What is an abandoned shopping cart?

The term “abandoned shopping cart” is used when the shopping cart has been filled by a visitor of an online shop and no purchase process takes place and the shopping cart is left without further interaction. If you run an online shop, you want to keep the number of abandoned shopping baskets as small as possible. Therefore, the portal operators themselves or commissioned SEM agencies try to find out the reasons for an abandoned shopping basket. The number of abandoned shopping baskets has risen sharply in recent years, as the number of online purchases has also risen sharply.

Reasons for an abandoned shopping cart

The reasons why a potential buyer does not complete an online purchase can vary greatly. They can be private reasons as well as technical and factual reasons. Many operators of an online shop try to save at the wrong end or neglect important points that cost sales. An important point is often one or more missing means of payment. If a customer cannot pay as desired, he often leaves the online shop without making the purchase. Another important point can be a high loading time when completing the purchase. High loading times are also when purchasing via Tablet PC or Smartphone. Due to the rapidly increasing number of buyers with mobile devices, the problem with loading times has also increased considerably.

In addition, the area of customer experience has a high proportion of abandoned sales. In this context, one should pay attention to the simplest possible handling when making a purchase and test all important points several times. In addition, all costs should be shown clearly and distinctly before the actual conclusion of the purchase, because hidden costs also often lead to abandoned shopping baskets.

How can you avoid abandoned shopping baskets?

There is no blanket answer to this question, but there are many possible solutions. Some solutions involve costs and other improvements can be achieved with free resources. One way to improve your website is through email marketing. You can get valuable tips from your customers by combining a survey with a discount code for the next purchase. As an alternative, you can send newsletters and provide them with attractive offers that point out the forgotten shopping cart. AB-Tests can also help if you want to generate information about user behaviour.

Software solutions as an alternative!

If you prefer a different solution, you can also use software solutions. However, one should define very specific requirements for such solutions, which by no means all can offer. An important requirement is that the software is able to make purchases on its own and thus provide information on possible technical problems. In many cases, simple error messages are the reason for aborted purchases and the software should be able to determine this. As a professional partner for shop operators all over the world, we also help you in the course of our work with purchase cancellations and forgotten shopping baskets. If you have any questions, please contact us!