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Why Shoppers Abandon Your Site and How to Get Them Back

August 10, 2016

Selling online is no easy task. Think about how much effort, time, and money goes into getting potential customers onto your site. When they finally arrive they browse your products, add a few things to their cart, and start the checkout process. Everything seems to be going great!

But then for some reason or another, about 71% of those shoppers abandon their cart without completing their purchase. This means for every $3,000 you do make, there’s another $7,000 out there that’s disappearing in abandoned carts, just waiting to be recovered. Who are these shoppers? Why do they desert their shopping carts? And what can you do to get them back?

Infographic by KissMetrics

 

The Deserters

You might be asking yourself, is cart abandonment really that big of a deal? 1 in 4 online retailers have noticed a higher cart abandonment rate than in previous years. This really is a growing problem. Another big question is, who abandons carts anyway? The answer is: most people! 88% of consumers have completely abandoned an online shopping cart without completing their transaction. This is often because your customers are researching multiple sites for the best deal. In fact, 84% of visitors who abandon shopping carts are more likely to shop around. 24% add items to their cart to save for later consideration, so it’s vital to make a game plan to win those customers back.

Top Reasons Why People Leave Their Shopping Carts

There are countless reasons why shoppers abandon their carts, from their lunch break ending to getting interrupted with a phone call. It’s impossible to plan for every scenario, so let’s focus on the 4 main reasons people browse and desert: 44% abandon due to shipping and handling costs, 41% aren’t ready to purchase the product, 27% want to compare prices on other sites, and 25% feel the item is too expensive.

How to Get the Shoppers to Return

Optimizing your checkout process can help prevent some abandonments from happening in the first place. Show delivery and payment options throughout the entire checkout process or offer free shipping so customers aren’t scared away by surprise fees. Prevent frustration by displaying contact information for your support team and allow speedy guest check out. Set up a safe and secure checkout so your customers don’t shy away out of lack of confidence in your system. And if all else fails, provide options for saving cart contents, just in case shoppers really must step away from the checkout process for a bit.

Even with a perfectly optimized checkout process, you’ll still have some deserters. That’s where CartStack comes in to save the day! Recovering abandoned carts is easy and automatic with CartStack. We bring customers back to your site by monitoring when they abandon their shopping carts, and sending them real-time, conversion-focused emails to entice shoppers back to your site to complete their purchase.

If you’re already using CartStack, sign up for a our referral program and tell your friends about it. If you haven’t tried CartStack yet, sign up for a free trial here.