Shopping Cart Abandonment

Top reasons for shopping cart abandonment: Hippo’s guide

You have taken great pains to create and run your online store. You have designed a beautiful store front and added a load of features like SEO ready content and social media integration as a part of your digital marketing strategy to drive visitors to your site. You feel your efforts have been rewarded as the visitor comes and select products for the shopping cart. But to your dismay you find that many customers abandon their shopping cart and leave without spending any money. You ‘google’ your mind wondering what could be the possible reasons for the same. After all, a high rate of shopping cart abandonment is a cause of concern.

In a conventional brick and mortar store you wouldn’t often see a customer walking in, selecting stuff and then leaving products and walking out of the store all of a sudden, unless there is some exceptional reason for such an action. The story is completely different for the online world. Some analysts feel that as many as 70% of online shopping carts are abandoned before a purchase is finalized.

Take a look at Hippo’s ready guide for the top reasons for shopping cart abandonment.

Difficult Checkout Process

If the consumer finds that the checkout process is difficult, he will simply leave the website at that point. Online users don’t want to waste time and effort on a complicated process when they have easier options on other websites. The checkout process should be easy and convenient; else you are just testing the patience of the user.

High Shipping Costs and long delivery time

Most of the people buy goods online because they wish to avail the dual benefit of discounts and getting the product delivery at their doorstep. High shipping costs and long time to deliver the products keeps away your customers. Some online sellers add the shipping costs after the customer has added the product to the cart. Your site should clearly display the shipping or any other related cost right in the beginning of the process; else you lose the confidence of the user. If they feel that the cost is ultimately too high as per the value of the product, they will simply abandon the cart.

Forced Registration

In order to create a database, e-commerce stores tend to make it compulsory for a user to register with them and create an account. This puts off many potential customers as they don’t wish to go through a lengthy process. While this information is undoubtedly useful but it acts like a double edged sword as forced registration adds to time involved to make a purchase. Sites which let visitors buy the product as a guest are likely to see a high rate of shopping cart abandonment.
 
Technical issues

If the users face technical problems with your website and find it difficult to navigate or face some technical and connectivity problems with their own device, they are likely to feel frustrated and give up.

Lack of Payment Options

At times the customers are forced to leave because the website doesn’t have the provisions for their preferred mode of payment. There are so many debit and credit card companies and the website has to cater to their particular/ preferred method of payment.

Security Issues

Many people are not very sure of finalizing their purchase from small, comparatively unknown websites. They are apprehensive of fraud and if they feel unsure, the users will halt their buying process.

Lack of Product Information

Some people are not sure of the product and wish to get a detailed insight about the product like the colour, looks, features and durability. If they feel that complete product information and reviews are not available, then they are likely to leave your site in order to find more information.

User was only making a comparison or a creating a wish list

Sometimes online buyers are actually adding items to a cart only to compare prices with respect to other sites. At times the users are only creating a wish list for future use.
 
Hippo’s solution for abandoned carts

StoreHippo, the new age m-commerce platform, helps the online retailers to manage and recover the abandoned carts to improve sales. The customer’s information is updated and the retailers can contact them in order to reduce the rate of abandonment and increase conversions.