Shopping cart abandonment rate

The shopping cart abandonment rate is an important KPI. Primarily, it’s a KPI that businesses use to measure the number of customers they lose while they complete an online transaction. If you have ever been through checkout on a website that had multiple pages in the checkout process and felt like the whole thing was just too much, you will immediately sympathize with this article. However, by doing so, you will also help us address an essential KPI.

TRACK YOUR SHOPPING CART ABANDONMENT RATE

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Templates using this KPI
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Integrations using this KPI

What is the shopping cart abandonment rate?

Cart abandonment statistics are created from eCommerce stores when online shoppers fill their online shopping cart with items on an eCommerce site but abandon the cart and don’t buy anything before completing the purchase process. This could be due to a retailer’s website optimization, an unclear checkout page, the customer didn’t have access to their credit card, or the payment methods offered were not optimal for the purchaser.

Abandoning shoppers don’t necessarily leave an empty cart—they may have added items to their carts but not yet made them “official” through an actual checkout process. This is very common with companies like Amazon and other online retailers that don’t allow guest checkouts and require you to sign in. Your cart is connected to your account and contains your items even if you have left the page or app for a more extended period. However, many other possible reasons why a potential customer would abandon their shopping cart. High shipping costs, unexpected extra charges, or fees.

Track your shopping cart abandonment rate

How to calculate Shopping cart abandonment rate

To calculate the shopping cart abandonment rate (SCAR), first, you need to know the total number of people who abandon their carts and the total number of completed transactions.

Next, take the number of abandoned carts and divide it by the total number of completed transactions.

Finally, multiply that result by 100 to get your SCAR percentage.

For example, let’s say you have 10,000 abandoned carts and 1,000 completed transactions in a month. That would mean your SCAR is 90%.

Shopping cart abandonment rate formula

(Total Number of abandoned carts / Total number of completed transactions) X 100 = Shopping cart abandonment rate

What is a good shopping cart abandonment rate?

The Baymard Institute conducted a study stating that the average shopping cart abandonment rate across industries is 69.57%. This means that about 70 out of every 100 people who engage in eCommerce sales are not completing transactions over a short period or simply lost sales. Improving this ensures that customers have a clear checkout flow, multiple payment options, and standard payment options like PayPal. It’s also crucial that your product page has a clear checkout experience and a place for credit card information if that’s what the customer prefers. Finally, when sending cart abandonment emails, it may be worth it to offer coupon codes and other incentives to improve the user experience for your online stores and ensure reasonable click-through rates.

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What is a bad shopping cart abandonment rate?

An indication of bad online shopping cart abandonment metrics will be if you see higher than average checkout abandonment. It’s crucial to ensure your store has a straightforward checkout process, but if you need to send abandonment emails, there are a few things to consider. Many first-time shoppers may not be used to your return policy and might be hesitant to complete their purchase. This is where your email marketing can inform the customer. For example, if you are a clothing company, you can tell them it is ok to return the item if they meet specific criteria. Or, if you have brick-and-mortar stores, you can encourage them to drop off the item.

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Shopping cart abandonment rate KPI examples & templates

You can add your shopping cart abandonment rate in some of our templates!

See this KPI in action here!

See this KPI in action here!

Ecommerce report template

A report with all the most important metrics for your ecommerce site, like shopping cart abandonment, click-through rate, and revenue.

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Executive report template

This dashboard template is filled with metrics your C-suite will want to see. Show them your revenue, new customers, churn rate, and more. You can also add some customer satisfaction KPIs, gross margin, or customer data to have a better overview.

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Google Analytics report template

Check the number of customers, traffic, customer journey through your website, and more with this easy-to-use GA template.

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Shopping cart abandonment rate best practices

Easy Checkout Process

Make your cart system as intuitive and straightforward as possible. As an eCommerce business, your customers must have an easy way to check out. As important as their information might be for sending your retargeting email templates, having a guest checkout option can benefit your bottom line. A complicated checkout process can hinder your customers from hitting that final purchase button.

Offer a variety of payment options

Companies like Shopify allow you to use multiple payment options like credit cards, stripe, or PayPal. They do all the hard work upfront, drastically improving the usability of your website and checkout system. When you offer a variety of payment options, you increase the conversion rate of your customers.

Send Cart recovery emails

Sending cart recovery emails is the best way to minimize your abandonment rate. When customers see an email that shows their order is waiting for them, it improves email benchmarks like open rate more than any other emails you’ll send. In addition, customers may expect an incentive inside that email like a coupon if they finish buying sooner. There is now even automation that you can create to pop up on your website or on social media that can answer questions for customers and help increase your average order value.

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