What is Shopify cart abandonment?
Shopify cart abandonment is a situation in which a shopper adds articles from a Shopify store into a shopping cart but subsequently fails to complete the purchase and make an order. Other common reasons that such events occur include a lengthy and confusing checkout, shipping charges, and the customers using the cart to wish or for reference only.
Reasons for Abandoned Cart in Shopify
Shopify abandoned carts arise when there are multiple barriers between clicking that ‘Add to Cart’ button and finally making a purchase on your eCommerce store.
Some of these include high shipping costs, account creation requirement at checkout, complicated checkout process, or in simple words, window shopping by the customers.
The Baymard Institute has published research about the seven major reasons for shopping cart abandonment.
1. Streamline Your Checkout Process:
Mobile Optimization: The checkout process should be optimized for mobile. These are the things that work better with a small screen size in terms of mobility: responsive design, big clickables, and simple forms.
Optimize for Speed: Minimize the number of steps that your customer needs to take to complete the purchase. Reduce the fields in the checkout and use that as an opportunity to implement guest checkout.
2. Offer Multiple Payment Options:
Localized Payment Methods: Depending on where you are directing your market, include region-specific payments that are popular and trusted in those markets. The possibility of increasing such conversions with international customers can be massive.
Payment Security: For every payment method, emphasize the security elements that are used in the process to ensure that customers feel safe with the transactions they make.
3. Display Clear Shipping Costs Upfront:
Free Shipping Thresholds: When offering free shipping, point out the threshold amount which would be spent in exchange for that service. This helps customers to buy more, helping exceed that threshold, thereby achieving free shipping and resulting in a higher average order value.
Shipping Speed Options: Provide customers with different shipping speed options. For instance, provide standard and expedited shipping and explain the delivery time for each option.
4. Implement Exit-Intent Popups:
A/B Testing: You test different popup designs, incentives, and timings to find the best combination for your audience. You analyze performance through analytics and can make data-driven decisions about popups.
Segmentation: Use exit-intent popups based on customer segments or browsing behavior. For instance, you’d offer first-time visitors and returning customers different incentives.
5. Use Abandoned Cart Recovery Emails:
Timing and Frequency: Test different timings for sending abandoned cart emails (e.g., immediately after abandonment, after a few hours, next day). Find the optimal frequency that generates the highest conversion rates without overwhelming customers.
Dynamic Content: Use dynamic content in your emails to personalize recommendations based on the abandoned products or the customer’s browsing history.
6. Optimize Your Site Speed:
Page Load Time Benchmarks: Try to hit the three-second mark or quicker for page load time because slower-loading pages can make a dramatic rise in bounce rates and affect conversion rates, for example.
Mobile Performance: Monitor your site’s mobile performance with scheduled audits to ensure pages are loading quickly and your site performs well across all of the various mobile devices and older models and slower networks.
7. Optimize Product Pages
High-Quality Images: Good definition images of the products from all sides shall be shown. Zoom in and out options shall be there for viewing from top to bottom.
Detailed Descriptions: Long descriptions and specifications with different features and benefits of the products should be given. The following common questions which the customers would like to know in advance shall be posted. Hence, there will be lesser uncertainty amongst the customers.
Customer Reviews: Customer reviews and ratings should be enabled on the page so it is highly visible. The positive reviews will behave like a social proof that would induce additional buying intent.
8. A/B testing
Feel free to test different email templates, subject lines, discount offers, and even timing with your recovery emails to find what works best for you.
Cart abandonment is a serious problem for eCommerce in online businesses, since customers add items to a shopping cart and leave without confirming the purchase. Causes may include unexpected costs or overcomplicated checks. Implement the strategies mentioned below and help recover lost sales while increasing your Shopify store’s conversion rates..
