Abandoned carts: why they happen and what to do
Most people who add something to their cart leave without paying. That's normal, but you can fix some of the reasons.
Seven or eight in every ten people who add something to their cart leave without paying. It sounds alarming at first, but that's the industry average. Some people are only checking prices and others plan to come back later.
Even so, part of that rate comes straight from your checkout, and you can fix it.
The biggest cause is unexpected cost
The customer adds something priced at 400, and at the payment step shipping and fees take it to 465. That surprise is the number one reason carts get abandoned.
Show the shipping cost on the product page. If you offer free shipping above a certain amount, say so in the cart, for example "add 32 more for free shipping". That cuts abandonment and raises the basket value at the same time.
Forcing registration
Asking someone who only wants to buy once to create an account is the easiest way to lose them.
Always offer guest checkout. Suggest an account after the order is complete, with something like "set a password to track your order". You still get the account and you don't lose the sale.
Long forms
Count the fields in your checkout. If there are more than fifteen, it's too long.
Remove every field you don't need. Date of birth, gender and "how did you hear about us" have no place at the payment step. Fill in the city and district automatically from the postcode.
Lack of trust
People hesitate before typing in card details. Your payment page should show the SSL padlock, the logos of the cards you accept, a one-line summary of your returns policy and a phone number.
Nobody wants to enter card details on a site with no contact information. A phone number reassures people even if they never call it.
A broken flow on mobile
Go through your whole checkout on your own phone. Does the number keypad open when you tap the card number field? Are the buttons easy to hit with a finger? Does the page jump around?
Most orders come from phones, but testing usually happens on a desktop. Every problem you miss on mobile costs you sales.
Cart recovery emails
Both Shopify and WooCommerce can do this. If someone leaves items in their cart after giving their email address, they get an automatic reminder.
Send the first email after 1 hour, as a simple reminder. Send the second after 24 hours with a photo of the product and a question like "did something go wrong?". Send the third after 72 hours, with a small discount if you want.
Don't send more than three. After the fourth email, the sale you might win back isn't worth the customer you annoy.
Measure first
Don't start fixing things before you know which step loses people. Set up a checkout funnel in Analytics with cart, details, shipping and payment as the steps. Start with the step where the biggest drop happens.