Cart abandonment is a common challenge in e-commerce, and for dropshippers, it can be discouraging. Reports show that about 70% of online shopping carts are abandoned. Aside from losing sales, overlooking abandoned carts in your business will lead to more serious problems and losses.
The first step to solving this issue is identifying why it exists and how bad it is—I’ll help you.
In this guide, I’ll explain the potential triggers why shoppers abandon their carts. Most importantly, you’ll learn how to calculate your abandonment rate and diagnose its patterns in your store. Learn what steps you can take to recover your customers to improve your sales and profitability.
What are Abandoned Carts?
Abandoned carts are online shopping carts with products that customers leave before they can proceed to the checkout process. Cart abandonment occurs when a user browses your products, adds an item to their cart, but doesn’t complete the purchase. The item then remains in the cart until they decide to buy it, or your site automatically clears it from the cart.
Reasons Behind Cart Abandonment
I’ve witnessed many online stores struggle with this problem over the years. If you’re experiencing this, you must first identify the reasons why it happens so you can implement the right solution for your business. Some of the key triggers behind cart abandonment include:
Customers are easily discouraged from buying due to website performance issues. These include slow loading times, site crashing, mobile incompatibility, a complicated navigation menu, and difficulty in accessing the cart. Experiencing any of these can cause customers to leave their carts out of frustration.
When customers encounter unexpected costs when they try to purchase a product, they’re less likely to buy it. These may include shipping fees, handling charges, or hidden costs.
Long and confusing checkouts are off-putting for customers. They prefer simple and quick transactions, not too many steps, and an intuitive form or page.
Requiring customers to create an account before they can buy may dissuade them. Many people see it as an extra step in the checkout process. Additionally, some customers lack the patience or trust to share personal information.
Many customers have preferred payment options, like digital wallets. If you don’t offer what they want, they won’t complete their purchase and just abandon their carts.
Internet safety has consistently been a significant issue for online consumers. If a shopper sees any indication of security threats in a store, they will abandon their cart and exit. Indicators they pay attention to include the website lacking a trustworthy appearance and the absence of secure payment options.
If the offers from promotional content and materials aren’t delivered in the store or at the checkout, customers will feel misled and tricked—they will irritably abandon their carts.
Many online shoppers enjoy “window shopping” in online stores. They simply browse through product listings and add items to their carts—some view it as a way to relieve stress. Some of them may even be interested in buying, but aren’t ready to buy yet, so they leave their carts for now.
How to Calculate Your Abandonment Rate
It’s important to monitor the cart abandonment rate of your store so you can act early when necessary. It’s measured as a percentage and indicates the total number of customers who added items to their carts but didn’t complete a checkout.
Here’s how to do the calculation:
Number of Abandoned Carts = Number of Carts Created - Number of Sales or Completed Orders
Then:
Cart Abandonment Rate = (Number of Abandoned Carts / Number of Carts Created ) x 100
Let’s say your store had 100 visitors this month, and 60 of them added a product to their carts. Then, let’s say only 20 of those 60 customers completed their purchase. Following the formula, that means you have 40 abandoned carts with a rate of about 66%. This means 66% of your customers left your store without making an order—that’s a lot of lost sales.
If you’re on Shopify, you can get the data needed to calculate the rate on the platform. Just go to Analytics and then Report, and look for the following:
What’s an Acceptable Rate?
How do you know if your abandonment rate is good or better than average?
If you compare it to the average online abandonment rate of 70%, the 66% above is less than average. But a truly acceptable abandonment rate is one that’s always improving. This depends on how it changes after some adjustments. Your abandonment rate should decrease—the lower the better.
I recommend calculating your rate weekly or monthly. Then compare the new rates to the previous ones each time. Remember, it should get lower.
How to Diagnose Your Store’s Abandonment Patterns
Although the common triggers are a good start, identifying your store’s specific cart abandonment issues is the best way to better understand what you’re dealing with. Here are some steps that you can take:
8 Recovery Tips to Reduce Your Abandoned Carts
Since you already know how to diagnose and identify cart abandonment issues, the next step is to apply recovery methods. Start with things you can easily fix before getting into more serious changes. Here are some recommended strategies that can directly address the most common abandonment triggers:
1. Simplify Your Checkout Process
Don’t make things complicated—having to do a lot of things before you can buy can be extremely frustrating. Here are some tips to help you simplify your checkout process:
2. Optimize Your Website Performance
If your diagnostics show issues with your site’s performance, you have to take the time to optimize everything. Here’s a quick checklist for you:
Most importantly, test your site regularly in different browsers, on different devices, and even on both fast and slow internet connections. This will help you identify and fix any issues early before they can hinder your customers’ shopping experience.
3. Make Your Store Look Trustworthy
Focus on making your online website look professional and secure. Here are some ways to do that:
4. Send Abandoned Cart Emails
This is the most prevalent recovery tactic, particularly for dropshippers. Email your customers who left items in their carts to remind them about their selections. Concurrently, in the email, add a promotional deal to encourage your clients to finalize the transaction. Here are some tips for a well-made abandonment email:
5. Offer Alternatives for Mandatory Account Creation
Accommodate your customers who don’t want to create an account just so they can buy an item. Here are some alternatives to try:
6. Expand Your Payment Options
Make sure you’re catering to the preferred payment methods of your target customers—offer diverse options in your store. Allow them to buy with digital wallets and multiple types of credit cards. For customers from other regions, you can also provide currency conversion options.
7. Be Transparent With Costs
Don’t deceive customers. The actual price of an item should be the price you use in promotional materials. Disclose all fees, including shipping costs or taxes, early during the checkout process. You can also offer free shipping to attract more buyers since it’s a common deterrent for some customers.
8. Invest in Retargeting Ads
For a deeper strategy, you can try remarketing or retargeting customers. You can use tracking pixels in your store so your products and offers will still appear on your customers’ end after leaving the store. These ads show up in their related Google searches, some social media feeds, and even on the sidebars of other sites.
Conclusion
You can still turn abandoned carts into sales with the right strategy. As a recap, you just need to do three things:
Again, remember that your rate should decrease as you continue to apply recovery strategies.
Struggling with more than cart abandonment? Join my free webinar and get access to proven strategies for fixing the most common dropshipping problems!
