Use These 2021 Statistics on Shopping Cart Abandonment to Power More Conversions

Cart abandonment is the bane of ecommerce existence. You take the time to build a funnel with irresistible offers only to find the shopper leaving at the point of sale. It’s enough to tear your virtual hair out! No brand is immune to shopping cart abandonment. That’s why we decided to write this post.

Sometimes it’s good to know you’re not alone on the cart abandonment wheel of misfortune. So, we’ll be doing a deep dive into the nine most up-to-date cart abandonment statistics. Read on to learn more.

What Causes Cart Abandonment?

There are a variety of reasons why shoppers abandon a cart without making a purchase.

Per Statista, these are the top reasons for cart abandonment:

1. The Average Rate for Cart Abandonment Across All Industries is 69.57%.

If you Google the search term shopping cart abandonment rates, you’ll find percentages as low as 56% and as high as 81%.

Whatever way you slice it, over half of shopping purchases get abandoned by checkout time. The most accurate data we could find came from the Baymard Institute. They analyzed data from over 40 different studies. They discovered the average shopping cart abandonment rate was shy of 70%!

That means only three out of every ten carts will buy! If you think that’s bad, check out the average cart abandonment rate for mobile users.

2. Mobile Users Abandon Their Cart at a Rate of 85.6%.

When it comes to cart abandonment, it seems that size matters. According to Barillance, the smaller the screen, the more shoppers bail on carts. Right now, over half of all online shoppers come from mobile devices (50.48%). That’s a sobering statistic.

Optimizing your ecommerce store is important now more than ever. When less than two out ten shoppers abandon their cart on mobile, it’s essential that stores:

• Offer faster mobile site loading times.
• Say more with fewer words.
• Use accordions for quick navigation.
• Deliver easy navigation with pagination.
• Clearly state shipping costs in the cart.
• Cleary state return policy in the cart.
• Offer a persistent shopping cart.

Ecommerce brands need to check the performance of their mobile analytics. They may also want to consider A/B testing for increased optimization. Now that we know some of the statistics around shopping cart abandonment. Let’s check out how much shopping cart abandonment is costing ecommerce stores.

3. Shopping Cart Abandonment Costs Ecommerce Brands $18 Billion in Revenue each year.

At $18 billion a year, ecommerce stores must solve the cart abandonment issue. It appears the issue is only getting worse. Online reports suggest cart abandonments could reach $4 trillion in lost revenue.

Nonetheless, ecommerce brands are desperate for ways to beat shopping cart abandonment.

4. Ecommerce Brands Can Increase Conversions By 35% if They Optimize Their Checkout Process.

Here’s some good news about shopping cart abandonment. Experts estimate ecommerce brands can increase conversions by 35% by optimizing checkout processes. With the right checkout optimization strategy, ecommerce brands can increase profits and conversions.

5. Hidden Costs Is the Number One Reason Why Shoppers Abandon Their Carts.

The Baymard Institute researched the reasons why shoppers abandon carts. The number one reason was extra fees at checkout. What contributed to the extra costs? Things like shipping, taxes, and other charges.

Here is a breakdown from the report:

An overwhelming majority (49%) abandoned their carts due to extra fees. The next closest trigger was less than half of the percentage of extra fees at 24%.

6. Over half, 57% of Shoppers Abandon a Cart After Waiting Three Seconds for the Page to Load.

It may come as no surprise, but shoppers are a bit impatient. In our need-it-yesterday-world, shoppers aren’t willing to wait for the products they want. That’s especially true for sites with slow loading times. When 57% of customers can’t wait three seconds for a site to load, you know site speed is crucial to your success.

Want an even scarier statistic? Of the 57 percent of people who bounce from your site, 80 percent never return. Talk about holding a grudge.

7. 55% of Shoppers Abandon a Cart if They’re Asked to Reenter Shipping or Credit Information.

Customers want a simple checkout experience. When asked to re-enter information, customers more than often abandon their cart.

According to Statista:

• 30% of customers abandon their cart if they have to re-enter their credit card information.
• 25% of customers abandon their cart if they have to re-enter their shipping address.

One easy way to fix this solution is to auto-populate the fields for the shoppers billing address. Make it the default.  Most people have the same billing and shipping address, and if not, they can adjust it.

8. Roughly Half of All Shoppers (46%) Abandon Shopping Carts When a Discount Code Doesn’t Work.

Believe it or not, nine out of every ten shoppers use a discount code. Not only that, 75 percent of shoppers expect brands to offer some kind of discount. After all, it’s an excellent way to get new business and reward your most loyal customers. A little loyalty goes a long way.

When all goes well, coupon codes can help increase conversion rates. But when they don’t go well, you lose roughly half your sales. Offering incentives like coupon codes are an excellent business decision. But it’s essential to make sure they work. Otherwise, you’re leaving a blemish on your brand’s image.

9. 39% of Mobile Users Abandon Carts When Difficulties Arise With Entering Personal Information.

How is your site when it comes to entering personal data on a mobile device? If you go to your site and see an endless scroll of buttons and form fields, you may need to make some adjustments. Four out of ten mobile shoppers abandon carts after difficulties entering personal information. It’s essential to make sure you have a responsive design for mobile.

Need Even More Tips?

We’ve got you covered! Check out this related guide we’ve written: The Ultimate Guide to Beating Shopping Cart Abandonment. Use it to power more conversions while you use ReadyShipper X for faster more accurate shipping and ReadyReturns to automate an “Amazon-like” return policy.

Armed with data, you can revamp those low-converting pages and bring them up to standard, so your cart abandonment rate is reduced across the board.