How to reduce cart abandonment rates when shopping online
Romain Didelot
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Introduction
Optimizing your website's conversion rate is key in e-commerce. And going through the shopping cart is one of the crucial steps before converting your sale. 7 out of 10 visitors abandon their shopping carts before finalizing their order/purchase. While this figure is a problem, it's not inevitable. Rather, it's an opportunity. Yes, there are plenty of ways to reduce the rate of abandoned shopping baskets, and even capitalize on them with SMS ! This message can make the difference between a purchase and an abandonment, both during the conversion process as well as for follow-up after an abandoned cart. Follow the guide.
Defining and estimating online shopping cart abandonment
What is cart abandonment?
Cart abandonment is a phenomenon specific to e-commerce. A user adds items to his or her shopping cart for a purchase on an online store, but leaves the site without finalizing the order process with a transaction. Cart abandonment can be linked to various factors, both external (on the buyer's side) and internal (on the merchant's side).
Potential buyers sometimes use the shopping basket as a wishlist. A shopping list to save for a more convenient time or to make a 1er product sorting. Consumers can also compare your offer with other sites simultaneously and decide to finalize their purchase elsewhere.
On the online shopping site side, certain elements of the customer experience may have put users off, such as high delivery costs, a lack of flexibility in payment methods, problems with the payment process, a blurred customer journey or overly complex navigation, security concerns, etc.
How do you calculate the abandonment rate?
While the finesse of the data collected depends very much on your e-commerce solution (tracking level, GTM and GA settings...), calculating your visitors' shopping cart abandonment rate is fairly straightforward. It's the number of shopping baskets created that haven't led to a transaction, or a sale for short.
The calculation is as follows:
100- [Number of transactions / number of basket creations X 100].
Example: Yesterday, my company recorded 20 basket creations for 5 transactions. 100- [20/5X100] =75. The shopping cart abandonment rate is 75%.
You can calculate the online shopping cart abandonment rate using data collected by your web analytics solution.
Depending on the level of tracking and the payment module you've set up, the objective expressing basket creation may be different: it's either the number of "basket creation" events, or the number of visits to the URL summarizing the items added.
What are the main causes of shopping cart abandonment among online visitors?
According to a study conducted by the independent American institute Baymard 1 on shopping cart abandonment in 2023, shoppers abandon their carts more than 69% of the time (average based on 48 different studies, conducted between 2012 and 2023). Imagine the number of customers/buyers to be gained by solving the problem that causes them to abandon their shopping cart.
Here are the Top 10 reasons for dropping out:
- 48% Additional costs added to purchase or costs too high (delivery/shipping, taxes, miscellaneous costs...)
- 24% Mandatory customer account creation
- 22% Delivery time too long
- 18% Trust in the site regarding payment - Fear of using credit card on site (mainly outside E.U.)
- 17% Payment process or order tunnel too long/complicated
- 16% I couldn't see/calculate the total cost of the order in advance
- 13% The website had errors/concerns about ergonomics and design
- 12% Return policy was unsatisfactory
- 9% Few payment options/lack of diversity in payment methods
- 4% Credit card refusal
While these statistics may indeed be frightening, they are proof that e-tailers have a huge opportunity. 69% abandonment rate and fear of checkout means 69% room for optimizing the customer journey and boosting ROI.
Putting an item in a shopping cart expresses your visitors' intention to buy. There may not be much missing for the user to take action and become a buyer. What's more, 3 of the top 10 reasons for shopping cart abandonment are avoidable thanks to SMS !
Let's take a look at the solutions available to you
7 tips to reduce shopping cart abandonment with the SMS
Offer delivery costs / be clear about delivery times
Do you offer free shipping? Include it next to your CTAs! Offering delivery on the purchase of several products or on orders over a certain amount not only boosts your sales, but also encourages cross- and up-selling.
Also, waiting always seems longer when you don't know how long it's going to last. An order reminder email or SMS containing a tracking URL can improve the customer experience.
Don't impose the creation of customer accounts / optimize the recovery of an account
24% abandonment rate, thanks to SMS ! You can authenticate web users via their telephone number using SMS OTP , and generate a secure customer account seamlessly. The OTP also avoids churn due to forgotten logins by enabling recovery from the verified number. So you don't force the creation of customer accounts, but they still exist for the purchasing process.
Add elements to give buyers confidence in your site
Another major cause of abandonment (18%) avoidable with SMS! Improve the user experience and customer confidence in your site with an additional security element(2FA) and reinforce the "forgotten password" function with a quick check. Also consider adding a reassurance banner to your page, which remains visible at every stage of the customer journey and brings together all the reassurance criteria (guarantees, free returns, 3-D secure, ethical values, etc.).
Be fully transparent about additional fees
Delivery costs play a major role in the purchase decision (48%), so it's best to address the need for clarity on the page right from the start. On the web, it's a mistake to think that consumers who reach the shopping cart are committed enough to the purchasing process to accept high delivery charges. Competition is fierce, and web users are volatile. If offering the fee is too great a loss for you, increasing the price of your products by taking into account part of the delivery costs can avoid the emotional elevator at the end of the purchase tunnel.
Put forward a favourable return policy
Many brands have made sales using this technique. A long withdrawal period, free returns, a clear and advantageous refund or voucher policy... It's an excellent message sent to consumers: they can take action, without consequences.
Offer a simple navigation and payment experience
Avoid unnecessary steps at all costs, to reduce the number of clicks between item selection and transaction. One-click payment is the goal, even if it's difficult to achieve. You can also remove the navigation header at the entrance to the funnel to help concentration on the purchase, and/or offer information on the name and number of steps remaining at the top of the page. Where possible, also make sure to provide your web users with several payment solutions, including the Apple Pay option.
Set up an automatic basket backup
It may not have been the right time to make a purchase, but give your customer a chance to return to your pages when the context is more conducive to making a purchase. In the meantime, you can set up a series of follow-up messages by e-mail, SMS or both! All ways that will help you convert.
The SMS relaunch message after cart abandonment: The key to boosting your e-commerce sales.
When it comes to sending a message to your customers after an abandoned shopping cart, email is naturally the first choice. In fact, according to skeepers, this is one use case in which it performs particularly well. 2the abandonment email achieves a success rate of 29%.
The same is true of the study carried out by SaleCycle 3 where we learn that :
- 44.1% of basket reminder emails are opened.
- 11.6% of them are clicked.
- And 29.9% of email clicks result in a sale.
However, as the KPI comparison SMS vs emailSMS 's performance makes the competition pale in comparison:
- 95% open rate (compared with 20% for e-mail)
- Read within 4 minutes on average (compared with 90 minutes for e-mail)
- 0% SPAM (compared to 80% for email)
- 29% conversion rate (compared with 3.26% for e-mail)
Just imagine what SMS can do for your online store's abandoned cart recovery strategy.
What's more, SMS and e-mail can also be used together as part of a marketing automation strategy. For example, we can imagine a workflow in which follow-up emails that are not opened after a given time trigger the sending of a SMS message, thus maximizing the chances of your buyers returning to the shopping cart page.
Used alone or in conjunction with e-mail, SMS marketing offers you numerous possibilities for your abandonment reminder procedure. It offers you the virtual certainty of being read, it's customizable, universal and easy to set up. Here are a few tips to make this message even more effective.
The key elements of a SMS relaunch:
1.buyer's name
Like email, SMS has variables that can be replaced by customer data. Addressing buyers by their first name is a great way to start a personalized experience.
2.product name
Abandoned cart SMS are sent 30 minutes to a few hours after a customer leaves a website. This can be a long time, so customers may have forgotten the contents of their shopping cart. Make sure you include the product name with the variables for an effective reminder before your link to the purchase page!
3.URL
This is obviously the detail that shouldn't be missed. The link is your call to action, directing customers to the checkout page, often with their products in the shopping cart. Tip: use a personalized link. Using branded links or personalized URLs can increase brand visibility and boost CTRs by up to 39% (Zipwhip 4).
4.discount
Discount codes can make all the difference, especially for customers who have abandoned their shopping baskets due to unexpected delivery charges. Not a fan of discounts? Offer free delivery from an average basket or exclusive gifts for a similar effect.
5 Incentives for action
The call to action (CTA) pushes customers to act immediately, all the more so when it plays on FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). This fear of missing out affects 52.9% of under-25s and nearly a third of 25-45s (SpotPink). In your abandoned basket messages, combine your incentives with a short expiry date or limited stock to encourage people to take action.
Example of a reminder message SMS : Abandoned shopping baskets
To help you get started with your relaunch strategy, we've decided to provide you with a few examples from SMS of abandoned carts. Discover the 6 perfect examples to get you started:
[Brand name]
You seem to have forgotten something!
Your basket is still awaiting payment. Use code [code name] to get 10% off your entire order.
[link to abandoned cart]
STOP 36123
[SenderID]
Hello [Name],
Get [Product] today before it's out of stock.
[URL]
STOP 36123
[SenderID]
Hey, [Name], it's [Brand name].
We've noticed that you haven't finished shopping. Don't worry, we're looking after you - use [code] to get X% off your order! [ link page].
STOP 36123
Find out more at SMS and get inspired right from the start!
[SenderID]
[Name], the superb products of [brand name] are about to be yours. Just a few clicks away!
Get your products here [URL].
STOP 36123
[Brand name]
Hello [Name], you've left a few things unattended!
Use code [code] to get [% ] off your order!
[URL].
STOP 36123
[Sender ID]
Hey, [Name], maybe you missed out! There are some great items in your cart. It's time to take advantage of the free delivery offered to our Internet users!
Click here to complete your order [page].
[Brand].
STOP 36123
Conclusion
These examples and the tips above should be more than enough to get you started with SMS abandoned cart messages. These SMS can be set up from Shopify, WooCommerce or other providers. Don't forget to set the right triggers and automate the process, and get ready to see your company's sales soar!
Automate your e-commerce promotion, retention and relaunch strategies by SMS with our plugin
1: https://baymard.com/lists/cart-abandonment-rate
2: https://skeepers.io/en/blog/fight-cart-abandonment/
3: https://www.salecycle.com/
4: zipwhip
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