8 Reasons Why Your Visitors Abandon Shopping Carts

Recent statistics show that, on average, 69.57% of carts get abandoned on E-commerce websites.

There can be several reasons why potential customers decide not to complete their online orders and go through with their purchases. Even if you design a good website with stunning product images and a stellar UX, your ideal visitors might not make it to the end line.

I am here to shed light on some of the most common reasons why customers abandon shopping carts and how you can fix this problem.

Lengthy Checkout Process

Online buyers look for simplicity and convenience. Unnecessarily long and complicated checkout processes force them to abandon their shopping cart.

Research suggests that the average checkout process has increased in length from 5.1 steps in 2012, 5.42 steps in 2016, to 5.1 steps in 2019. The entire checkout flow contains 23.48 form elements and 14.88 form fields, where it should have no more than 7 form fields and 12 form elements.

Keep the checkout process clear and short.

Use a single “Full name” field instead of “First Name”, “Middle Name”, and “Last name” fields. Also, set the “Billing Address same as Shipping Address” by default to hide the additional “Address” fields that can confuse the users.

You need to go beyond the checkout page and optimize the entire purchase checkout experience. Your website should never compromise on buyer experience and convenience. This means keeping the process clear and simple from the product pages to the final “Buy Now” button while ensuring that your brand’s image remains consistent.

Hidden Costs

Reports suggest that 55% of buyers do not complete their purchase due to hidden extra costs that they find out just when they are about to checkout. This includes unexpected shipping costs, taxes, processing fees, or automatic cross-selling.

The most common unexpected cost that results in an online shopping cart abandonment is the shipping cost. To solve this problem, you can either offer free shipping or integrate a shipping calculator on the product details page to inform customers of a product’s estimated price after shipping.

Be transparent about sales taxes and processing fees at the start of the checkout process. Include a disclaimer on your product pages that the prices are not inclusive of shipping costs or taxes and that they’ll be calculated at the checkout.

Compulsory User Account Registration

Don’t compel your first-time buyers to register an account on your website just to buy from you. Also, give them the option to make a quick single-time purchase, and you might just be able to impress them enough to create that account when they come back to buy more.

Online shoppers do not feel comfortable offering their personal information or filling out lengthy forms, causing them to bounce from your online store.

By not allowing them to buy your products as a guest visitor, you risk decreased conversion rates and a high cart abandonment rate. Look into a one-step registration process with added benefits such as bonuses or discounts to encourage them to create an account.

Or you can provide them with the option to “Continue as Guest” and complete their checkout process without any hindrances. This allows you to still collect important data on your customers, including their name, address, and email, without overwhelming them.

Undue Distractions

It is important to optimize your online store for fewer distractions, including no intrusive headers or ad banners at the checkout page. It distracts the prospective customer while moving through the checkout process, but it can come off as spam affecting the customers’ trust in your brand.

Thus, your online store’s checkout page must be optimized to display the must-have links or return policies in a clear way.

To assure your customer’s 100% concentration, keep promotional ads and affiliate offers for your homepage or emails.

Display accurate information on the product page to limit distractions that come with a variety of choices. Set up price-match policies or create urgency for your product through countdowns so that your customers do not go looking for more economical deals elsewhere.

Security Concerns

Over 35% of buyers don’t complete the checkout process because they fear the safety of their credit card info.

After all, credit card theft and data fraud are rampant and a very real possibility. You must do everything in your power to inspire trust and a sense of security in your prospective buyers.

For starters, you need to ensure that you are Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards compliant. Also, see that your site has SSL encryption to ensure that your customers’ sensitive information is protected. Also, make sure that the padlock icon displays in the address bar.

Fewer Payment Options

Did you know that 6% of online shoppers abandon their shopping carts due to the lack of payment options? So, you need to make sure that your online store offers credible payment options and those that your target audience prefers.

These payment options include credit/debit or prepaid cards, e-wallets including PayPal or Amazon Pay, and even cryptocurrencies. It is important to note that each payment option comes with certain costs that include transaction monitoring or customer support.

Moreover, it would help if you kept an eye out for the latest E-commerce payment trends, such as the rising trend of e-wallets, to remain on top of your customer demands.

Slow Page Loading

40% of customers tend to abandon a website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load.

Your visitors might not be patient enough to wait for the payment to process, making it imperative for you to check if the checkout process is too lengthy. With a one second delay in page response decreasing conversions by 7%, a slow-loading website can significantly hamper your website performance.

To avoid this issue, you need to optimize your website and monitor the website’s load times.

Lack Of Customer Service

Another major reason your customers might jump ship is that they can’t find quick answers to their queries. To ensure the best customer support practices, you need to offer all important information such as shipping and return policies, privacy policies, and FAQs on your site.

Also, allow them to contact you by offering email, chat, and phone details somewhere on the site where they can easily locate it.

In A Nutshell

There are several reasons why shoppers tend to abandon their carts, and you need to fix all of them to ensure the best possible user experience for your buyers. Ensure that your online store is optimized to offer a seamless shopping experience so there won’t be a reason for them to leave without buying.

Keep track of important customer data and insights to remain in tune with your store’s cart abandonment rate. Once you have taken care of that, start retargeting your customers who abandoned their carts.