Abandonment is an e-commerce term used to describe a visitor to a web page who leaves that page before taking the desired action. Examples of abandonment include cart abandonment, which refers to visitors who add items to their cart, but leave the page without completing their purchase.

Any item that enters the cart but never goes through the transaction is considered “abandoned” by the buyer. A high rate could signal a bad user experience or a broken sales funnel.

When creating a website, it is important to put in place a strategy to be visible. This makes it possible to carry out in-depth analysis of the needs of the audience concerned in order to meet them and stand out. However, not all online stores face cart abandonment .

This is because consumers can come to your site without making a purchase. This situation is frustrating. You see user interest in your offer, but they decide not to buy. A strategy must therefore be put in place to increase your e-commerce sales and meet the needs of visitors to your site.

Table of Contents

• What are the reasons for a cart abandonment in E-commerce?
  • Figures to know so as not to dramatize this phenomenon
• What are the steps to reduce the abandoned cart rate?
  • 1. Necessary information highlighted
  • 2. Good customer service
  • 3. Improve the customer experience
  • 4. Gain user confidence
  • 5. The power of the visual
  • 6. Be subtle
  • 7. Regarding payments
  • 8. Exit intention strategy
  • 9. Identify the vanishing points of the sales journey
  • 10. Integrate call-to-action at strategic locations
  • 11. Integrate rarity and exclusivity into your offer
  • 12. Bet on sending emails
  • 13. Re-marketing
• Reassure your customers by inspiring confidence
  • Offer contact solutions to your customers
  • E-reputation: publish your customers’ opinions and provide a space for expression
  • Secure the purchasing process
  • Work on the content marketing of the E-commerce site

What are the reasons for a cart abandonment in E-commerce?

A cart abandonment occurs when a potential customer puts one or more products in their cart and does not finalize. This data is generally measured as a percentage.

According to a study carried out by the Baymard Institute, cart abandonments represent between 55% and 80%.

Figures to know so as not to dramatize this phenomenon

Many stores can experience cart abandonment. This is the reason why studies have been carried out to analyze this situation.

According to figures from the Statista website:

• surprise costs (not expected by consumers) such as delivery costs or taxes are the cause of 56% of abandonments.
• 37% of consumers abandon the cart because they were only browsing the site.
• 36% decide to leave a store without buying after having found less expensive elsewhere (at competitors or on second-hand sites).
• Complex browsing causes 25% of users not to buy.
• A long shopping process is the reason for 21% of cart abandonments.
• 17% don’t buy for security reasons

Other reasons can intervene in the decision making of customers such as payment methods, site errors or long page loading time.

To understand its reasons for your e-commerce, do not hesitate to analyze the attitude of consumers on your site.

What are the steps to reduce the abandoned cart rate?

1. Necessary information highlighted

In order to gain the trust of consumers through a store, develop a strategy and put forward reassurance information.

To reassure customers, have a valid SSL certificate. If not, a security message is displayed in the visitor’s browser.

Also highlight security logos to show that a purchase on your site can be done with peace of mind.

In addition, when faced with an e-commerce, customers must trust the visuals on your site. To reassure them and avoid cart abandonment, write a return policy and a refund policy.

Regarding returns, set clear and simple rules. Return Cloud claims that 66% of visitors buy more easily when there is a clear returns policy on the site.

To understand whether this aspect motivates sales on your store or not, do not hesitate to offer free returns for a limited time. After this test, compare the number with return costs and without. If there is an increase, try to reduce or eliminate the shipping cost in order to bring it down.

For refunds, provide a consumer guarantee.

If the prospect starts to think or hesitate, you won’t make the sale. With the mention “satisfied or reimbursed”, potential customers feel more secure. With the promise of a refund, you reduce the possible objections to your e-commerce.

The client must feel good and confident.

2. Good customer service

When faced with an e-commerce, consumers are often reluctant. They cannot touch the products, but above all they have no direct interlocutors. Highlight your customer service with points of contact. The prospect must feel that in the event of a problem he can count on a present and responsive team. If the after-sales service is qualitative, you gain the trust of Internet users.

In a physical store, if consumers have questions or doubts, they can turn to a salesperson. The decision is made based on the response.

In an e-commerce, in order to reduce cart abandonment, integrate this notion of direct support. This is possible thanks to the installation of a live box. The Oct8ne software is a great help in putting this approach into practice.

3. Improve the customer experience

In order to make users want to stay, navigation must be optimal. They need to have easy access to the information they want.

• Simplify access to important data; In view of the figure given by Statista (25% of cart abandonments are due to a complex site), work on this point to increase the conversions of your e-commerce. To make it easier for users to buy, limit the number of clicks. Make sure they can do it on your site with a maximum of 3 clicks:
  • Go to product
  • Add to cart
  • Order
• Optimize the act of purchase; The customer journey should be quick and easy. Eliminate all unnecessary pages and requests for irrelevant information.
• Importance of page load time; Visual Website Optimizer commented on the correlation between page load time and cart abandonment. Sales drop 7% for every second you wait to load. This means that the longer the load, the lower they are. Optimize all elements:
  • Image size
  • CSS and JavaScript
  • Using a CDN
  • Caching
• Keep shopping cart visible; The shopping cart should appear on all pages. Whatever page the user is on, he must be able to access the cart. To go further, offer customers to be able to save the selected products in the basket. Keep in mind that 84% of consumers make comparisons with other brands. If they leave your e-commerce, facilitate their return.
• Avoid creating an account; To improve the customer experience and reduce cart abandonment, do not force Internet users to create a customer account on your site. Beyond developing a sense of obligation, this step slows down the process. However, you need the data provided in a customer account. This is the reason why three options exist:
  • Present the creation of a customer account as optional (motivate the registration with advantages and discounts)
  • Ability to connect quickly with a social media or Gmail button: in one click, the user creates an account
  • Create an account automatically as soon as the potential customer enters their personal information (last name, first name, email)

4. Gain user confidence

he abandonments of the cart are generally explained by a reluctance of the prospect. Your goal is therefore to gain the user’s trust so that they can be at ease.

• The importance of social proof; Consumers do upstream research on the company’s reputation, product reviews, and comments left. This step reassures visitors to your site. Their purchase is not an isolated case. To prevent people from leaving your online store to access this information, make it available on your site directly on the product pages.
• How to motivate your customers to give their opinion?
  • Send a personalized email a few days after receiving the product
  • Motivate comments with discount codes or sending goodies
  • Allow evaluation easily on your e-commerce
  • Show reinsurance badges
• In order to gain the trust of Internet users, integrate reassurance badges on your main pages. These visuals will lower cart abandonment. Choose the one from Norton and McAfee Secure. Consumers will enter their bank details without being wary of your e-commerce.
• Highlighting points of contact; Before selling a product on your site, people probably have questions. Even though the answers can be found online, they often need to be in contact with someone to be reassured. The LiveChat tool gives you the option of having a live chat. You can also create a contact page (phone, email, head office address).

5. The power of the visual

To increase sales and conversion, put yourself in the prospect’s shoes. The only way for him to know your products is to look at your photos. Make sure they are qualitative:

• Add multiple photos with different angles
• Use high resolution
• Include photos that tell a story
• If possible, post videos

If the pages are of high quality, the contents will be able to attract shares and generate new visits.

6. Be subtle

Pages with commercial rhetoric scare consumers away. Use your skills to solve the problem encountered.

To reduce cart abandonment, it is imperative that they feel that you understand their situation and that your offer will improve their life or daily life.

In order to ensure the success of your online store, an order must not incur unforeseen costs . If so, the first reaction will be to leave your site.

To reduce the price shock, inform the customer of all charges up front. When arriving at the payments page, the customer should be able to understand the total price.

Shipping costs can hamper a sale. To reduce the impact of this cost, offer free shipping. To offset this cost, slightly increase the price of your products.

7. Regarding payments

According to a study, comScore indicates that 56% of consumers want choice about payment options.

Here are the payment methods preferred by customers:

• Visa
• MasterCard
• American Express
• Paypal

To decrease cart abandonment, don’t forget to consider mobile. Payment should be made easily, regardless of the medium used by visitors.

In addition, depending on the location of your audience, adapt the payment methods. For example, Portugal, Switzerland and even England have cultural payments (bank transfer, payment by invoice to the Post Office, etc.).

8. Exit intention strategy

Your offer is probably available on other websites. Users now have the reflex to compare the different products available. In order to increase the sales of your online business, have an exit intention strategy.

So, as soon as the potential customer shows the wish to leave your site, offer them added value:

• A discount code
• Possibility of participating in a competition
• Free delivery offer
• Download free content

The message can be displayed as a pop-up or a banner. Be careful though that this window is not aggressive. She could scare away.

9. Identify the vanishing points of the sales journey

If you see a high percentage of cart abandonment, an analysis of your online business is necessary.

To do this, Google Analytics is a good starting point. This free tool gives you all the information about the behavior of visitors to your site. Don’t make assumptions, rely on numbers and factual data to make the necessary changes.

To identify the pages to modify, identify the exit pages of your site. They correspond to the last pages visited before leaving your e-commerce.

10. Integrate call-to-action at strategic locations

To increase your digital presence and the loyalty of customers, the payment page is a strategic location. Indeed, it is not because the purchase is about to be concluded that the marketing actions stop. On the contrary, the goal is for the prospect to become a regular customer.

However, don’t change the tone of your communication.

During the checkout process, write clear CTAs. Avoid evasive formulas. In order for the visitor to be sure of his choice, you must be transparent with precise messages.

11. Integrate rarity and exclusivity into your offer

If you’re a victim of a lot of cart abandonments, take a look at your approach and your strategy. On your sales pages, create urgency to motivate the sale. Subtly tell Internet users how rare your offer is.

You can do this through several practices:

• View available stock
• Show the number of people interested in the product concerned
• Highlight the promotion timer

12. Bet on sending emails

Despite all these techniques, some customers may continue to abandon the cart without proceeding to payment. It doesn’t mean they are lost customers. If they have left a point of contact or if an account has been created, please do not hesitate to contact them by asking if they are still interested.

With this technique, be sure to be friendly without being intrusive:

• Think about an eye-catching object
• Highlight the advantages of selected products
• Offer a promotional code

13. Re-marketing

Cart abandonment rates can be reduced, but difficult to avoid. Faced with these profiles, do not give up. You can set up remarketing ads on Google Ads to remind them of your existence. For example, after doing a Google search for a fridge, you will see the fridge absolutely everywhere.

By using user cookies, it is possible to track these people who have not purchased on your e-commerce site. You can set up this practice on Google, Instagram or Facebook. If you want to take this approach, make captivating and dynamic ads. Otherwise, customers can develop some frustration with your online store.

Reassure your customers by inspiring confidence

On the internet more than elsewhere, if the customer does not trust, he does not buy. Know this, one of the first fears of consumers on the web is to be the victim of a scam. If he does not know who is behind the merchant site he is viewing, he will not take action.

He must therefore be sure that he can contact someone at any time, before, during and after the sale.

Offer contact solutions to your customers

On the homepage or on the contact page of your site, remember to clearly show:

• An easy to use contact form.
• The customer service phone number.
• The address of your eshop headquarters.

You can also install a chatbot solution to provide basic 24-hour support. You can also upload a very comprehensive FAQ, where your customers can easily find all the answers to their questions.

Finally, if you publish articles on your e-commerce site, consider promoting your blog on social networks. This will boost traffic and increase awareness of your brand among consumers. Being active on social media and having a community there is important to ensuring the success of your online shopping site.

E-reputation: publish your customers’ opinions and provide a space for expression

According to an IFOP survey, 88% of Internet users consult consumers’ opinions before buying. So posting your customers’ comments on your ecommerce can reassure future buyers about the quality of your products or services.

Working on the online reputation of an E-commerce site will have a positive impact on its image and on sales.

Additionally, many consumers enjoy seeing their comments posted and shared. Apps like Trustpilot can allow you to view your customers’ ratings and reviews. Publish absolutely all comments, whether negative or positive, because Internet users are very sensitive to the transparency and honesty of merchant sites. A site with 100% 5 * votes will not inspire more confidence than a 4 * site with a few mixed reviews.

Remember that a negative opinion is not necessarily a handicap. If you answer them quickly and with pedagogy, you can on the contrary reassure consumers even more. This will help them see how you react to a problem. Respond to every negative feedback in a personalized way and offer a solution to the disgruntled buyer. It proves your professionalism.

Secure the purchasing process

On an online store, finalizing a purchase can generate stress for the buyer, if he does not feel that the transaction is completely secure. Throughout the purchasing process, the customer must therefore be supported and reassured.

He must be able to access his basket at any time to consult the summary of his purchases, easily add or delete an item and know the price of his order.

The following information must absolutely appear clearly on the shopping cart page:

• The designation of the articles.
• The exact amount of the basket.
• Delivery fees.
• The total amount to pay.

You must also indicate the delivery times and the means of payment available.

Work on the content marketing of the E-commerce site

Creating content that accompanies future customers throughout their journey allows them to be captured as soon as possible. By offering quality content that helps them, the bond begins to build before the purchase.

You can work on the content marketing of an E-commerce site with a multitude of content:

• explanatory and test videos
• product comparisons
• manuals
• After-sales service sheets

Thanks to strong growth, the e-commerce sector offers many opportunities to entrepreneurs. However, it is important to think carefully about your strategy so as not to miss the launch of your online store site. Now it’s up to you to create your online store, by finding the right concept that will allow you to make the difference!