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Last updated on
April 25, 2024
Cart abandonment is the biggest nightmare for an online store.
Think about it.
You work hard towards creating an exceptional buying experience for the consumer at every part of their journey. You advertise, assist, and see your customers add items to the bag, but at the end of it, they change their minds and discontinue their purchase.
The practice is more common than you think. According to research, a good 68.7% of carts are abandoned. That’s saying goodbye to prospective revenue and seeing all the marketing efforts go down the drain.
Shopify cart abandonment is when a customer who’s shopping on a Shopify store adds items to the cart but leaves the website before making the purchase. Imagine walking through a brick-and-mortar store while you browse through the products without a strong buying intent. You check the price, change your mind, and move on to the next store.
The user can have the same experience online. The point is cart abandonment is inevitable. But the goal is to keep the cart abandonment rate as low as possible.
Here’s the formula to calculate the cart abandonment rate:
[1 - [Completed Transactions / Total Shopping Carts Created]] * 100
Listed are some of the Cart abandonment statistics you should know:
To control the cart abandonment rate, you first need to know why it’s happening in the first place. Some of the top reasons for abandonment are.
This should come as no surprise. Customers see one price in the products they want to purchase, and when they check out, they see the price dramatically shoot up with additional shipping costs and taxes. It becomes a big turn-off for customers since most abandon finding cheaper options, or even buy the identical product from a physical store.
Imagine this: A user sees your ad on Facebook and decides to check out the product. They click on it, check out the product in detail, and even add them to a cart. But while proceeding to make payment, they’re asked to sign-up first.
And your customer just thinks, “never mind, I’ll just buy this from XYZ brand.”. Most times, the buying process is not as frictionless as the customer wants. Not everyone wants to sign up and give out personal information on the first go.
eCommerce stores consider delivery time a significant competitive advantage. Since many online Shopify stores offer same-day or next-day delivery, customer expectations are off the charts.
Why would they wait for two weeks when they can get the same product delivered faster from a different site?
If the delivery time is too long, customers will likely abandon the cart.
Online shopping looks appealing until customers are asked for their credit card details or personal information at checkout.
With an increasing number of cyber-attacks and identity theft frauds, many users are rightfully hesitant to give out their details regardless of how good of an experience they had on their site. They can quickly change their minds due to a lack of trust and abandon their cart.
Many customers abandon their carts because of a slow checkout process. Either the site isn’t loading faster, there are numerous steps in the process, or they don’t provide sufficient payment options.
If, in any way, the continuity is hampered in the payment process, likely, the customer won’t go through with the payment process.
Now that you know why shopping carts get abandoned, let’s check out some of the methods you can implement to reduce the Shopify cart abandonment rate.
Sending cart abandonment emails is the most impactful recovery technique. The emails can have a coupon code to encourage buyers to finish the transaction, or it can be just a simple reminder about the same. Just keep the following things in mind:
The subject matter will only be your second opportunity to retarget. The first would be the aesthetic appeal of the emails. Leverage cart abandonment email templates to retarget lost customers.
A generalized email doesn’t work anymore, especially if you’re sending a targeted email for cart abandonment. Personalize the subject matter and subject line with the name, add their purchase history, etc.
Subject matters need to be brief but highly compelling. You can add humor and wit, but you need to fulfill your purpose of retargeting.
A/B testing is a must-have for the Shopify campaign. Through Email AB testing, you’ll understand what works best and what customers want to read.
Email automation tools help you schedule and automate email campaigns so you can target customers at scale.
Data helps your guesses turn into actual problems. You can extract data on the date and time of abandonment, items abandoned, amount abandoned, etc. It will show you help you identify patterns in cart abandonment and give you ideas for coming up with a solution.
High shipping costs are one of the biggest reasons for cart abandonment. Research suggests that 82% of customers expect free shipping. Free shipping is a costly affair. We get it. But the least you can do is lower the costs. There are numerous free shipping options available, and it takes no time for customers to switch.
Sometimes shipping costs are not in your hand. But providing discounts and rewards is. Discount codes and coupons at checkout urge the customer to complete the transaction. To fully utilize the power of coupons, target those customers who already have items in their carts or have recently abandoned them.
Customers look for proactive conversations. And in case they hesitate, you need to have a proactive chat that reminds them to seek assistance and complete the purchase.
A live chat customer support solution on the checkout page can be that final push. A lot of online Shopify stores are already using it and leveraging conversational marketing to close sales.
Limited payment options will frustrate customers who don’t use them. You have to ensure they have the method they already use. You need to give out options. Shopify payments allow you to integrate numerous payment methods like Apple Pay, Google Pay, credit cards, Stripe, FB Pay, etc.
Be it on Shopify or Shopify Alternatives, too many checkout pages or forms can hamper the continuity of the payment and buying process. Instead, ensure minimum friction and create large checkout buttons that show customers that they can complete the purchase with fewer clicks.
Myntra, one of India’s largest eCommerce players, has one of the fastest and convenient checkout processes. You can jump to the checkout page in two clicks and the page loads within no time as well. Myntra also offers customers to add more items from the wishlist to the cart from the checkout page itself.
If we go back to the reasons why carts are abandoned in the first place, you would know that creating an account is one of the biggest turnoffs for customers while completing their purchase.
Customers can have their reasons for not creating an account, but that doesn’t mean you have to lose a sale for this reason. Provide guest checkout, where customers can make payments without creating an account.
For example, Adidas makes the checkout convenient through a single-page checkout for guest users. The form is simple, short, and self-contained. And even without registration, it offers visitors to check online orders by using the order tracker.
There are exit-intent popups designed especially if the user intends to exit before finalizing the purchase.
However, with exit-intent popups, you must be very careful with the timing. If someone is still completing the purchase and hasn’t abandoned their cart, you don’t want to display an exit-intent popup for cart abandonment.
For example, J.Crew offered a direct customized discount as an exit-intent popup where it offered a 15% discount to website visitors.
Email is just one of the many channels through which you can send push notifications. You can retarget ads via chatbots, SMS, WhatsApp, and Facebook messenger, and remind customers about the items staying idle in their Shopify cart.
With the ample help of email automation tools and templates, creating a cart abandonment email has become convenient. Check out some of the top Shopify stores that got it right.
Creating a sense of urgency is one of the many ways you can retarget and send reminder emails to customers. The fear of missing out is a conventional but useful marketing tactic.
What works here?
The email does a good job of showing that the products are in high demand. Apart from that, it has also provided customer contact information along with availability hours. Even though the design is simple, it’s sleek and works for the message.
A good email copy is the primary ingredient of a successful email. And that’s what Doggyloot achieved with its cart abandonment email.
What works here?
Doggyloot leveraged its store persona to capture the attention of readers. And to be honest, who doesn’t like to see a cute picture of a doggy? The email further shows the items sitting idle in the cart, a link to the cart with compelling copies like “lots of licks” or “don’t disappoint your dog.
92% of people read online reviews before buying a product. It shows that social proof works to encourage purchases. So that’s what Brooklinen did.
What works here?
The brand showcases multiple five-star reviews along with texts. It also included a discount in the beginning and provided support information.
Coupons are great. But you need to ace the time of when actually to provide it. Most companies generally use it as a last resort to keep the integrity intact.
What works here?
The fact that Lime Crime used discount as the last resort as it sent this as the third cart abandonment email. The copy and CTA and the aesthetic appeal of the email, and free shipping above $50 all add to the things done right by this brand.
A cart abandonment email needs to have a distinguishable quality of making it difficult for the reader to walk away.
What works here?
First, Target offers a discount on the cart items. Even if the user doesn’t proceed with that particular purchase, it shows complementary products that the user might be interested in and encourages them to shop.
Interesting copies and highlighting the product. That’s what Adidas did in its cart abandonment email.
What works here?
The H1 copy certainly captures attention, and the story follows is a good read. The design is sleek, and it also highlights user-generated content and reviews that work well.
Only Curls does it both in this cart abandonment email - it reminds the consumer about the items in the cart. It recommends other products that the consumer might be interested in.
What works here?
The email copy and customer review in prominant letters at the end highlight why customers should make their purchases.
Sometimes simple and straightforwardness works best if you get it right. It’s what Huckberry did in its email.
What works here?
The brand has created a sense of urgency while subtly mentioning that the products may not be available when deciding to make a purchase.
Since free shipping is what most online shoppers look for, Peel highlighted this offering in its cart abandonment email.
What works here?
The format is ideal for a cart abandonment email. They are also encouraging users to add more items to get free shipping.
Compelling copywriting can work wonders for email marketing. In the following cart abandonment email by Whiskey Loot, the copywriting entices users to finish their purchase.
What works here?
The email is highly informative. It clears all the second thoughts a customer may have before making a decision to buy the product.
No Shopify store wants to experience a dwindle in sales and revenue because of cart abandonment. It’s frustrating and demotivating. However, with cart abandonment emails, you can significantly reduce the cart abandonment rate and expect a boost in online sales.
A voracious reader and a music lover, Ammar has been writing engaging and informative content for over 3 years for B2B and B2C markets. With a knack for writing SEO-optimized content, Ammar ensures the results speak for themselves.
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