Cart abandonment: why 7 out of 10 customers leave at checkout, and how to recover them
The customer found the product, chose the variant and clicked «Add to cart». They have already done the hardest part. Then, one step away from payment, they close the page. Cart abandonment is the most expensive moment in the entire purchasing journey, because you lose someone who had already decided to buy, not a distracted visitor.
It is also the point where an e-commerce store has the greatest room for improvement with the least investment. Bringing in new visitors costs money, content and time. Convincing someone who has already reached the cart to complete the purchase often only requires removing the obstacles that stopped them. This article explains what those obstacles are, how to identify them in your store and how to recover customers who left.
How common is cart abandonment
The most frequently cited research on the subject is from the Baymard Institute, which collects dozens of independent studies and calculates an average: around 70% of shopping carts are abandoned before the order is completed. In other words, out of ten people who place a product in their cart, seven do not make it to payment. On smartphones, the percentage is even higher because completing forms and entering data on a small screen is more difficult.
Part of this abandonment is physiological. Many people use the cart as a wish list, to compare prices or to remember a product. No online store will ever reach zero. But between the 70% average and well-managed cart abandonment there is a difference that, over a year of sales, can be worth a great deal. An updated collection of data on the phenomenon is available in the cart abandonment statistics published by Shopify.
The real causes of cart abandonment
When customers are asked why they did not complete their purchase, the answers repeat themselves with surprising regularity. Excluding people who were simply browsing, the most frequent reasons are always the same:
- unexpected extra costs, such as shipping, fees or taxes: 40% in Baymard’s survey of US consumers, excluding those who were only browsing
- being required to create an account before being able to pay
- delivery times that are too long or unclear
- lack of trust in the website when entering card details
- long and complicated checkout, with too many fields and too many steps
- website errors or crashes: 17% in the same Baymard survey; this figure does not measure slow loading separately
The good news is that almost all of these causes depend on design choices, not on the product. And design choices can be changed: this is why cart abandonment is a problem addressed by working on the website rather than on the catalogue.
Surprise costs: the number one cause
The customer sees a product at a certain price, adds it to the cart expecting that amount and, at the final step, discovers unexpected shipping costs. Even when the amount is reasonable, the feeling is that they have been misled. It is the most common cause of cart abandonment, and the easiest one to prevent.
The rule is simple: no surprises. Shipping costs, or at least the threshold above which shipping becomes free, should already be shown on the product page and repeated in the cart. If there are fees for certain payment methods, they should be disclosed in advance. A customer who knows the total cost from the beginning may decide not to buy, but if they reach the payment stage, they do so knowing what they are paying and do not leave feeling frustrated.
Checkout that is too long and mandatory registration
Every additional field in a form is another opportunity to give up. Asking for a date of birth, a second phone number, a tax code when it is not needed, or forcing someone to choose a password before paying: these are all small sources of friction which, added together, result in lost sales.
To reduce cart abandonment, it is worth focusing on a few specific points:
- always allow guest checkout, suggesting account creation only after the order, when the customer is satisfied
- ask only for the data that is actually necessary for shipping and invoicing
- use address autofill and the correct input formats on mobile, such as a numeric keyboard for postal codes and phone numbers
- always show where the customer is in the process and how many steps remain
- keep the order summary visible, including products, quantities and total
The checkout is not the place to collect marketing data. It is the place where a sale is completed, and it should be designed to do so in as little time as possible.
Trust: why a customer hesitates before entering their card details
An unfamiliar online store has to earn trust within a few seconds. When the customer is about to enter their card details, anything out of place can make them hesitate: a slow website, neglected graphics, no visible contact details, or no clear information about returns and guarantees.
What really reassures customers at the payment stage:
- familiar payment methods, such as widely used cards, PayPal and smartphone payments, with recognisable logos
- clear return conditions that are easy to find and written in understandable language
- real contact details: a phone number, an address and an email that someone actually answers
- verifiable reviews from other customers
- a fast and well-maintained website in every detail, because attention to appearance is interpreted as attention to service
Speed deserves particular attention. A checkout that freezes or takes seconds to load not only causes frustration, but can also make customers suspect that something is wrong with the payment itself. We discuss this in our guide to Core Web Vitals, the metrics Google uses to measure the real user experience.
Cart abandonment on smartphones
Most online purchases now begin on a phone, and that is precisely where cart abandonment reaches its highest levels. A small screen amplifies every flaw: a button that is too small to tap with a thumb, a form that forces users to zoom in, or a window that covers the payment button.
A few improvements can make an enormous difference on mobile:
- fast payments using the phone’s digital wallet, avoiding the need to manually enter card and address details
- an always-accessible payment button, without having to search for it at the bottom of the page
- the order total always visible, even while entering details
- lightweight pages that load quickly even with an imperfect mobile connection
It is worth checking your own checkout directly on a mid-range smartphone, not only on the office computer: that is where most customers actually use it, and it is often where the cart abandonment shown in the data begins.
How to measure cart abandonment in your store
Before making changes, it is worth understanding exactly where customers are being lost, because cart abandonment never happens at just one point. The average figure tells you little: you need to know at which stage of your checkout people stop.
With a correctly configured analytics system, you can track the journey step by step: how many people add an item to the cart, how many reach the details page, how many reach the payment page, and how many complete the purchase. The point where the drop-off is greatest is the point to start from. If many people abandon on the shipping page, the problem is almost certainly the cost. If they abandon at payment, it is worth looking at available methods, trust and technical errors.
Error messages should also be checked: a field that rejects a valid phone number format, a postal code that is not recognised, or a discount code that returns an error without explaining why. These problems are invisible to the person managing the store and decisive for the person trying to buy.
Recovering customers who left: automated emails
Even with a perfect checkout, a certain amount of cart abandonment will remain, because some people will stop for reasons the website cannot control: a phone call, a distraction or a question that needs to be clarified. If the customer has already provided their email address, an automatic message sent a few hours later can bring them back.
A good recovery message has three characteristics. It arrives at the right time, usually within a few hours, while the memory is still fresh. It shows exactly what was left in the cart, with images and a direct link to resume the order. It addresses the likely concern instead of simply insisting: delivery times, return conditions or a contact for questions. A discount can help, but if it is used every time, customers learn to abandon their carts deliberately in order to receive it.
Automated recovery must, of course, be set up in compliance with privacy requirements: emails should only be sent to people who have provided their address under the conditions established by the applicable regulations.
What not to do
Some tactics that are widely used to reduce cart abandonment actually make the situation worse instead of better:
- fake countdown timers and false scarcity, which customers recognise and which undermine trust
- products automatically added to the cart, such as insurance or extra services that were not requested
- aggressive pop-ups that appear precisely when the customer is trying to leave
- unclear summaries that hide the total cost until the very last step
These are the same misleading practices we describe when talking about dark patterns: they may generate a few additional orders in the short term, but they cost customers and reputation in the long term.
Where to start
Reducing cart abandonment almost never requires rebuilding the entire store. It requires looking at the purchasing journey through the customer’s eyes, step by step, and removing every unnecessary obstacle. Try placing an order on your e-commerce store from your phone as if you were a customer who does not know you: every moment of hesitation is a moment when someone else may give up.
If you are evaluating the platform on which to build the store, we discuss it in our guide on how to choose the right e-commerce platform. If you already have an online store and want to understand where you are losing customers, request a free consultation: we analyse your checkout and tell you what to correct, in order of impact.
