We Asked Shoppers: What’s Driving Cart Abandonment? (It May Not Be What You Think)

We know that average conversion rate is high (currently 3.2% in August) and traffic is up 5% year-on-year, but for many retailers, cart abandonment is still a huge issue and the competition has never been more fierce. We surveyed Australian online shoppers to find out exactly why they make it almost to the very end of the purchase funnel but change their mind.

When it comes to delivery, what’s stopping consumers making it through check out?

High shipping costs come in at number one with almost all respondents (96%) saying that excessive delivery fees would lead them to abandon their purchase. What constitutes high shipping? Above $8.60 for a small item and above $97 for a bulk item.

Not only is the cost of delivery an issue, but communicating the cost too late in the purchase process is a reason to abandon cart for 86% of shoppers. Almost all shoppers (96%) say they are likely to abandon their cart if there are unexpected fees added late in the purchase process. This is why communication and expectation management is key.

Source: Power Retail Switched On Trajectory #25

Interestingly, price of delivery and communication around delivery is far more of an issue than speed of delivery, which is an ongoing pattern we have seen throughout previous reports.

Do you send follow up emails when items have been left abandoned in a cart? Seventy-six percent of respondents surveyed said that they have received a follow-up email from a retailer, and 13% of those who received a follow up email went back to complete their purchase. There are obviously pros and cons when deciding to offer discounts or other incentives at this point in the process (and whether doing so further reinforced abandonment behaviour).

Want to find out more? We surveyed shoppers about payment, checkout and more to find out exactly why they abandon cart and what retailers need to do to increase conversions. Find out this and more in the latest Trajectory Report, free to Power Retail Switched On members.

WHAT YOU GET FROM THIS TRAJECTORY REPORT:
Current e-commerce revenue and forecasting, traffic levels, average conversion rate, payment preferences and more! 

These fortnightly reports draw from the aggregate, anonymised benchmarking data of over 10 million online sessions per month from a broad cross-section of Australian online retailers, PLUS fortnightly survey data collected from a panel of over 1 million online shoppers.

Find out more about a Power Retail Switched On membership today!