In the ever-growing age of the consumer, shopping online has become a one-stop shop for consumers. One major problem plaguing online stores and businesses is the act of shopping cart abandonment. Consumers abandon their carts for various reasons, often; it’s to see total price of the order or the total including shipping. Many utilize their shopping carts to compare pricing with other websites or to compare with the physical store. The shopping cart is also used to check how much tax is with their order and sometimes people just put things in a cart to buy later.
Abandonment of shopping carts has only continued to be a concerning problem for online businesses; in 2011 the rate of abandonment was 69% and in 2013 it increased to 74%. This can be detrimental to business, especially for stores who are online only, they are losing approximately 4 trillion worth of merchandise that will be abandoned in online shopping carts and only 63% of this loss is recoverable.
From a consumer’s point of view, I think it’s smart to ensure that you are getting the best deal, I’m an avid online shopper and I am constantly abandoning shopping carts for all sorts of reasons. It is the job of businesses to ensure they have the most competitive prices to create high consumer demand; as such, companies need to utilize combating tactics to neutralize this issue.
In order to reduce the amount of shopping cart abandonment:
- Do not treat all customers the same, everyone leaves their carts for varying reasons, you must cater to each consumer differently.
- Implement the use of event triggered emails, this will notify you why someone abandoned their shopping cart and allows you to send them coupons or promo codes for discounts.
- Include or display the shipping costs and taxes with the product, this will give consumers an estimate of their total before reaching the checkout process.
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Resources:
http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-how-retailers-can-reduce-shopping-cart-abandonment-and-recoup-billions-of-dollars-in-lost-sales-2014-4
http://blog.hubspot.com/ecommerce/shopping-cart-abandonment-reasons-solutions
http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Why-Shoppers-Abandon-Their-Carts/1012613?ecid=NL1014
