abandoned shopping cart rates

[kat_hawk]

hi,

does anyone have recent stats on what the average shopping cart abandonment rate for an etailer? we see about 85% abandon after seeing the shipping cost.

thanks

[shri]

Tried A/B testing to narrow it down?

Offer free shipping to say 10% of the visitors. Do they convert better?

[bwnbwn]

If you see 85% leave after seeing the shipping tells me your shipping is too high. Good why to find out is drop the cost and see what happens to this number. I for one am intrested in know what happens.

I understand if you say we can't due to loosing money on shipping but if there is room to play then play and see

[haggul]

We actually put the ship rates right in the basket recently on a site and the conversion rate went up slightly(and of course the cart abandonment was slashed overnight).

I think the conversion went up due to those inherently suspicious customers who won't venture into the checkout unless they are fully prepared for all costs!

[shri]

>> ship rates right in the basket recently

That is how we do it too. With every product added to the basket, the shipping costs are changed to reflect the total cost.

-- offtopic --

I still dislike brick and mortar establishments where they add taxes and service charges to the bill and I dislike having to add a tip over the cost of a meal. Why cant everything just be brought down to one all-inclusive line item cost in a restaurant or shop?

[MichaelBluejay]

It could also be that your potential customers feel annoyed that they have to get so far into the process in order to see the shipping cost, and are already leaning towards not buying from you anyway for that reason. Try giving more shipping cost info up front.

[BananaFish]

You cannot assume that the factor for the dropped carts is shipping. It could be any number of factors such as length of checkout, # of steps in checkout process, ease of navigation during checkout, etc.

I've read somewhere that 75% cart abandonment is not uncommon. When I began keeping detailed analytics, my company runs about a 58% cart abandonment rate, including those that didn't even make it to checkout.

[jsinger]

my company runs about a 58% cart abandonment rate, including those that didn't even make it to checkout

That's about what we see using our abandonment software, but I'm guessing there's a wide variety in calculation methodology. When is a cart considered abandoned, for example? After 6 hours? After a month?

Sometimes buyers load products into a cart and then phone, fax or mail in the order without completing the online process.

We don't export. I'm sure some foreigners abandon carts after looking at our FAQs and shipping info.

does anyone have recent stats on what the average shopping cart abandonment rate for an etailer?

First someone has to come up with good definition of "cart abandonment."

What I know for sure about abandonment:
1) It's pretty high
2) Some abandonment is inevitable-window shopping
3) Retailers get too worked up about abandonment figures
4) Goal isn't 100% completion--which would mean products were far too cheap

[haggul]

Good point - I wonder if the OP rate of 85% is that 85% of those that go through checkout phase 1 abandon - if so that is very very high. If it's 85% of people that pop something in their basket don't check it out then that's not anywhere near as bad.

[kat_hawk]

the 85% is people that go to phase 1 of the shopping cart and abandon. it is during this step that visitors see the shipping costs for the first time. I am looking at doing 2 things:
1) segment this data by product type to see if it is particular products driving the abandonment rate.
2) a/b split test - offer 1 set the discount on shipping and see what it does.

thanks everyone for the input. i'll keep you posted on what i find.

[carlm]

This might be something to read..

"Learn how CafePress.com redesigned their shopping cart checkout process to lower shopper abandonment rates from 25-30% to just 15%. "

[marketingsherpa.com...]

I have not read it myself.. but Marketingsherpa is usually pretty good. So if you have 9 bucks to spare... :)

[moose606]

I have read the marketing sherpa article, and it basically suggests placing POA (Points of Assurace) into your shopping cart, and simplifying the process. I have implemented some of this (security and privacy POA) but have only just started tracking abandonment rate.

[jsinger]

it basically suggests placing POA (Points of Assurace) into your shopping cart

What is a POA? Can you give some examples?