10 Key Strategies To Avoid Cart Abandonment

Cart abandonment is the number one pain point for every ecommerce site of any kind, with the average documented cart abandonment rate at 69.57%.

- Derek Cikes

“It’s every online store owner’s mission to get below that average baseline and increase sales,” says Derek Cikes, Commercial Director at Payflex.

Cikes identifies the following top ten reasons for online shopper cart abandonment so that you as a merchant can address the issues head-on and get those carts through checkout:

REASON #1: Extra costs too high (shipping, tax, fees)

53% of online shoppers say they abandon their cart because they’re faced with extra costs at checkout that they did not budget for. International shipping fees can be exorbitant, and some payment gateways have fees attached to them.

What can you do about it?

Try to lock down the best shipping rates available. There are many shipping forwarders who can secure the best rates from global courier companies and do the negotiating for you. Securing lower shipping costs and easy customs clearance will save your customer money and alleviate your own custom logistics woes. Check out Stream Logistics as an example of a shipping forwarder who tackle shipping rates for South African e-commerce businesses.

On the topic of payment gateway fees, the simple solution is to have payment solutions that don’t have any fees. These do exist and it’s a no brainer to include them at checkout. It’s a must have if you want to create a frictionless checkout experience.

REASON #2: The site wanted me to create an account

31% of online shoppers said they abandoned their carts because the site wanted them to create an account. You can understand this – having so many accounts can be daunting for any online shopper and convincing them to make your store one of them is difficult.