Problems with the checkout process constitute the single biggest loss of revenue for many e-commerce sites, with almost half of online retail transactions abandoned at this stage.
According to figures from Marketing Sherpa, the average abandonment rate for shopping carts is 60%, of which 12% give up before hitting the checkout. This means 48% of potential customers bail out at the checkout stage.
There are big variations, with abandonment rates ranging from as low as 15% to as high as 90%. This suggests that there is much room for improvement for etailers.
The chart above shows the results of two surveys, and gives an idea of the variety of reasons for customers leaving the checkout process.
Some reasons may be omitted from these answers, such as customers' level of trust in a website, but the data suggests some important conclusions:
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Many e-commerce checkouts are suffering from design problems which can be easily rectified.
These include hidden charges, lack of clear delivery details, or poor usability. -
Business processes within the checkout area give customers problems
User registration, shipping costs that customers consider too high, or overlong checkout processes. -
Some carts are abandoned for reasons beyond the control of the retailer.
Some people will add items to their basket and reach the checkout when comparison shopping, with no intention of buying.
These conclusions suggest that there is much that online retailers can do to reduce their abandonment rates. Case studies suggest a 10-15% reduction can be achieved through redesign, split-testing or a combination of the two.
For more, see our Online Retail 2007: Checkout Special by Dr Mike Baxter, which examines checkout best practice.
Reader comments (18)
5:25PM on 5th July 2007
I've been looking at this very issue lately on a few ecommerce sites. Turns out that one reason that one particular online retailer was suffering from people abandoning the carts was because they always asked for a coupon code. People then went to find a coupon code for money off their order and weren't returning.
5:36PM on 11th July 2007
ScanAlert just published a research report which talks about this issue. Cart abandonment is not nearly as important as site abandonment.
Shoppers are now taking on average 34 hours and 19 minutes from the time they first visit an ecommerce site to when they finally make a purchase, according to an analysis of 2.6 million online sales. The delay is now more than half a day (80%) longer than the 19 hour 11 min average we reported in 2005. The new report, Digital Window Shopping: The Long Delay Before Buying, is available at www.scanalert.com/windowshopping2007
2:02PM on 19th July 2007
Has anyone any abandondment rates in relation to complaints, comments & compliments?
Charlie Quebec Ltd
5:17PM on 22nd July 2007
I agree that it is important to work out why customers genuinely abandon their shopping carts. However, it cannot be assumed that every time users leave a shopping basket unchecked out, that they are abandoning it forever. Online, users can rehearse their shopping behavior.
It is not uncommon for users to fill and then abandon their baskets up to 5 times before finally purchasing. They can add and remove different items from their basket. They can rehearse spending the money (this is especially true with large ticket items), before they actually spend it. Therefore a large percentage of shopping cart abandonment is not abandonment at all, it is rehearsal and as such should be encouraged.
2:42PM on 28th July 2007
My complaint isn't in the rankings: I find many vendors do not quote their products' price anywhere else in their site. In fact, they're deliberately cagey. So I click on "buy now," get the shocking news I sort of expected, and then cancel.
8:12PM on 28th July 2007
Great tips. I have a lot of people that fill up there shopping cart, and don't buy. If 1/3 of those customaries bought something I would be way better off. Helpful article thanks..
3:12AM on 7th August 2007
I agree with Steve....PLEASE clearly post the price of the item so we aren't forced to go through the checkout to find out what it is!!!!
12:01PM on 29th November 2007
great stat! It is so funny that many websites require registration for purchase. And then they create an email database from these registrations and send emails. And only 1-2 % of emails max convert... So, they sacrifice 31% for 1-2%! You can call me skeptical about email marketing but that is my impression.
Editor at Econsultancy
9:36AM on 4th April 2008
Hi Philip, I think the point here is that retailers will get customers' address and other details when they checkout, so asking them to register before this point is unnecessary.
I've had a look at Webtogs' process, and customers only have to enter their details once they have decided to checkout, so I don't see a problem there.
12:29PM on 1st September 2008
Great tips. I have a lot of people that fill up there shopping cart, and don't buy. If more than one third of those customaries bought something I would be way better off. I am looking into the specific point of abandonment now,this will be based on 4 criterions//I will be sharing this soon..Thanks for the article.
11:16PM on 27th January 2009
Anything over 30 pounds, unless bulky should be sent FOC.
8:44PM on 28th February 2009
I been wondering for months why some of my cart shoppers leave my site. This is the first time it's been laid out in a chart. Thank you so much for this article, its helped me tremendously!!!
4:14PM on 30th March 2009
Great tips for etailers here!
11:55AM on 20th May 2009
Good article. even my webiste faced problems while checkout. when we under went a survey people said google checkout is very easy way to pay once registered.
4:35AM on 7th April 2010
Thank you so much for this - I will definitely be updating our shopping cart. Thinking about changing some wording from 'coupon code' to 'gift certificate' to imply that they would already have said discount code and not leave to look for one.
10:23AM on 13th May 2010
Hi there,
I wondered weather anybody had problems, with different payment types, like paypal and the normal checkout procedure! With our website we take all card payments but in the non-paypal checkout we only take credit cards? I think this is a problem and I am looking into changing it.
The other aspect I was thinking, was there research done about the abandoment rates increasing because the checkout goes to a seperate URL and does not stay inside of the website?
12:12PM on 19th May 2010
The other aspect I was thinking, was there research done about the abandoment rates increasing because the checkout goes to a seperate URL and does not stay inside of the website?
8:24AM on 6th July 2011
Great post from an expert and it will be a great knowledge to us and thank you very much for sharing this valuable information with us.
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