Cart abandonment is when a potential customer adds items to their shopping cart, but leaves the online store without completing the checkout process. Current statistics put shopping cart abandonment at 70% across the whole web. This means out of 100 potential customers, more than 70 of them leave without transacting on the store.
1. Unexpected Charges or Extra Costs
Very often it is only when users get well into the checkout process that extra costs like delivery charges are added to the total amount. If the customer thinks these are too high, or they are not what they were expecting, you are at a high risk of losing the sale to an abandoned checkout.
Not displaying any extra costs can make customers feel as though they’re being manipulated by a brand, causing the shoppers to have a bad experience and leave the site to try their luck with another brand.
Give customers all costs upfront, including any shipping costs, what taxes apply, and any other fees they should expect. These details can also be shown on the product detail page by asking the customer for their zip code.
2. Limited Delivery Options
Online shoppers often don’t think about how their purchase will get to them until after they have already entered the checkout process. While the cost of shipping and available options are top reasons for cart abandonments, the speed of shipping also poses a significant threat to larger purchases.
According to data, more than 1/4 of all online consumers abandon their shopping carts because they won’t be able to get their product fast enough. While some products are expected to ship slowly, like those that are handmade or getting shipped from a small country, most people shopping online today are accustomed to relatively fast shipping and delivery times. If your store is unable to deliver the goods in time or to the shoppers location, customers are forced to abandon their carts.
3. Having To Create An Account
Some merchants make it mandatory for the customers to create an account before making any purchase. There are some customers who are not comfortable providing their personal information and thus opt out, while some find it worthless to fill out long forms just to make a single purchase.
There are many business benefits to getting customers to create accounts but this must be optional and not a mandatory part of the checkout process, as buyers may simply not want this kind of relationship with you or have to create and monitor another account.
