Why do my customers abandon the shopping cart?

Carrito de compras abandonado
Hernán Sosa at Digital Jump

Author: Hernán Ariel

Web Developer

Did you know that cart abandonment is one of the main threats facing online stores?

According to a study by Baymard Institute, 70.19% of users who add products to their cart do not complete the purchase. This means that you are missing a great opportunity to increase your sales and build customer loyalty.

But why don’t people complete their purchase in online stores? There are many possible reasons, but here we present the most common ones and how you can avoid or reduce them.

  1. Unexpected additional costs: This is the main reason users abandon their carts, according to 50% of respondents. Nobody wants to find out about extra costs at the time of checkout, such as shipping costs, taxes or commissions.

    To avoid this, you should be transparent from the beginning and show the final price of the products, or at least an estimate. You can also offer free shipping or discounts if the user exceeds a certain purchase amount.
  2. Need to create an account: 28% of users refuse to register or create an account in the online store. This may be because they find it tedious, because they don’t trust the security of their data, or because they don’t want to receive spam.

    To solve this, you can offer the option to purchase as a guest, without needing to register, or allow login with social networks, such as Facebook or Google.
  3. Complicated purchasing process: 21% of users abandon it when the purchasing process seems too long or confusing. This can generate frustration, boredom or distrust in the user, who may choose to look for another, simpler option.

    To avoid this, you should simplify the journey as much as possible, eliminating unnecessary steps, showing a progress bar, using a clear and attractive design, and making it easy to navigate and correct errors.
  4. Payment security concerns: 19% of users abandon their carts because they don’t feel confident entering their banking details or because they can’t find their preferred payment method. This may be because your online store does not convey trust, because you do not have an SSL certificate, or because you do not offer enough payment options.

    To solve this, you must ensure that your online store meets security and privacy standards, display trust seals and guarantees, and offer varied and popular payment methods, such as well-known virtual wallets.
  5. Lack of information about the product or service: 18% of users who do not find enough information about the product leave the site. This may be because your online store does not offer a detailed and attractive description of what you sell, or that it does not respond to your customers’ questions or concerns.

    To avoid this, you must provide all relevant and truthful information about your products or services, use quality images and demonstration videos, show testimonials and reviews from other customers, and offer effective and accessible customer service.

It is necessary to understand that not all of these points are absolute and that the public ones are not the same either. That is why it is necessary to work all the time to improve the quality of the user experience to achieve a greater number of conversions or sales.

This is achieved through various tests or measurements that can be done throughout the purchasing process and with this data collection, generate actions.

At Digital JUMP we work side by side with our clients to improve the performance of the entire process and measure the general behavior of users so that more sales or more conversions are generated.

If you have questions about your own business and why your website is not generating enough sales or conversions, you can write us a message and we will contact you to follow up on your situation.