Abandonment Reasons: Complex But Predictable

Reasons for Abandonment – complex but predictable

Every online merchant who wants to understand his customers is concerned about the shopping cart abandoners in his online shop. But why do customers abandon the shopping cart? Because the reasons for shopping cart abandonment are as varied as the customers themselves, it is tempting to label the phenomenon as unpredictable. The bad news is that the reasons for shopping cart abandonment are complex. The good news: they are nevertheless predictable.

Why Customers abandon in Online Shops

Breaking down the reasons for abandonment into categories and temporal sequences helps to break down the myth into an explainable phenomenon, which in turn helps to derive meaningful operational activities. First of all, the question of the reasons for abandonment must be answered in order to prevent shopping cart abandonment. In addition to the well-known reasons resulting from poor user experience design, reasons for abandonment are either technical or psychological in nature.

1. Technical Reasons for Shopping Cart Abandonment

Possible technical reasons exist both before the checkout process begins and during the checkout process.

A. Before Checkout

Shopping cart abandonments often take place before the actual checkout process. Reasons for this are:

• Faulty pages
• Missing information
• Missing products
• Poor user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design.

B. During Checkout

If the shop visitor is already in the checkout, the chance of completing the purchase increases. The checkout process begins in the shopping cart and ends after the order has been successfully placed. Abandonments also take place directly in the shopping cart:

• Complicated checkout process with more than 5 steps
• Late disclosure of important information (e.g. shipping costs and payment options)

2. Psychological Reasons for Shopping Cart Abandonment

Although the psychological reasons for abandonment are subjective in nature and therefore depend on the individual customer, online shops can influence them. Relevant psychological reasons for abandonment are:

• Lack of an order option as a guest
• Unfavourable placement of the input field for voucher codes
• Low trust in the online shop

Recognising Reasons for Abandonment to prevent them

Learn in the e-book “Abandonment reasons – complex but predictable” how exactly abandonment reasons arise and what effects they have on an online shop and its visitors. Based on this foundation, you will develop a better understanding for your customers and can successfully prevent shopping cart abandonment.