10 reasons for shopping cart abandonment: Why it happens and how to fix it?

The online store provides a number of conveniences for customers. Searching for a product on the internet, finding a suitable online store, placing an order and even receiving it within a day thanks to delivery, already seems like a common behavior for us. But there are situations when a potential buyer adds items to the cart, but for some reason leaves without placing an order. In the world of e-commerce, this is known as “cart abandonment”. 

What is cart abandonment and why does it happen?

An abandoned cart is a term that refers to an incomplete purchase. Unfortunately, this appears to occur more and more often among e-commerce store retailers. According to statistics, over 70% of consumers refuse to purchase while checking out at an online store, resulting in the cart being abandoned.

PrestaShop store and any other online store owners can face this problem. An abandoned cart means lost profits. There are many reasons why people leave the page at the last stage - the purchase process. This can be due to the non-delivery of products, a complex registration and payment form, a poor website loading time and so on. Let's take a look at the reasons that most often lead to abandoned carts.

1. Inconvenient delivery conditions

One of the reasons for abandoned cart can be delivery options that are not suitable for a particular customer. Try to offer multiple delivery options such as pickup from warehouse or office, delivery by several postal services, courier delivery so that people have a choice and post information about it even before they start adding products to their cart. But of course the best way is to offer free delivery. It will attract a lot of buyers and many will complete the purchase without leaving the site.

2. Complicated checkout

The fewer actions you need to take to place an order, the higher the conversion. One way to reduce cart abandonment is to make filling out forms as easy as possible. Leave only the most necessary fields: first name, last name, email address. The email address field will allow you to further contact the buyer and attract repeat sales. Clear and fast checkout will simplify the customer interaction with your website. Instead of adding unnecessary questions, pop-ups and pages, limit the process to a few easy steps.

3. No confidence in the store and its security

People don't like to leave their personal details such as mobile number, email, etc. on the web. The slightest doubt or distrust at any stage of the purchase can prevent customers from making a purchase. Provide a money-back guarantee if there is a problem with the product, show the available certificates of product quality and payment security, as well as contact details of your store, customer reviews in order to inspire confidence in the user. This will encourage customers to place an order with ease and trust.

4. Slow page loading

We have mentioned many times that a slow website is causing a lot of trouble for online stores. Visitors don't want to waste time waiting for a page to load till they place an order. Most of the time, they will just close the site and abandon the shopping cart. Optimize your website to make sure it runs smoothly and seamlessly.

5. No customer support

Unexpected obstacles do not contribute to proper order completion. During the order, for example, the customer may face a payment issue. If there is no online consultant nearby and the users themselves cannot solve the problem which will make them leave your website. It is better for the customer to seek assistance from you rather than through third-party websites. Use an online chat to communicate with your clients in real time during the ordering process as an option. Customer support helps you to convince a customer to buy something and influence their further decision.

6. Challenging shopping cart

Sometimes the reason for abandoned carts is the difficulty of figuring it out. For example, the user doesn't understand how to delete one item or change its quantity. Make sure that managing the cart is as simple and understandable as possible, products can be easily added and removed and the total amount of the order can be counted in the process. A simplified order form and the ability to consult with the online store consultants on any questions, as we mentioned above, will also help to eliminate the customer's desire to abandon the selected product.

7. Unexpected expenses

The customers are ready to pay for the amount that is shown in the product card. When they have already moved on to the checkout process, there may be an unexpected “surprise” in the form of additional costs such as shipping, taxes, product packaging and so on. Seeing this, the buyer will get disappointed and leave the cart without completing the order. To avoid this, include all additional expenses right away in the product card.

8. Lack of payment methods

People like to pay for products in a familiar or profitable way - make sure that everyone finds a suitable option by connecting all possible payment methods. Some consumers leave their items abandoned in the cart simply because they are unable to pay for the purchase in the usual way. If your site has many different payment options, then more customers will be satisfied and, accordingly, there will be one less reason to abandon a purchase.

9. Postponed purchase

Many people add products to their shopping cart before making a final purchase decision. They are just not ready to buy right now and use the cart as their wish list. In that case, you can help them to make a decision and complete the order. Remind your customers about the product they have in their shopping carts with emails and retargeting. We will talk about it in detail a little bit later.

10. Mobile optimization not available

The thought of making a purchase can arise anywhere. Fortunately, with compact smartphones, this can be done in an instant. Most of the internet users shop through mobile devices. It is important that your website is optimized for these purchases. After all, this is exactly what is always convenient and at hand. 

How to recover abandoned carts?

The goal of abandoned cart recovery is to motivate the user to complete the purchase.  Therefore, it will give you the opportunity to increase revenue. Depending on the market segment, the simple return of customers who have not finished their shopping can significantly increase sales from 15%–40% or more. There are several ways to return a client to a “forgotten” order. Here are some methods you can follow to bring your customers back.

Email

Email is one of the most effective and common ways to remind customers of an abandoned cart. People send and receive a large number of letters on a daily basis, so using this method ensures that your letter will reach its intended recipient. However, it is important to focus on writing a catchy subject line to get the attention of the reader and encourage them to open it. To improve your abandoned cart recovery rate, you will need to dedicate some time to testing alternative copy, offers and layout in your email.

Retargeting

You can try to return a potential client with the help of retargeting. Remind your visitors of product they have viewed but didn't purchase with this strategy. It is a very effective way to get abandoned carts back.

Push notifications

These are notifications that pop up on the screen of the user's device: on a smartphone, on a desktop, etc. Push notifications are short text messages that inform customers of important information, such as the start of a promotion, a change in the status of an order and a reminder of an unfinished purchase in the cart. Thus, a customer visiting your website will immediately receive such notifications and subconsciously want to complete the purchase.

Conclusion

Abandoned carts are a real problem for many owners of PrestaShop and other online stores. It is impossible to get rid of abandoned carts 100%. But you can and should try to reduce their number. We hope you found this article useful and now you can reduce your cart abandonment rate, offer a better user experience and make more profit.