For eCommerce sites, knowing why a customer abandons their shopping cart is at the top of their list. In what is typically the last step toward a conversion, the average shopping card abandon rate is approximately 65%; a staggering number in any business.
While the reasons for a a customer abandoning their cart after adding products to it ranges from user to user, the eCommerce best practices provides us with some of the more obvious reasons as to why this event occurs. Among the most common reasons are High Shipping Costs (44%), a customer not being ready to make the purchase (41%) and a high product price (25%)
In the following infographic, another important area highlighted are conversion optimization problems during the checkout process. The top 10 reasons for this in no particular order are:
- Insecure checkout
- Requiring unnecessary information
- Not displaying visitor’s progress in the checkout process
- Loosing customer input when a submission causes an error
- Not allowing for “Guest Checkout”
- Displaying website navigation during the checkout process
- Layout page design that conflicts with the eye flow
- Displaying discount code box late in the checkout
- Using cross-sells and up-sells during the checkout process
- Multiple calls to action buttons with the same design and in close proximity
![Click to enlarge infographic: Shopping Cart Abandonment Rate and Statistics Click to enlarge infographic: Shopping Cart Abandonment Rate and Statistics](https://yukaichou.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Shopping-Cart-Abandonment-Rate-and-Statistics-Enlarge.jpg)
In reviewing the infographic, some things to keep in mind are the following:
How does your site match up against the check-list of items?
Is your site falling behind in areas that are pointed out as common reasons for conversion problems? Use the infographic not only as an informative resource, but as a tool to improve your own website.
Are you optimizing?
As search engines are often the biggest driver of traffic and conversions, making sure that your website is search engine optimized is crucial for success. Ignoring SEO early on can have severe consequences long-term as it will become harder to improve the search engine readiness of your site as time passes.
In addition, making sure your site is optimized to lead to conversions is something that shouldn’t be ignored. This includes where ‘buy now’ buttons are as well as items like where to put newsletter sign-ups.
Is your site ready for the future of eCommerce?
Aside from search engines, social networks are starting to become relevant in regards to driving traffic to eCommerce sites and converting into sales. Whether you are starting a brand new eCommerce site or working with a pre-existing one, consider how your site will fair in the next 6 months, as well as the next 2 years. Are you ready for social integrations or is the current eCommerce platform you use limited in growth potential?
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What kind of statistics are you seeing in regards to customer drop-offs? How are you improving your shopping cart abandonment rate? Let us know in the comments below.