Abandoned Cart: Biggest lie you probably believe to be true

Joe Parker

8 years ago

Myths about abandoned carts that keeps us in darkness

Have you ever asked yourself these questions:

“Is it better if I shorten my website’s checkout process by one step?”

“Is it better if I change the CTA button’s color?”

“Is it better if I display the shipping cost estimation before checkout page?”

Sounds like you have heard of these somewhere, right? If it is so, you are facing the problem of shopping cart abandonment.

Don’t worry, it’s not only you alone, there is a huge list of websites which faces cart abandonedment. Almost everyone to be exact. According to Baymard Institute, around 67.89 % of online shopping carts get abandoned across the internet.

This brings me to the biggest lie about abandoned cart you have been believing to be true till now.

Many marketers, CRO experts, and Analytics toolmakers have been telling:

“If your shopping cart abandonment rate is 67.89%, you are losing your 67.89 % of your sales”

That’s not true; It’s the biggest lie

This statement is completely wrong because it is based on a false assumption that every visitor who adds a product to the cart has a definite intention to buy only.

But, as we proceed, we will discover in this article that hardly 30-40 % of these visitors actually have an intention to buy when they are adding a product to the online virtual shopping cart. However, even then, it does not mean a definitive commitment to purchase.

Here in this content, I will explain why there is a need to change our approach to abandoned cart, and how we can market to casual cart abandoners who possess a loose commitment to buy.

Why shoppers abandon?

Most of the time we think that all the cart abandonments result from the flaws in the checkout process, but this is just the one-half of the whole picture. Just look at this infographic by Savvy Panda:

Part of the infographic by Savvy Panda showing the top six reasons for abandoned cart.

The top two reasons have nothing to do with the cart itself. Rather, they are more inclined towards the shopper’s interest in the product, and here it feels that shoppers just have a passing interest in the product.

Such shoppers are called Casual Abandoners. Another data I found on Shopify also advocates the same.

Image Source: Shopify.com

Looking at the data from these sources, we can see that casual abandoners constitute around 30-40 % of the total abandoners. This is a big population and a matter of concern. So, why are so many users treating a shopping cart as just a mere expression of interest in a product? Is an “Add to cart” action a sign of definitive intent to buy?

To find out this, we need to understand the motivations of online shoppers. Research says that there are mainly two fundamental motivations- Hedonic and utilitarian.

The Hedonic motivation

The shoppers with Hedonic motivations gain the satisfaction with the enjoyment of the shopping experience itself. Experience is what they seek and they don’t need to complete a purchase to gain the satisfaction.

The Utilitarian motivation

Utilitarian motivation is driven by the basic and fundamental needs of the life like groceries, clothes, household items etc.

The Comparative shoppers

Comparative shoppers basically add products to the cart for two reasons.

To conduct a price comparison
To bookmark or save products for later consideration

So, the reason behind this explanation of different shopping motivations and types of shoppers is to show “abandoned cart is not a mere result of breakdown in the checkout process or flaws in the shopping cart” There are multiple psychological motivations which add up to the abandonment without any involvement of the cart itself.

So, we have been treating cart abandoners all wrong?

The data presented till now and the explanation of the motivations involved in online shopping clearly explains that we have been treating the cart abandoners all wrong. And it proves our conception “adding a product to the cart is a sure sign of showing commitment in purchasing the product” is wrong.

But despite these findings, most of us treat abandoned carts as lost sales; instead of looking them as a strong lead for sales generation. Just look at this data from See Why which says 81 % of store owners believe that abandoners are just a waste of time and there is nothing good in following them. But in reality.

“75 % of abandoners have some degree of intent to purchase and will return to the site to abandon again or purchase”

Image Soucre: Hybris.com

As a result, 80 % of the store owners do not send triggered emails after abandoned cart.

Maybe, the owners think that sending emails will have no effect on the buyers’ intention or it might just end up in the spam folder.

It could be, but this is not exactly what shoppers think. According to a study, 47 % of abandoners expect to receive some type of email or reminder after they abandon a shopping cart, and this is a huge pool of data for your sales person to follow up. So, not all the abandoners are waste of time, there is a significant percentage who can be converted with proper follow-up.

Just look at these figures from Why We Don’t Buy, which explains that almost 30-40 % of these shoppers would like to complete a purchase after receiving a follow-up from the store.

In other words, we should stop treating abandoned cart as a lost sale, and start using them as the strong leads for sales generation.

A follow-up tool can help

You need to stay updated with the abandoned cart and keep a track on your site. For this, you can use Abandoned cart recovery tools that capture the abandoned cart with all the information such as – user’s email address, cart details like products in the cart, date and time of abandonment etc. Later you can use these details to follow up the customers by sending them reminder emails at regular interval of time.

There are tools where you can set the Cron jobs to automatically capture the carts, and send triggered emails and so on. Magento Abandoned cart extension is one such example. With this extension, you can send automatically triggered emails to abandoned customers with or even without offers.

So, it’s time you start using such tools to capture the strong leads that have more chances of getting converted with a little wiser approach. Just remember that all abandoned carts are not triggered through a breakdown on your cart or checkout. However, you should not ignore the need of checkout and UX optimization because there is still a major population of shoppers which is driven by the user experience on the site.

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