What is Cart Abandonment?

Cart abandonment is one of the most studied and persistent challenges in e-commerce. The Baymard Institute has consistently measured average cart abandonment rates at around 70%, meaning roughly seven out of every ten shoppers who add something to their cart never buy it. This figure has remained remarkably stable over the past decade despite significant improvements in checkout technology and user experience.

The reasons behind cart abandonment fall into several categories. Unexpected costs are the leading cause: shipping fees, taxes, or additional charges revealed late in the checkout process drive nearly half of all abandonments. Forced account creation is another major friction point. Shoppers who are required to create an account before purchasing often bail, especially on mobile where form-filling is tedious. Slow delivery estimates, a complicated checkout process, concerns about payment security, and the simple human tendency to browse without immediate purchase intent round out the common causes.

Recovery strategies target shoppers after they have left. Abandoned cart emails, typically sent in a sequence of 1-3 messages over 24-72 hours, are the most effective recovery tactic. These emails remind the shopper what they left behind and often include incentives like free shipping or a small discount. SMS recovery messages are growing in effectiveness, particularly for mobile-first audiences. Retargeting ads on social media and display networks keep the abandoned products visible as the shopper browses other sites.

Prevention is ultimately more effective than recovery. Strategies include showing total costs (including shipping) early in the browsing experience, offering guest checkout, displaying trust badges and security indicators at cart and checkout stages, providing multiple payment options (including buy-now-pay-later), and using social proof elements like review counts and ratings on cart pages to reinforce purchase confidence.