If you could survey your site visitors and find out why some leave without completing the order process, wouldn’t you want to? The process for doing so would be complex. The database would be complex and the user experience would be intrusive – but the results could radically improve your conversion rate, your average order value and your total revenue.
Internal sources would be best for this information, and you should make sure that your approach to analytics and business intelligence is sound. Still, external surveys of a broader swath of users may be useful as well. A chart from Statista, for example, names the reasons for cart abandonment as follows:
Find more statistics at Statista
What seems clear from the Statista chart and this academic research report is that the primary causes of cart abandonment have to do with pricing and the user experience of the checkout process. Specifically, the main reasons potential customers don’t complete a purchase is because they want to try the product before buying, they think they can find better prices elsewhere, and/or they are required to register for a customer account.
Since the ability to close a sale is as crucial for ecommerce as it is for offline commerce, part of reducing cart abandonment is persuading those who came to browse to convert. Your primary method of persuasion is copy writing combined with the user experience. Just as every question has a response, every cart abandonment requires a recovery – hence the importance of an email list and in-app purchasing capabilities. Since it is inevitable that some customers arrive at your site only to browse, your affiliate, email and social marketing efforts are essential channels for capturing these hesitant shoppers. You’re going to have to accept that a certain amount of your potential customers will first want to download free versions of your product through download portals, or wait for emails offering your product at a discount. These techniques are really all about building trust.
Why Do Online Shoppers Leave Without Paying?
An infographic from SurePayroll outlines the impact of cart abandonment on Internet merchants, details the reasons for it, and presents some awesome tips on reducing it.
