How to Reduce Cart Abandonment in 2023

7 out of 10 consumers, on average, abandon their carts. For an ecommerce business, that is a scary statistic. It means that you might be closing only 30% of sales on your website.

Posted 4 years ago by Aleksandra Cugalj

Fortunately, there are many tactics that you can employ to encourage shoppers to complete a purchase. In this post, we will go through the top tips to reduce cart abandonment. 

Tip 1: Understand Why Shoppers Do Not Complete a Purchase

Every shopper is different and might have specific reasons for abandoning their carts. The most common reasons for cart abandonment include:

• Unexpected fees, such as taxes or shipping.
• The shopper never intended to buy.
• The shopper found the same product at a better price elsewhere.
• Your overall shopping process was too long.
• The shopper had security concerns.

In the above cases, you can notice that there is only one that you cannot do much about. If a shopper visits the site with no intention of shopping, there is no way you can change their mind. Still, there are ways to work around all the other reasons cited.

Tip 2: Avoid Sticker Shock

Some retailers on popular shopping platforms charge a very low fee for their goods and then add a lot in shipping to make up the difference. They do this so that they can appear higher on the list when the customer filters their searches by price.

It is a losing strategy, though. Customers will see through the deception quickly enough and trust the seller less. It is better to be upfront about the charges and shipping. That way, customers know how much they are paying before they add the item to their cart.

If you are concerned about sticker shock, consider offering free or reduced shipping costs depending on the value of the order.

Tip 3: Set Up Automatic Cart Abandonment Emails

By the time customers abandon their carts, you have probably collected their email address. Take advantage of this by sending out abandoned cart emails within 24 hours. Use this opportunity to close the sale by showing them the products again.

If they still do not complete a purchase, consider sending another email detailing a discount offer.

Tip 4: Stop Making Customers Create an Account

Give them the option of checking out as a guest instead of having to register on your site. Some people are reluctant to register on yet another website because they get so many promotional emails. You will still collect the information you need, and you will make the process easier for your customers at the same time. 

Tip 5: Reach Out in Person

Another good option is to reach out to your customers and ask them whether or not there is something that you can do to help. They might have abandoned their cart out of frustration because they had an invalid coupon code or because their card was not authorized.

Reaching out to them will help you solve potential issues and also improve customer experience.

Tip 6: Is There a Problem with the Funnel?

It is a good idea to monitor the different landing pages or product pages to see if any are underperforming. That will allow you to identify potential issues and rework pages so that they convert better.

Tip 7: Use Retargeting Tools

According to HubSpot, it can take as many as eight touchpoints to convince a customer to buy. Using retargeting tools makes sense as it increases the number of touchpoints. Retargeting is quite simple.

You place a pixel on the checkout page of your site. You will want to target those customers who did not complete their purchases. This pixel springs into action when they leave your site. They will start seeing ads related to the products that they added to their cart on other websites. That may be enough to get them to complete a purchase.

Tip 8: Make the Purchase Process as Easy as Possible

Take a leaf out of Amazon’s book here and reduce the number of steps necessary to complete the process. Keep in mind that each step creates a slight pause where the customer has a chance to reconsider the purchase.

Ideally, there should be three simple steps:

• Select the product.
• Add it to the cart.
• Checkout and pay.

Tip 9: Step Up Your Game Visually

The downside of ecommerce is that your customers cannot actually see the products that they want to buy. They have no way of assessing the quality except through the photos that you provide.

Make sure that:

• Your photos are of high quality. 
• You show many different angles of the product.
• You have pictures of people using the product.
• You add a video showing the product in action. 

Tip 10: Never Discount the Value of Social Proof

In the offline world, no advertising is better than a word of mouth recommendation. Online recommendations and other forms of social proof can be the difference between making a sale or not.

Here are some ways to add social proof:

·        Do follow up with customers who have purchased your product and ask them to review it. Display those reviews.

·        Consider adding an app such as Notify. Notify displays a quick message on the site when someone buys something. If 10 people have purchased an item in the last 10 minutes, it shows that the product is popular. Customers might feel that they will miss out if they do not buy anything.

Final Notes

When it comes to cart abandonment, being upfront can help establish the trust your customers need to complete a purchase. Starting a shop on established platforms like Shopify or Etsy gives credibility to your business and ensures that your customers’ payment information is being correctly handled. That forms the first element of trust. Now bring it home by using the tips we have covered above.