Focus Cart Abandonment: First semi-annual report 2025

Author: Harald Neuner // 04.08.2025
Glühbirnen Icon in türkis

Key Takeaways

  1. The abandonment rate has slightly decreased but remains high at 71.72%.
  2. Purchase decisions are being made faster, with session duration dropping to just 4 minutes and 20 seconds.
  3. Only a few abandoners close the window, most drop off due to inactivity.
  4. Discount codes with unusual fixed amounts convert better than standard percentage discounts.

Cart abandonment remains one of the biggest challenges in e-commerce. Users who add products to their cart but do not complete the purchase are considered abandoners. Although the abandonment rate has slightly decreased in the first half of 2025, the resulting lost revenue remains significant.

This report is based on the behavior of millions of users from over 1,500 online shops across various industries and sizes. The current analysis not only provides new insights but also concrete strategies to sustainably reduce abandonment rates.

Abandonment Rate Slightly Decreased

After rising in the last two half-year periods, the abandonment rate has slightly declined this time. However, at 71.72%, it still exceeds the level from the first half of 2024. Overall, cart abandonment remains a major issue for online shops. Out of the already highly contested traffic, only about 3 out of 10 users who add an item to their cart actually complete the purchase. This results in lost marketing spend and significant revenue potential.

In addition to external factors like seasonality, better-optimized online shops and improved checkout processes may also contribute. For example, more shops are now using various software tools and strategies to prevent cart abandonment. Payment methods like one-click payments (e.g. PayPal) and Buy Now, Pay Later options (e.g. Klarna) continue to gain traction, further helping reduce abandonment rates.

The study graphic of this cart abandonment report shows how the abandonment rate has developed over the past years.

Abandonments Happen Faster

In the past half-year, the median session duration of abandoners dropped again, confirming the overall trend that decisions in e-commerce are being made more quickly. While typical users spent 4 minutes and 55 seconds in a shop in the second half of 2023, it was only 4 minutes and 20 seconds in the first half of 2025.

Abandoners are navigating online shops more rapidly. Expectations for user experience are rising while patience continues to fall. Offers are often compared quickly across multiple shops. As a result, stores must convince visitors to buy faster, more precisely, and more effectively.

This study graphic shows how the session duration of cart abandoners has decreased over the past half-year periods.

How Do Users Most Often Abandon Purchases?

This study also examined the different ways consumers abandon their purchases. The three main abandonment types are closing the window, navigating back, and becoming inactive in the tab or window. This analysis offers insight into user behavior during the purchase process and where shops can intervene.

Most purchases are abandoned when the tab, browser, or device remains inactive for a longer period. This is followed by clicking the back button and closing the window. This suggests that most users have other tabs or windows open at the same time. They are distracted or possibly comparing different offers. For users likely comparing options, it’s especially worthwhile to implement targeted measures to convince them to complete the purchase.

Users rarely abandon the purchase by closing the window. This is illustrated in this bar chart.

Which Discount Codes Work Best to Win Back Abandoners?

To combat cart abandonment, many shops use discount codes. These are shown via popups to potential abandoners to encourage them to complete the purchase. But which types of codes are most commonly used, and which perform best?

By far, the most frequently used code is the 5% discount. This is followed by the 10% discount and the 5-euro voucher. However, these common types do not deliver the best results. In terms of conversion rate, the 7-euro voucher performs best, followed by the 12-euro and 3.90-euro vouchers.

This study graphic shows a bar chart of the most commonly used discount codes.

Overall, classic amounts like 5 euros or 10 percent perform worse. One possible reason: users have seen these offers too often and barely notice them anymore. Unusual amounts like 7 euros or 12 euros stand out, spark interest, and are more likely to be considered.

This bar chart shows which discount codes achieve the highest conversion rate.

It also shows that percentage-based vouchers are used more often but convert worse than fixed-amount vouchers. Conversion rates are 11.2% compared to 6.9%. If the pricing structure allows, shops should consider using fixed-amount discounts.

This study graphic compares the conversion rate of percentage-based vs. fixed-amount discount codes.

Expert-Commentary

Julian Craemer
«The slight drop in the abandonment rate is a positive sign, but the problem remains. Purchases often fail due to seemingly minor issues like a lengthy checkout, lack of clarity, or distractions during the process. Since user interest is already there, it's worth addressing these specific points. Notably, standard discounts like 5 euros or 10 percent are still used most frequently, yet they don’t achieve the highest conversion rates. Fixed amounts with unusual values perform significantly better. Anyone aiming to effectively reduce abandonment should systematically test which incentives truly lead to conversions.»
Founder and CEO
uptain GmbH
Founder and CEO
uptain GmbH
Julian Craemer
«The slight drop in the abandonment rate is a positive sign, but the problem remains. Purchases often fail due to seemingly minor issues like a lengthy checkout, lack of clarity, or distractions during the process. Since user interest is already there, it's worth addressing these specific points. Notably, standard discounts like 5 euros or 10 percent are still used most frequently, yet they don’t achieve the highest conversion rates. Fixed amounts with unusual values perform significantly better. Anyone aiming to effectively reduce abandonment should systematically test which incentives truly lead to conversions.»

Conclusion

In the first half of 2025, the abandonment rate decreased slightly for the first time in a year. Still, the issue persists and continues to cause significant revenue loss for online shops. Most users abandon the purchase process despite showing clear buying intent.

This report once again highlights how complex abandoner behavior is. Factors like time pressure, price comparisons, checkout complexity, and unclear shipping costs directly impact the final decision. Notably, standard incentives like common discount codes are losing effectiveness, while slightly unusual vouchers convert significantly better.

Cart abandonment remains a major challenge but also holds massive potential. Those who understand where users drop off can counteract it with relatively simple measures. Reducing the abandonment rate remains one of the most powerful levers for increasing revenue in e-commerce.

Methodology

uptain is integrated as a plugin in over 1,500 online shops and analyzes all visitor data in real time. The data for this study comes directly from over 30 million real users, not from secondary sources, surveys, or indirect measurements. This creates a representative and highly up-to-date data foundation, enabling continuous analysis of trends and behavior patterns. All user and shop data has been anonymized. The analysis focuses on user behavior during the first half of 2025.

Ein junger Mann mit Brille und kurzem, dunklem Haar blickt ruhig in die Kamera; er trägt ein dunkles Hemd über einem schwarzen T-Shirt vor neutralem, transparentem Hintergrund.

Artikelautor

Online Marketing + Content

Harald Neuner

Artikelautor

Online Marketing + Content

Harald Neuner is co-founder of "uptain", the leading software solution for recovering shopping cart abandoners in the DACH region. He is particularly interested in providing small and medium-sized online shops with technologies that were previously only available to the big players in e-commerce. With "uptain", he has been able to do just that.

Mehr zum Autor