What Can I Do to Reduce Abandoned Shopping Carts?

A potential customer has taken their time to explore your products and put a few items in their shopping cart, but they don’t make a purchase. You ask yourself, "What happened?" While we can’t always know the exact reason for abandoned shopping carts, there are ways to reduce the likelihood of them happening.

Check out these five ways to lower your e-commerce shopping cart abandonment rate.

For a ready-made cart abandonment recipe to help drive visitors with products in their carts back to your website and over the finish line, click here.

1. Install Exit-Intent Popups on Your Website 

With so many online shopping options available, you need to integrate strategies on your website that encourage a customer to stay on your site long enough to complete a purchase. One of the most effective tactics is an exit-intent popup.

A recent study found that the average conversion rate for an exit-intent popup is 3.09%, meaning it will prove successful in reducing abandoned shopping carts and increasing your sales.

Exit-intent popup apps monitor a customer’s movement on your site. When a customer is about to leave your site without making a purchase, a popup shows up on the screen to entice the user to complete their purchase. Sometimes, this can be achieved with an incentive such as a discount code. For the best results, place the popup on your homepage, shopping cart page, and your website’s checkout page.

2. Be Up Front About Costs 

Online shoppers are always looking for the best deals, and unexpected costs such as shipping, taxes, and fees may deter customers from completing their purchases. It's essential to clearly state any additional charges to reduce shopping cart abandonment. 

While shipping costs vary depending on where an item is being shipped from and to, one way to be upfront about fees is to add a shipping rate calculator to your product pages. This way, shoppers can gain an idea of the additional fees they will pay before seeing them show up during checkout.

And, when you can, offer free shipping and free returns to customers. A recent study found that 73% of online shoppers want to see free shipping options during the checkout process. Having no additional fees at all will help reduce the number of abandoned shopping carts on your website.

3. Let Customers Check Out as a "Guest"

Requiring customers to create an account before completing their purchase will only increase the likelihood of cart abandonment. This additional step interrupts the checkout process and deters customers from completing their purchase. 

By offering a "Guest" checkout option, customers can complete their purchases quickly. Then, once an order is placed, you can provide the option to sign up for an account. You can entice customers to do this by mentioning an even faster checkout during their next purchase.

4. Provide Exceptional Customer Service Options 

Suppose someone has a question about a particular item, your shipping and return policies, or any other customer-related questions. Can they easily find the answers they need to feel confident in completing their purchase?

Often, if a customer cannot get the help they need right away, they will leave your site with an abandoned cart and find somewhere else to shop. The way to combat this problem is to provide exceptional customer service options on your website.

From having a detailed FAQ page that is easily accessible to including a customer service phone number and email address to implementing a chatbot feature on your website, be sure to provide customers with a variety of options to get in touch with your customer service team.

A 2020 study found that 34% of customers would prefer to communicate with a chatbot to help with their e-commerce needs. Therefore, implementing this feature on your website is a valuable e-commerce marketing trend that will also reduce abandoned carts.

By giving your customers as many options as possible to get their questions answered before making a purchase, they are more likely not to abandon their shopping cart and make it through the purchasing process.

For more on how to maintain customer loyalty with excellent customer service:

5. Offer a Variety of Payment Options

According to a recent study, 56% of online shoppers said they like to have various payment options during the checkout process. Therefore, you want to ensure that the majority of people shopping on your site can use their preferred payment option during checkout. This will result in less abandoned carts, and more completed purchases.

While your customers' payment preferences may vary, accepting basic cards such as Visa, MasterCard, and American Express is an excellent place to start. PayPal is also a standard payment option that e-commerce shoppers like to use.

Lastly, you will want to ensure all the payment options you offer are also available on mobile devices, as more and more customers are using their mobile phones to make purchases.

6. Reach Out to Customers With an Abandoned Cart

Implementing these strategies will reduce e-commerce shopping cart abandonment, but won't eliminate it. According to Rakuten Marketing research, shoppers, on average, make more than nine visits to a retailer’s website before making a purchase decision. Inevitably, some of your shoppers will leave your site with items in their shopping carts.

As a result, having an effective abandoned cart recovery campaign is essential to bring your shoppers back and keep them engaged throughout their shopping journey. Traditionally, an abandoned cart recovery program means sending out a couple of follow-up emails to the shoppers after they left. But, with an integrated marketing platform, such as AdRoll, you can reach out to your shoppers more effectively with a cross-channel cart recovery campaign and personalize your website to better engage with them when they come back.

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For more on how to run an effective cross-channel abandoned cart recovery campaign:

Last updated on September 20th, 2023.