As an online retailer, there is nothing quite as frustrating as the thought of a would-be shopper canceling his or her sale at the last moment due to the so-called “abandoned shopping cart syndrome.” This happens much more often than we would like to think – in an estimated 65 to 70% of all potential transactions! Whilst we all understand that virtual commerce is a completely different ballgame and that we often have no direct control over the actions of a potential client, there are nevertheless a number of lessons to be learned and a number of initiatives to be addressed if we want to try and rid ourselves of this on line skittishness!
One of the first things to do is to make sure that you have your tracking and testing procedures in place. You need to know what kind of a problem you have and you should analyze your reports to see how many people visit your checkout pages but do not consummate the transaction. Once you are aware of the scale of the problem, you should take steps to mitigate, as much as possible.
We can anticipate the reasons behind last-minute abandonment:
Design issues. Make sure that your customer experience is first class, all the way from the home page to the thank-you page. Put as much effort as you possibly can into making your site user and visitor friendly and make sure that each of the projected steps taken by a client is clearly projected. If you have a small operation make sure that you bring in an additional set of expert eyes to look over your site and give advice. Sometimes you can’t “see the wood for the trees”.
Eliminate sticker shock. Always make sure that the client is aware of the total projected cost, including shipping and taxes. Very often there is a significant change in the final tally due to these add-on items and a potential sale can be abandoned. Studies have shown (including a report commissioned by PayPal and conducted by comScore in May 2009) that high shipping cost was the top reason for cart abandonment. Show those shipping costs up front.
Security. It goes without saying that you must provide a secure environment for any online financial transactions. This is not only expected but makes good business sense. Make sure that you bring your security efforts to your visitors attention by referencing your secured checkout page (https), data encryption and external verification services.
Social proof. Incorporate testimonials, user reviews and product ratings. People like to think that they are doing the right thing and they like to see that their peers have enjoyed a good experience and are happy with their purchase.
Payment options. Try and offer as many payment solutions as you can, bearing in mind that a significant proportion of the population, especially those of a younger age, may not have access to a credit card.
With an astounding 98.7% of website visitors not returning – even if they have made a purchase before – you need to do everything within your control to ensure that they have an enjoyable and fulfilling visit, all the way through to the thank you page, hopefully to return again.
Have you ever quit at the last moment? What causes you to abandon an online purchase – let us know.
Matthew Toren
When I quit a shopping cart, it is usually because I never intended to buy at that moment in any case. I often go through to the point just before checkout, because that’s where I need to go to calculate total cost (shipping + tax – coupons codes). If I like the item and want to buy it later, I’ll add it to a wishlist.
A online store which remembers my zip code and can give me a live price including tax and shipping when I’m browsing products would be great. This would cause me to abandon a cart far less often, but I don’t think it would necessarily lead to me buying more often.
This topic is important to me because I purchase the vast majority of everything I need, including food, on the web. I also purchase a great deal of technology for my clients. I’ve been shopping on the web since E-Bay was a tiny sub-web and Onsale was the great auction site and have abandoned thousands of shopping carts in the process. E-Commerce really has improved greatly, but so have expectations for that experience. Here are my reasons for cart abandonment. The largest reason is shipping (and handling) costs. That accounts for about 50%. I do keep a mental list of sites where that’s an issue and tend to shop them only when I can’t find what I need elsewhere – and still dump the cart from time to time. The item is going to cost, net to me, what it has to cost. Merchants would be better off asking for the zip code first, then building shipping into the cost as the shopper works their way through the site. It’s irritating beyond words to see that I’m being charged $15.95 to receive an item that I know USPS charges $3.50 for – and don’t tell me about handling – that’s your job, Mr. Merchant. Did you really think you could levitate that item to me here in CT? The cost of moving an item around your warehouse and finally getting it ready to ship is part of the cost of the item. I consider it a form of dishonesty – sort of bait and switch. The issue is so serious to me that I simply don’t shop some sites. I know that at the end, I’m going to see what they charge me for S&H and dump my cart – wasted time. So, that issue goes much deeper and is far more costly to the merchant than one dumped cart. The second largest reason, accounting for about 40% boils down to poor search functions so it takes too much time to find the exactly right item. Every single online merchant needs to create, buy, or add, the equivalent of Google search to their site. Amazon even falls seriously short in search as far as I’m concerned. It takes me twice as long to find things even on Amazon, as it should. Most sites have nearly worthless searches. People click their way through menu systems. How archaic is that in a Google world? The remaining 10% is the result of random annoyances such as getting a message that I have to change my cookie policy, being told that a coupon code isn’t working, etc.
Most people just fill up the basket for the fun of it. The will never order anything. Also the competition is looking at your shop to see how your checkout is made.
For me, it’s exactly as Brandan says. Many, including me, aren’t necessarily planning on buying something we throw in the online cart. Whereas in real life, a shopping cart serves no real purpose other than to collect things you are actually about to purchase, an online cart offers the ability to see the total projected cost, at least at some point.
I think improvements for online stores should be focused on letting the customer know upfront what the total costs may be, what shipping might be, if there’s tax, and so on. And if all that is already good, maybe the online store should just focus on building a better brand, and improving its marketing using a site like AdWido. Obviously Amazon doesn’t need any of this, although it might be able to use a couple improvements, but it certainly doesn’t need to worry about getting people to just go through with an online shopping cart.
As others have said, there are many more explanations for the abandoned shopping cart syndrome.
I often fill up and abandon an online shopping cart because I’m doing price comparisons on different websites. You can usually save on shipping if you’re ordering more than one item and each item’s price can vary across website, so putting everything you want in a shopping cart is a good way of comparing total cost. It’s often too inconvenient to order different items on different websites when you can get everything from just the one website, so I end up abandoning my cart on all but one.
You really need to make sure that the purchasing process for your site is simple. I myself have abandoned the cart when there were too many hoops to jump through at the end and all of these additional charges began to crop up. Keep it straight forward and customers will stick with it until the end.
I’m not meaning to sound rude or ignorant, but I honestly believe that a lot of abandoned carts are an attempt to steal. unfortunately, the internet is no different than any other retail business and if you can go to a mall and have security cameras count the number of theft attempts, it would probably be an astronomical number in a certain period of time. The internet is probably higher because no one thinks anyone is watching. There are people out there that think they can beat the system. When they get to the payment part, they realize they can’t go any farther. When a merchant is offering free shipping and there’s no tax, and 5 different way to pay, then what’s the problem? I really don’t believe its just cold feet. Also, there is the belief that the computer runs itself, and they think “oh maybe no one will notice that I didn’t pay and just ship the item.” If anyone has ever been on ebay and saw how many bidders become nonpaying bidders, these are the same kind of people that are shopping on websites.
All I am trying to say is that, “racking your head and trying to have the perfect checkout experience when its as close to perfect as one can get”, isn’t worth the frustration. Maybe is it easier to accept that there are some folks that just do not want to pay. I have had several repeat abandoned carts…well how many times is a shopper going to revisit a website and put the same item in the cart, then not finish the checkout. If someone really wants to buy something and there is a glitch or software not working, believe me, you will hear from them via email or a phone call.
This is an interesting article. One of the things that merchants are also losing out on is the ‘declined card’ page, especially in this day and age. I wrote an article here on a company that gives a solution to allow you to pay by cash on the web, a solution to one of the abandoned purchase scenarios..
Hi All,
I am currently starting my MSc in Business Systems Analysis and Design, that is to say improving business through technology and bridging the gap between technical and business communities of an organisation.
I am also a data/ Business Analyst with a first degree in Electronic and information Engineering.
My Msc is part time and will finish in 2 years. I was wondering whether any one can help me or give me a valuable advice in regards to me thinking of doing a DBA or PHD in Business/ economics.
Would that be any value added to me or shell i only stick to my MSc. I’d love to have that PHD with great work experience and hopefully travel around for business conferences and advice business into how to improve their processes and operations