Why do we abandon shopping carts?

If you want to understand why do your customers abandon shopping carts, ask them, don't guess, don't listen to your CEO, your project manager, your programmer, your designer, your non-buyers! Because that's what they are: NON-BUYERS. Ask your buyer, your customer, that's a person that should drive this process, not the rest of us. Doesn't matter what we think, it only matters what they think and what will make the process easy for them to complete a purchase, and to purchase more if possible. There are many ways to get customers feedback, but a free tool like 4Q will do a good job and help you understand your customers better.

Here are some of the reasons why do customers abandon shopping carts:

1. System won't take my Credit Card - Some of the systems are designed to accept multiple payments, and if customer's Credit Card expires earlier than the last payment (installment), some systems won't accept the card. Sometimes, this error will not be disclosed to customers for a reason of fraud prevention. Other reasons for system not accepting the CC are due to wrongly entered information, but those errors, in most cases, will properly get displayed to a customer.

2. Searching for a discount, or a discount code - If a shopping cart has a discount code field visible, customers will look around for a discount code to use it for their purchase.

3. Added too many "add-ons / upsells / special offers" to a shopping cart, while going through a shopping funnel - The usual shopping cart should limit to a maximum of 5, or in some extreme cases 7, closely related upsells / downsells. Also, it is ok to have an upgrade, which would be a deluxe version of the same item, but all these options should be kept to minimum. The upselling process could be ok if we are talking about the extra battery, or an additional item for a half price. However, all that adds up, and customer's mindset was prepared to an original price, with some small buffer for extra fees, like a tax and shipping and handling.

4. Shipping and handling too expensive - This is the most common reason I've seen. Regardless, you have to charge shipping and handling. Don't fall for this and ship for free, since it's not free to ship.

5. Ordering a product from a neighboring country - This is a common issue in Europe, New Zealand/Australia, and Canada/US. In case of UK and Ireland, sometimes there is a disparity in price, due to a currency level between British Pound and Euro, and a belief is that the product should cost the same for both countries.

6. Payment is not in a local currency - Often people will be offended and pass the opportunity if the system is not charging in a local currency and the "contract/invoice" doesn't display the exact local amount.

7. System doesn't accept PayPal - Another common one. Buyers like PayPal, since it gives them strong buyers' protection. Practically they can easily say they never received a product and a merchant has to go through hoops to prove they actually received the product. If the proof is not rock-solid (signature), Paypal will instantly refund the money to a customer.

8. Ordering process too confusing - Customers may reach the point where they want to talk to a rep rather then continuing with overwhelming choices and options.

9. Just checking how much it will cost with all the add-ons, and shipping and handling - Many potential customers will go through the process, but will not commit due to an easy option to compare prices and options at other online stores.

10. Don't want to use the Credit Card - Many customers will prefer to pay C.O.D., use invoice or some other alternative methods. This is another common reason for abandon a shopping cart.

11. Different price than what was advertised - Regardless to your justifications, if customers don't see the same price as advertised, they will admit to be confused, and rather abandon a cart, call your order line, or walk away.

12. Seeing an error - Any type of the error will easily shake customer's thin confidence.

13. Difficult process - Many customers will complain about the difficult process to finalize the order. Shopping cart should allow free movement back and fort without error messages and warnings.

14. Security issue - Few customers mentioned security as a concern. They were concerned about entering the Credit Card or CVV online. Btw, you already know that you should NEVER store CVV or a pin number in any system!

15. Delivery time and a carrier - Customers who live in remote places sometimes have problems with certain carriers, so a carrier should be clearly disclosed.