Milos Djordjevic
How many times did you start adding things into your virtual shopping cart only to give up on a purchase? You might have had it enough with the slow loading times, or you simply decided you don’t want to spend money after all. Whatever the reason, you unwittingly ended up being a part of shopping cart abandonment statistics.
Understanding why shoppers leave before buying anything is incredibly important for any retail company. In addition, learning about digital shopping cart abandonment effects is just as important.
If you’re interested in these topics, stick around and let’s go through some shopping cart abandonment stats together.
Must-Know Shopping Cart Abandonment Stats (Editor’s Choice)
- The average number of abandoned carts in 2020 was 81.01%.
- Cart abandonment of 65% can cost marketers $2 to 4 trillion a year.
- In Q2 2021, the average abandonment rate on mobile phones was 80.6%.
- High extra costs are responsible for 49% of all abandoned carts in the US
- The country with the highest shopping cart abandonment rate of 86.15% was Spain.
- During the onset of COVID-19, the cart abandonment rate skyrocketed to 94.4%.
- In March 2020, 88.05% of all online shopping orders were never completed.
2024 Shopping Cart Abandonment Statistics
1. During the onset of COVID-19, the cart abandonment rate skyrocketed to 94.4%.
(Today)
During the same period in 2019, that number was at 85.1%. This massive increase in cart abandonment isn’t surprising. Once buyers started fearing for their finances, they began thinking twice before completing a purchase.
It is especially true for industries that provide non-essential products. For example, the fashion and apparel industry suffered immensely. Its average cart abandonment rate at the onset of COVID-19 went 12.2% up compared to the previous year and reached a staggering 96.5%.
2. In March 2020, 88.05% of online shopping orders were never completed.
(Statista)
At the start of 2020, an average rate of abandoned carts was at 72.8%. Things were looking up before the pandemic. But once COVID-19 became a serious issue, certain industries were hit harder than others.
Shopping cart abandonment statistics for March 2020 show that the automotive industry suffered the most. Its level of cart abandonment hit a worrying 96.88%. It’s only natural that with borders closed and cities under lockdown, not many people needed brand new cars.
3. The instances of cart abandonment in the home goods industry went down by 1.3%.
(Today)
Statistics for cart abandonment rate in 2020 show not everyone was hurt by the pandemic. If anything, buyers decided to make their quarantine as pleasant of an experience as possible. After all, if they’re going to be spending months at home, why not buy a couple of things to make it a more delightful experience? That’s what allowed the home goods industry to improve its cart abandonment numbers. The number of cart abandonment cases in the industry went from 89.5% to 88.2%.
4. The abandoned cart rate for the beauty industry dropped by 7.6%.
(Today)
These cart abandonment facts may sound counterintuitive. Didn’t we just talk about the fashion industry struggling with card abandonment?
That being said, one particular part of the beauty industry drove these numbers — skin products and home self-care products. Going to a beauty salon isn’t an option — what’s left is doing it all ourselves. For that reason, the beauty industry’s shopping cart abandonment rate lowered to 73.6%. The previous year, it stood at a whopping 81.2%.
Average Shopping Cart Abandonment Rates
5. Between 2006 and 2017, the number of abandoned carts saw a 15.79% increase.
(Statista)
Back in 2006, the number was 59.8%. Only 11 years later, in 2017, as many as 69.23% of shoppers were leaving ecommerce sites without buying anything.
The reason likely lies in a higher number of competitors. Back in 2006, there weren’t nearly as many online shopping websites as in 2017. What’s more, over the last few years, shoppers have too many choices to tolerate slow loading, unexpected costs, and other common reasons for abandonment during checkout.
6. The average amount of abandoned carts in 2020 was 81.01% across all industries.
Shopping cart abandonment statistics for 2020 show that not all industries were doing equally well. For example, in 2020, the travel industry had the highest number of cart abandonment cases at 87.08%. Fashion was right behind at 84.43%. The retail industry fared better, having a rate of cart abandonment of 77.01%.
Judging by this, 2020 could have been a challenging year for retailers. At the beginning of 2020, the average rate of cart abandonment stood at 72.8%. That is 5% less than the average in 2019 (77.13%).
7. As of the second quarter of 2021, mobile users had an average shopping cart abandonment rate of 80.6%.
The answer to “What percent of all online shopping carts are abandoned?” would be incomplete without mentioning the huge gap between mobile and desktop. Mobile phones may seem handy, but they are often anything but convenient when it comes to online shopping.
For one, the screens are too small for a buyer to have a proper look at what they’re eyeing. The second problem is that ecommerce websites can often be poorly optimized for mobile. Frustrated, the buyers will likely leave without finishing their purchase.
The fact that the average cart abandonment rate is 66.1% for desktops shows the importance of a great omnichannel approach. Since most users start a purchase on their mobile, allowing them to switch to a tablet or desktop can help online retailers lower the percentage of incomplete purchases.
8. The latest available data shows that 86.15% of online purchases in Spain were not completed (2019).
Shopping cart abandonment statistics place Spain as the country with the highest rate of cart abandonment in 2019. On the other side of the continuum is the Netherlands. At 65.49%, it had the lowest rate of cart abandonment. The US was right behind. Shopping cart abandonment rate statistics show 71.86% of US shoppers never completed their purchase.
If you’re wondering about the Amazon cart abandonment rate, based on this, we can assume that the company is doing just fine. The largest online retailer in the US likely has the same or even lower cart abandonment numbers than the total of the US.
9. An abandoned cart rate of 65% can cost marketers an average of $2 to 4 trillion a year.
(Kinsta)
A less than average percentage of cart abandonment can leave a 97.9% gap in conversions. Every time marketers spend money on the ads people click on without purchasing anything, they risk losing their company a lot of money.
Now, just imagine the numbers of double the average abandoned cart percentage. According to Forrester Research, annual losses due to the high number of cart abandonment cases may be as huge as $18 trillion. This massive loss in revenue is one of the most detrimental shopping cart abandonment effects.
10. On average, 45% of cart abandonment emails get opened.
(Barilliance)
The bad news is that the number of abandoned carts started going up in 2020 — for most industries, at least. But there is some good news. By offering discounts to those who abandoned their cart, you have a pretty good chance of convincing them to finish their purchase. In fact, 10.7% of those who get the cart abandonment email end up buying the product after all.
Common Reasons for Shopping Cart Abandonment
11. 21% of US shoppers abandon carts due to a complicated checkout process.
(Baymard Institute)
Research shows that the checkout forms shouldn’t have more than 14 fields. However, the average US checkout flow contains 23.48 form elements. It’s no wonder buyers don’t have the patience to finish their purchase. They are there to buy something, not to jump straight into a company’s sales funnel.
Abandoned cart statistics show the checkout process needs to be smoother and shorter. In fact, it turns out most of the existing checkout flows can easily be reduced by as much as 20-60%.
12. Due to a slow website, instances of cart abandonment can increase by 75%.
(Kinsta)
When it comes to slow websites and shopping cart abandonment statistics, there’s undeniably a strong connection. In this day and age, buyers won’t settle for slow websites. More often than not, buyers will check out other stores before waiting a couple of extra seconds for a page to load.
Many online retailers have proven that faster loading can significantly lower ecommerce cart abandonment rates. For example, the retail giant AliExpress saw a 10.5% increase in orders after reducing its pages’ load time by 36%. Ancestry.com made plenty of changes to its website, including 64% faster loading. The result was a 7% jump in conversions.
13. 13% of US buyers don’t finish a purchase due to website errors/crashes.
(Baymard Institute)
There are plenty of cart abandonment stats that show the importance of site optimization. It all boils down to convenience and ease of shopping. People go shopping online because they expect the process to be straightforward.
If a website isn’t working properly, shoppers will have less patience for the purchasing process. Moreover, they may (rightfully) fear the site being under attack.
It’s clear that the abandonment rate for any shopping cart would have better statistics if websites were better optimized in general.
14. 17% of US shoppers don’t trust websites with their credit card information.
(Baymard Institute)
One of the most common reasons for abandonments during checkout is the lack of trust. Almost a fifth of shoppers don’t trust websites with their credit card information and decide to give up on purchase. One way for online retailers to solve this is to display security badges.
Another money-related issue is the lack of payment options. Anyone who has PayPal will expect to be able to pay in two clicks. But if a website requires them to find a credit card and spend ten minutes entering that information, they’re not likely to finish their purchase. In fact, according to shopping cart abandonment statistics, the lack of payment options is why 6% of all shoppers leave before buying anything.
15. High extra costs are responsible for 49% of all abandoned carts in the US.
Though this research was conducted in the US, buyers from all over the world take an issue with this sales method. Retailers seem to think that the whole “get their attention first, hit them with the real price later” approach will bring results. Instead, it will only give buyers a good reason to go to your competitors.
The Curious Case of Cart Abandonment
If you were ever wondering why someone would waste their time shopping online only to leave without buying anything — now you know.
Shopping cart abandonment stats show that there are plenty of ways to lose a potential buyer, such as slow loading and complicated checkout forms, to name a few. And while some industries are lowering the rates of cart abandonment in 2020, others will have to try harder than ever.
The bottom line is — excellent website performance and transparency go a long way!
FAQ
Q: What is cart abandonment?
Cart abandonment refers to all instances in which a buyer starts shopping but doesn’t finish their purchase. Since we usually talk about it in the context of online shopping, this term is often synonymous with online shopping cart abandonment.
If you know the number of initiated checkouts, you can easily estimate the level of cart abandonment. To do that, divide the number of completed purchases by the number of initiated checkouts, subtract the result from one, and multiply it by 100.
Q: Why do shoppers abandon the cart?
Plenty of those who start filling up their online cart won’t finish their purchase. Shopping cart abandonment occurs due to several reasons, which fall under two groups: buyers either abandon their cart in the middle of the purchase or at the checkout.
When it comes to those who leave early, some are only browsing and don’t plan on buying anything. Others leave because of slow loading, website errors, etc.
A high checkout abandonment rate, on the other hand, has different causes. The most common ones are unexpected expenses, the lack of payment options, and a complicated checkout process.
Q: What percentage of users abandon their shopping cart?
This answer to this question isn’t straightforward. While the average rate of shopping cart abandonment for 2020 was 81.01%, there are plenty of differences across industries, countries, etc.
The answer to “What is the average cart abandonment rate?” was even more complicated in 2020. The onset of COVID-19 saw the average number of shopping cart abandonment skyrocket to 94.4%.
In March of 2020, things started improving with the rate of cart abandonment at 88.05%. We’ll have to wait and see what the shopping cart abandonment statistics will say in 2021.
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