Shopping Cart Abandonment: Are Customers Bailing Out On Your Checkout Page?

February 19, 2009

“Why am I not making more money online?”

If you’ve ever wondered this, you’re not alone.

But to get an answer that is REAL- not just someone’s fluffy opinion, you need to answer your question with another, more appropriate question:

“What do the numbers tell me about why I’m not making more money online?”

If you don’t have any data to look at… well, now you’re honing in on the bigger issue. Without tracking, your original question is impossible to answer.

It’s common (and essential) to measure things like traffic, signups, purchases, etc., but one very revealing (and often overlooked) stat is something called “shopping cart abandonment”.

This is where people reach your site, follow the “Buy” link- and then click away before actually making a purchase.

A recent study by Consumer Experience Management (CEM) evaluated the experiences of 719 consumers, and why they left a site’s checkout without making a purchase. Here are the top reasons:

1. High shipping prices (72%)
2. Comparison shopping or browsing (61%)
3. Changed mind (56%)
4. Saving items for later purchase (51%)
5. Total cost of items is too high (43%)
6. Checkout process is too long (41%)
7. Checkout needs too much personal info (35%)
8. Registration needed before purchase (34%)
9. Site is unstable or unreliable (31%)
10. Checkout process is confusing (27%)

This information is extremely useful for CORRECTING this problem, if you know that it actually IS a problem.  Don’t rely on your gut here.  Rely on the data.

For example, I recently took a look at a client’s numbers, and had to report some tough news: they had a 72.5% abandonment rate. Yikes.

Think about this for a minute.  All their marketing efforts (and dollars) drove traffic to their site; all the copy, graphics and bonuses enticed visitors to click the “BUY” link; yet three out of four people bailed out just before making a purchase.

As discouraging as this news can be- it’s exactly what they needed to know- and we immediately began working on how to close more deals.

Want to know your abandonment rate?

If you’re using Web Marketing Magic (1SC), it’ll take you one minute to find these revealing statistics.

From your account, select:

Analytics > Cart Conversion > (choose the date range) > Generate Report.

That’s it!  You can play with different analytics and learn a lot of useful stuff about your business, and more importantly, you’ll know exactly how much money is slipping through your fingers on the checkout page.

In another article, I’ll explore some of the effective ways I’ve found to decrease shopping cart abandonment, but at least this will get you started tracking like the pros!

Written by Dave · Filed Under 1ShoppingCart, Info Marketing, Million Dollar Ideas, Websites 

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