standard. If the average rate is at 70%, for example, your 68% is within the norm, and you can consider your store doing pretty well. However, remember that you can still proactively take measures to reduce your abandonment rates further, and we will discuss strategies to do that in the next section.
Ways to Prevent Shopping Cart Abandonment
Shopping cart abandonment continues to pose significant challenges for online businesses.
While we’ve introduced you to the data that affects this consumer behavior, giving actionable tips on preventing cart abandonment is better. Here are some ways you can prevent cart abandonment from happening in your online store.
Offer Free Shipping
Since 48% of online shoppers cite extra cost as their top reason for abandoning carts, offering free shipping can help improve conversion. Another thing you can do is to make sure that there are no hidden costs that customers will only see at the point of payment.
Have a Guest Checkout
Allowing for guest checkout is a quick way to improve your conversion rate. Remember that 24% of online shoppers abandon their carts because they are forced to create an account.
Perform Email Recovery & Ad Retargeting
Email and ad retargeting are the best solutions for recovering lost sales from cart abandonment. They leverage customer information to create strategies to reach out and lead customers back to your site to finalize their purchases.
Personalize Your Cart Abandonment Emails
Personalization can be as simple as using the shopper’s name in the subject line and email copy. You can also take advantage of information like birthdays, location, and even when you send the email to improve personalization. These small changes have proven to create a significant impact on recovering lost sales. People tend to buy more if they can connect with the brand or product more personally.
Examples of compelling subject lines for cart abandonment emails
Short and straightforward subject lines are the most effective:
- “15% off purchase”
- “Cart left”
- “$20 off cart”
- “Items left”
- “Still shopping?”
The most common characteristics these subject lines share are that they’re short, simple, and provoke curiosity from their recipients. With these results in mind, ecommerce business owners should consider implementing this strategy into their email campaigns. You can take a look at our cart abandonment email examples for more inspiration.
Improve the Mobile Experience
One way to lower cart abandonment rates is to pay special attention to the mobile experience. This includes everything from researching and browsing through purchasing. You can also speed up the mobile purchasing experience by offering one-click checkout options with Apple Pay, Google Pay, Fast, or Shop Pay. Most major ecommerce platforms, including Shopify, provide options for speedy checkout in addition to site templates and themes that are optimized for mobile devices.
Shopping Cart Abandonment Statistics Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Click through the sections below to learn more behind common questions on cart abandonment.
The average shopping cart abandonment rate is 71.42%.
A good shopping cart abandonment rate is below 70%. The lower the rate, the better.
The average abandoned cart recovery rate is 2.3%–5.4%.
According to industry reports, cart abandonment rates remain high because almost half of consumers are just not ready to buy or just browsing. However, for those that have the intent to buy, extra/hidden fees, long delivery timeframes, complicated checkout processes, the need to create a customer account, and site security issues are the majority of the reasons why shoppers abandon their carts.
Bottom Line
Simply put, ecommerce websites that fail to convert visitors into customers will not earn any money. Therefore, it is crucial to understand what discourages your prospects from completing a sale. Consider the shopping cart abandonment statistics we discussed in the article when coming up with your online sales strategy.
Want to learn more about shoppers’ online buying habits? Read our online shopping statistics and payment statistics for small businesses.