7 Mistakes That Cause Online Shopping Cart Abandonment

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You are attracting customers to your online store, they are adding items to their cart, but they are not checking out. What gives? Losing a customer at the final hurdle can be frustrating, but abandoning a shopping cart is actually quite common. In fact, most sites have abandonment rates of around 70%. This means that 7 out of 10 people leave items in their cart without completing their purchase.

There are many reasons why customers don’t carry out the purchase until completion. These are just some of the most common reasons for abandoning online shopping carts.

#1. Force customers to create an account:

While there are benefits to having customers create online accounts (such as access to additional customer data and the option to provide personalized transactions), many customers don’t want to create online accounts. They have too many online accounts to track or don’t have time to create one. This is why you should always provide a guest checkout option. You should only request the basic customer information needed for a sale so that you don’t bother your rushed customers.

#2. Checkout process too long:

This relates to the final point, but it is worth digging deeper. Many people who shop online are in a hurry and don’t have time to complete their long five-page checkout form. The checkout process is an opportunity to upsell products, ask research questions and encourage customers to join the mailing list, but you need to be careful not to go too overboard as you can postpone the customer.

If the nature of the product cannot prevent a long checkout process, consider providing a progress bar so that customers can clearly see how much information they need to fill out before they can be completed.

#3. Prices are too high:

Some customers like to shop before committing to a purchase. Just make sure you can’t get a better deal elsewhere. It’s possible that customers are adding items to their cart, comparing other websites, finding the same product at a cheaper price. Compare your competitors’ pricing to make sure the prices aren’t too high.

#4. Amazing customers with hidden fees:

We recommend that you be transparent at all prices. Adding shipping, packaging fees and taxes at the end may make the initial price look more attractive, but customers with a tight budget won’t continue paying yet. Many may just feel deceived and may deliberately look elsewhere for this (especially if you are surprised customers with high shipping costs). We recommend advertise these fees in advance on your product listings so that customers know exactly what they are paying.

#5. Payment options are too restrictive:

#6. We do not offer prompt delivery:

#7. Ignore slow load times and webpage errors:

These issues need to be fixed immediately. If you notice that there is no sales, test the website’s checkout process to make sure there are no bugs. Such errors may require you to work with the website developer to increase the patch.

The final thought…

To put things together, don’t forget that the goal is to make your online shopping experience as frictionless as possible. By addressing the common mistakes we’ve covered, we can significantly reduce cart abandonment, increase conversions, and increase revenue. Creating loyal customers from potential shoppers requires a seamless, transparent and easy to use checkout process. What is one change ready for today’s checkout process?