Cart abandonment rate
Cart abandonment rate is the percentage of visitors who add products to the shopping cart but leave your webshop without completing the purchase. For most webshops, it's around 60-80% - and that represents a huge potential revenue stream.
What is cart abandonment rate?
Cart abandonment rate is calculated by dividing the number of completed purchases by the number of baskets created and subtracting it from 100%. If 1,000 visitors add products to the cart, but only 300 complete the purchase, your cart abandonment rate is 70%.
Formula: Cart abandonment rate = (1 - Completed purchases / Created baskets) × 100
What is normal?
The average across industries is typically 69-70% according to the Baymard Institute. But it varies:
- Fashion and apparel: 70-75% (size uncertainty)
- Electronics: 65-70% (price comparison)
- Groceries: 50-60% (higher purchase intent)
- Travel: 80-85% (long decision-making process)
Why do customers abandon the cart?
The most common reasons according to the Baymard Institute:
- Unexpected costs (48%): Freight, fees and VAT that first appear at checkout. The biggest reason for abandonment.
- Forced account creation (26%): Customers who just want to buy quickly give up if they have to create an account.
- Too long checkout (22%): Too many steps and fields in the checkout process.
- Unclear total cost (21%): The customer can't calculate the total price in advance.
- Lack of trust (18%): The customer is unsure if the site is safe to pay on.
- Lack of payment method (13%): The preferred payment method is not available.
- Too long delivery time (12%): Delivery time is too long or unspecified.
How to reduce cart abandonment
Show costs early on
Show shipping and delivery costs already on the product page or in the cart - not at checkout. No surprises.
Offer guest checkout
Let customers pay without creating an account. You can always offer account creation after the purchase.
Simplify checkout
Reduce the number of steps and fields to the bare essentials. Autofill, postcode lookup and real-time form validation speed up the process.
Offer multiple payment methods
MobilePay, Apple Pay, Klarna and cards cover most Danish customers' preferences.
Build trust
Show trust badges, Trustpilot reviews, security certifications and clear contact details.
Abandoned cart emails
One of the most effective methods to recover abandoned baskets is automatic email reminders. Statistics show that abandoned cart emails have an open rate of 40-45% and a conversion rate of 10-15%.
Shoporama has a built-in abandoned cart email (basket_mail) that can send an automatic reminder to customers who have left products in their basket. The email can contain the specific products and a direct link back to the basket.
Measure your cart abandonment rate
Track cart abandonment rate in Google Analytics 4 via the funnel analysis:
- Create a funnel with the steps: Product view → Add to cart → Start checkout → Buy
- Identify the step with the highest abandonment rate
- Segment by device (mobile vs. desktop), traffic source and customer segment
- Compare over time to see the impact of your changes
We know online marketing in Shoporama
We've been working with online marketing ourselves for decades. As the only shop system in the country, we have spoken multiple times at conferences such as Marketingcamp, SEOday, Shopcamp, Digital Marketing, E-commerce Manager, Ecommerce Day, Web Analytics Wednesday and many more.