At CartBoss we talk a lot about abandoned carts and how to recover them with text messages. But what are the reasons abandoned carts even occur in the first place? Based on our research we gathered 5 of the main reasons why this happens.
But before we continue with the article, we have an interesting statistic we want to share with you!
Did you know that more than 70% of people who abandon their cart fill out the checkout form? It does not need to be the whole form, but they usually fill out the top 3 fields.
So, to optimize your abandoned cart recovery, we advise you to move the phone input field to the first place in the form!
Reasons why customers abandon your cart
A visitor adds a product to their cart and they get to the checkout page. The product they added was interesting to them and they sincerely wanted to buy it.
But then they leave the site. They did not leave a note, they did not fill out a survey letting you know why they decided to do that. The only thing you know is that they abandoned their cart and that you lost marketing money that was used to get them to visit your website.
At CartBoss, where we offer to recover abandoned carts with text messages, we analyzed a lot of eCommerce sites to find the main reason for this situation.
These are the top 5 reasons why customers abandon their cart:
- Additional/Hidden costs
- Random distraction
- Bad shipping conditions
- Missing payment methods
- Long checkout process
Let’s check each reason a bit more in-depth. In addition, we will recommend a solution to lower the abandoned cart percentage for every reason. If you are interested in abandoned cart statistics even more, check out this article: Abandoned cart text message statistics.
1. Additional/Hidden costs
When users reach the checkout page, all they need to do is fill in their information, choose the payment method and that is it.
Most times, the cost of the product is not the same as the final costs of buying the product and getting it delivered home. The costs are most times higher, as online shops charge shipping individually; as well as perhaps adding taxes, additional fees for payment methods, and so on.
These additional costs are known as hidden costs and they affect the conversion rate. The higher the hidden costs the higher the chance of losing a customer.
This means that you can expect a high number of abandoned carts. Still, with CartBoss, you can recover those abandoned carts by sending them a text message and offering them free delivery or a discount if they complete their order. It is a well know tactic to recover abandoned carts with a huge ROI – higher than 2400%!
2. Random distraction
One would think that this is a rare occasion, that somebody abandoned their cart due to a random distraction, but we suspect that that is not the case. One of the most popular text message templates being used as the first abandoned cart text message reminder is just a simple reminder, that you forgot something in your cart.
With these facts, we suspect that a lot of people simply get distracted or think that they will buy it later but then forget about it. And that is why they only need a simple reminder.
In the CartBoss dashboard, there are more than 20 different text messages already prepared to choose from. Even more, they are also translated into all the languages it is possible to send text messages.
3. Bad shipping conditions
Customers like to get what they ordered as soon as possible. If the waiting time is too long there is a greater chance of them not choosing to buy it. Even though there is fast shipping available, sometimes these prices get too high in comparison with the price of the product itself.
In order to know the real reason for the customers not converting, it is best to test different, to see if that is really the case. If so, then one option would be to leave the prices as they are and just offer the ones that abandon your cart free shipping if they complete their order.
Of course, this can not be done on the site, as they have already left it. That is why sending a text message, where more than 93% of text messages get read in under 3 minutes, comes into play!
CartBoss has this feature as well as 4 different text messages prepared for this specific offer. The offer by itself gets automatically embedded into the recipient’s cart as well, so they do not need to enter the coupon code.
4. Missing payment methods
Offering multiple different payment methods is crucial these days as online customers have various preferred ways of paying. Either cash on delivery, PayPal, credit cards, Google Pay, Apple Pay,…
The most important thing here is, to offer at least 3 highly different payment methods. Adding more, where some options, like PayPal, offer multiple different payment methods within their solution.
The best way to lower the abandoned cart rate in this specific situation is to have a 24/7 online support chat, where it would be possible to arrange alternative payment methods.
5. Long checkout process
Having a long checkout process, including requiring the customer to register, is still a big turning factor for most online buyers. They do not want to lose too much time, add any registration obligations/or share too much personal data.
Requesting to enter only the most important information is best in order to have as highest conversion rate possible. In addition, some personal information, like email addresses or phone numbers is good to be additionally explained, why they are needed – depending on the country where the shop operates.
If a long checkout process is a reason for low conversion rates, reminding customers, that they forgot something in the cart might just be the solution! Just a reminder, not even a discount offer – reminding them they forgot something in their cart and that it is waiting for them for a limited time.
That is exactly what CartBoss offers out of the box!
To read more about all the features CartBoss has to offer, check out this article: Best text messaging service for WooCommerce
