How to deal with abandoned carts on your site

Why you may have a problem with abandoning a website shopping cart, and how you can solve it?

Every eCommerce site owner has experienced firsthand the growing phenomenon of abandoned carts. This phenomenon is so prevalent that - according to various studies - online businesses lose about 75% of their revenue simply because of abandoned carts. To help you improve your business cycle, we decided to write a guide that will explain why you have so many abandoned carts on your site and how you can solve this problem.

9 reasons why the shopping cart on your site is abandoned

In order for us to offer solutions to the issue of abandoned carts, we must first understand why this phenomenon occurs, and to that end, we will detail the main reasons. Although several studies have been done on the subject, we will base our conclusions mainly on two of them, conducted by Statista and the Baymard Institute. The combination of these two studies also shows us the reasons why customers do not complete their purchase on the site. It also reveals to us some ways to "fix" the problem and increase the conversion rate on the site.

Unexpected shipping price

The first and most prominent reason that can be seen in both studies is the appearance of a high and unexpected shipping price. Many times, the price shown to customers on the site is price X, but as you get closer to the end of the purchase it turns out that the shipping price significantly increases the final price. In general, the whole phenomenon of hidden costs can come at us and ruin the sale. Please note that this is not just about the shipping price, but also about taxes and any extras not mentioned in the first place.

Register as a customer

Another reason for the multiple abandonment of carts on eCommerce sites is the fact that the customer is forced to register as a customer on the site to make a purchase. In an age where customers are looking for convenience first and foremost, the requirement to sign up causes delays and interferes with the shopping experience.

"I'm just looking"

Not every reason for an abandoned cart lies with us. Sometimes customers are just looking at products or doing market research for future buying. In fact, you can look at these abandoned carts as the births of surfers that need to be lured back for further browsing the site and, subsequently, persuaded to purchase.

Website security

In our country this problem is even more severe than in the United States, just to take one example. People do not always trust websites in terms of security to purchase them. Try to understand the customer's fear of leaving credit card information to a stranger; you probably would not leave credit card information on an insecure site without an SSL certificate.

The purchasing process is complicated and unclear

This section could have been included in section 2 if not for the fact that regular returns are a significant customer complaint that requires attention. The main reason why people buy online is speed and convenience, so they will naturally expect that the entire procedure involved in the purchase process will be fast, convenient, and intuitive.

Technical problems on the site

So it is true that technologies always disappoint us, but if our site is pre-built with problems and has many phenomena of non-existent pages or server crashes that can be prevented, it is more prone to abandoned carts. Customers will not wait for the site to return to work or hope that another technical problem will be resolved - they will simply move on to buy on another site.

Website Design

The whole UX issue is becoming more substantial for the surfers and they are looking for a quality and enjoyable shopping experience. It is very important to invest in the design of the site so that it will allow customers to navigate easily, perform the actions that they want without breaking their heads, and generally listen to the customers and design the site from the perspective of the potential customer.

Few payment options

The more we appeal to larger audiences, the more we should allow them to pay in more than one way. In today's world, everyone prefers to pay in a different way. Some will do so on credit, some on PayPal, and some will use Google Pay or Bitcoin - or even Beat in the case of Israeli customers.

Payment and refund policy unclear

Another issue related to reliability: if our customer is going to spend a considerable amount of money on a product in our online store, he wants to understand exactly what the conditions are and how he will be able to return the product if he is not satisfied.

7 ways to solve the phenomenon of abandoned carts at sites

Naturally, there are several other reasons that lead people not to make a purchase, but the ones mentioned above are the primary reasons. We can already see that most of the problems are interrelated and building positively from our awareness of them, we can start to improve the experience that our site offers to customers. To leave you with some vital conclusions on the issue, we have compiled some tips to help you solve the phenomenon of abandoned carts on the site.

Everything is visible

Do not hide prices and details from your customers. The more you openly reveal all the small details and allow them to calculate the final price in advance, the more likely customers are to actually make the purchase. One of the best methods to make a customer feel good and encourage him to make a purchase is to offer free shipping on a purchase exceeding a certain price. If you do, you will also inform the customer in advance that there may be hidden prices on the shipment and also encourage him to purchase some more to reach the quota.

Make the user as easy as possible

With every detail on the site, you need to see the convenience of the customer as something that guides you. It is true that there is business logic involved in getting the customer to sign up, but it is possible to offer a quick connection with Facebook or Google and make the process easier for the customer.

Use reputable payment platforms

If you are building your site under the umbrella of a platform like Shopify then you are guaranteeing customers in advance the opportunity to work with the major companies in the financial sector. But not every website is one that is built under such an umbrella, for those who build an independent website we recommend investing in the payment options and looking for how to facilitate the customer as much as possible in this area.

View the items

This may not directly relate to the problems we have presented, but studies certainly show that if you display the products consistently throughout the purchase process you can reduce the appearance of abandoned carts on the site. Just think about buying processes in physical stores; throughout the stages, the item is in our hands so the least that can be done online is to show what we are going to buy.

Invest in content

Although we have presented ways to increase customer confidence through technical solutions, a call to action and verbal details of the products always help to increase sales. Invest thought in the content displayed on your site, from the product descriptions to the micro-copy of the buttons on the site.

Use technology

Today there is a huge variety of technological solutions that will make your site more recognizable. We will not be able to present them all here, but one of the most notable is, without a doubt, the use of the pop-up when a customer is about to leave the site. This technology allows us to bounce an ad in front of the customer as soon as he is about to close the store tab and pull him to stay a little longer and think about the purchase. In general, technology today allows us to make it easier for the customer to move between the cart and the store and save the shopping cart for a later date.

Increase trust

There are many ways to increase trust and the best of all in the field of online stores is social proof. Ask your customers to write a review and take a picture of the products they purchased from you. The more credible and authentic the social proofs are, the better their impact on potential customers will be.

If you are looking for a company that can do all this work for you and helps your business increase its sales, you no longer need to keep looking because you have come to the right place. Alt.Digital specializes in finding advanced technological solutions in the field of digital marketing. After a conversation we will understand your brand and its needs; we will sit down and formulate a surgical action plan to bring your business to success. For further details, all you have to do is get in touch with us.

Author of the article: Asaf Shimoni,
CEO of Alt_ Digital Marketing LTD