10 facts about e-commerce and cart abandonment

The problem for most online e-commerce stores is that cart abandonment is on the rise. The data has shown a continuing upward trend, with a near 15% rise in online abandonments since 2010.

The industry experiencing the highest rate of abandonment is travel, with an average abandonment rate of 80.1%. The reasons that people are abandoning purchases vary. Unexpected shipping costs, having to create a user account or just browsing are the three most common.

Specifically for travel booking abandonments, needing to check with other travellers and a complicated checkout process were other reasons stated as to why people were abandoning bookings in SaleCycle’s booking abandonment survey.

Throughout the year abandonments rates rise and fall, with the lowest rates being recorded during the Christmas period. During this period, purchase intent is stronger. With the added deadline of Christmas day, many who leave their shopping to the last minute, will then rush to fill all of those stockings.

Christmas is closely followed by other big sales days throughout the year. Recently on Chinese Singles Day, SaleCycle recorded a 13.4% drop in abandonments for their Chinese based clients. Direct sales for the brands they work with increased by up to 660% on this day, with order values on average 22% higher than usual.

With limited stock and time sensitive offers, customers snap up items to avoid disappointment. The unbeatable price drops are persuasive enough to keep customers from shopping around, and allows them to stock up on their favorite products.

On-Site Remarketing presents users who look like they’re about to abandon with relevant content right when they need it. It has shown to reduce the number of abandonments that occur and lift sales by 3.1%. Today’s savvy consumers can spot a sales pitch a mile away.

They don’t want to be sold to, they want to be helped. On-site remarketing is a strategy used to improve customer service, acquire new leads and increase online conversion, by elegantly bridging would-be abandoners back into the purchase process. Many prominent brands including Virgin Atlantic, Oakley and HP are using on-site remarketing to re-engage their website visitors.

For the carts already left behind, email remarking has proven to be a great way to get the users back to the cart to finish the purchase. It enables companies to reconnect with people who have recently left their sites in a personal way, to temp them back to carry on where they left off, give them additional product recommendations or even ask why they’ve left their cart.

Brands across the world including Ralph Lauren, IKEA and The Body Shop are successfully reconnecting with their hottest prospects via this channel. The emails have an average 47% open rate and boost revenue by 4.1%.

SaleCycle’s highest value recovery was from a customer who first abandoned, then came back and purchased 11 chandeliers! Think that’s incredible? Another user abandoned a purchase and did not open the remarketing email they were sent for 534 days! When they eventually saw the email, they purchased the items… 18 months after first looking at the products!

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