Shopping cart abandonment occurs when a visitor exits the web site by going through the checkout process without buying. Shopping cart abandonment suggests a loss of orders resulting to a loss to your business. A higher shopping cart abandonment rate indicated a lower conversion rate suggesting that you will have to work harder to reach your targets.

Reasons for "shopping cart abandonment"

Many e-commerce sites are facing the problem of shopping cart abandonment. Industry research report by Marketing Sherpa data in 2006 revealed that the average e-commerce shopping cart abandonment rate is as high as has 59.8%.

The major reasons by shopping cart abandonment are:

§ Force the customers to account registration before purchase process.

§ Comparison-shopping done by customers.

§ Complicated checkout process and uncomfortable buying process.

§ Customers do not want to pay shipping costs which makes the total cost more than expected.

§ Lengthy checkout process.

§ Asking to provide a lot of personal information.

§ Not providing total costs including shipping costs till the customer go through the entire checkout process.

Simple changes in page design can yield a significant increase on conversion. Though the above faults may not be the only reasons for shopping cart abandonment, resolving them will improve chances of a buyer making an online purchase.

Buyers have a habit of adding products to their online carts which they may want to purchase later, much like marking a page in a shopping catalog for later reference.

On the flip side, abandoned carts are more than just lost sales; they also are a customer database of what each buyer wants to purchase from your website.

A few strategies to keep shopping cart abandonment low

§ Shorter checkout process leads to greater conversion rates.

§ Progress indicator on each checkout page makes customers to know where they are in the buying process.

§ Add a link back to the product with a thumbnail image.

§ Clearly mention shipping costs and total costs at the earliest in the buying process to the customers.

§ Provide your full address information during the checkout process to let the customers know that you really exist.

§ Provide information on whether the item is available or not and also the expected shipping time.

§ Error messages occurring while filling out a form must be comprehensible making buyers aware of the mistake.

§ Display a third party verification seal with security certifications makes the customers to trust that their personal information is secured.

§ Add a visible "Next Step" or "Continue With Checkout" button on every page.



Marvist is an Professional search engine optimizationfirm providing Affordable SEO, pay per click management and web analytic services to help companies to increase online sales and improve their profitability. Marvist was founded in 2005 and has been rapidly growing since then and has clients now in 11 countries including USA, Canada, UK, Spain, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.