Cart abandonment is an area where e-commerce business owners are trying to progress because any level of improvement means more sales and more profits.
Believe it or not, cart abandonment falls somewhere between 55 and 80 percent depending on the source. This means somewhere around three-quarters of online shoppers put items in their cart with the intention to buy and never complete their checkout. Why?
Let’s take a look at what drives cart abandonment in 2018.
Extra Costs
Shipping costs, taxes and extra fees are the largest contributors to cart abandonment. 61% of people reported leaving a transaction due to an additional cost such as shipping fees. This happens because most checkout processes do not allow customers to see the shipping costs, taxes or extra fees until they need to put in their billing information. E-retailers can learn a lesson from this by making shipping costs and any additional fees visible from the start to avoid surprising customers when they get to the checkout screen.
Offering free shipping can help limit cart abandonment as well. Companies that implement free shipping can generally expect 25-40 percent improvements on cart abandonment, depending on the industry. This kind of improvement in cart abandonment could be a significant boost to your profits thanks to a simple change in your shipping policy.
Website Requires Customer to Create a Profile
When websites require registration before checkout, their cart abandonment numbers go through the roof. When a customer is ready to purchase but first needs to fill out a separate page with all their personal information, many close out of the page. A lot of people are hesitant to fill out their personal information on the web while some people don’t have the patience to continue with an extended checkout process. When a website requires some sort of registration, 37 percent of people said this is why they abandoned their cart. This is the second most popular reason for cart abandonment behind additional costs at checkout.
Complicated Checkout Process
Customers who are ready to buy want a no-hassle checkout process. When the checkout process gets complicated, people bounce off the site. Unnecessary forms or additional pages that could be consolidated contribute to restless customers and can make a simple process confusing. This results in a negative experience for the customer, which is why 28% of shoppers abandon their carts when encountering a complicated checkout process.
Poor Return Policy
When customers buy online, they can’t touch or see the actual product they are buying. All they have to rely on are the pictures on the website. Return rates for e-commerce are higher than the brick-and-mortar stores for this reason. The answer to this type of cart abandonment could be an iron-clad return policy.
According to Word Stream, offering a no-questions-asked money-back guarantee or similar offer of assurance dramatically reduces the potential objections a prospect might have about buying from you. It shifts the focus from the price and terms of sale to the actual product. If a customer does have reservations about buying, it shouldn’t be out of fear of losing their money. Any e-commerce store that sells electronics or other high-value products needs to make sure their return policy is top-notch.
With the way e-commerce stores are set-up and how today’s customers buy, it’s impossible to eliminate cart abandonment completely. Extra costs, customer profile requirements, a confusing checkout process and a poor return policy are all what drives cart abandonment in 2018. Improving these processes can ease any hesitations that customers have while boosting your sales at the same time.