4 Cart Abandonment Myths that Have the Most Impact on Your Conversion Rates

Cart abandonment is a big deal for eCommerce store owners. A high cart abandonment rate could be a sign of a broken sales funnel or poor user experience, lowering sales by as much as 69%.  

Unfortunately, some people assume that cart abandonment is simply part of running an eCommerce business. So, they do very little to lower their cart abandonment rates.  

Misconceptions like this can bring serious, lasting damage to your business. That’s why we’ve decided to debunk these cart abandonment myths to make sure you make informed decisions for your eCommerce store.  

Myth#1 “Cart Abandonment Is a Natural Part of eCommerce.”

Cart abandonment has been around longer than eCommerce itself. In stores, it's common to see people change their minds and leave items in their shopping carts that they don’t want to pay for. So, we get why this is a problem that's easy to overlook.  

However, if you take a look at the main reasons why online shoppers abandon their carts, you'll realize that there's something you can do to fix it.  

If you want to boost your close rate and make more sales, you need to keep an eye on your cart abandonment rate. It’ll help you identify problems in your customer journey and pinpoint exactly what you should improve for a higher conversion rate.  

What you can do is assess your web design in West Palm Beach through a heatmap. This will help you spot trends, discover the way users interact with your site, and determine areas or elements in your checkout process that are causing friction and frustration for your customers.  

Myth#2 “Cart Abandonment Happens Because a Customer Simply Loses Interest in a Product.”

Although there are instances wherein a customer loses interest in your products and abandons their cart, this isn’t always the reason why they’re leaving your site without checking out.  

Here are the most common reasons for cart abandonment:

Checkout Page Design – A good user experience is a key to any successful conversion. By eliminating friction, such as visual clutter, slow page loading speed, and difficult interface, you can keep users on your site until the sale is completed.

Complicated Checkout Process – Another reason why potential customers abandon their shopping carts is that they need to go through several steps before they can finally checkout the item they want. This takes a lot of time and is a major turn-off to most online shoppers. Optimize your checkout process by requiring only the essential data from your customers and offering secure payment options.

Hidden Charges or Unexpected Additional Costs at Checkout – Additional charges like shipping, taxes, and other fees can come as a surprise to potential customers. In fact, 55% of shoppers see them as one of the biggest dealbreakers when shopping online. Make sure to incorporate taxes into your product cost and give your customers a clear breakdown of what they’re paying for during checkout. This way, they won't feel like you tricked them into adding items to their cart.  

Non-Mobile-Friendly Website – Mobile eCommerce accounts for 54% of all eCommerce sales. Most people use their phones when shopping online. If your website doesn’t load fast or appear right on mobile, chances are, you’ll never be able to score a checkout with mobile users.  

Payment Security Problems – Trust is crucial if you want online shoppers to buy from you. This is why it’s important to put trust signals and badges, support options, and a detailed FAQ about payment security in your checkout web design in West Palm Beach.

Account Setup Requirement – Many eCommerce sites require users to create an account to be able to buy stuff from them. But this turns potential customers off and drives them away from your competitors. Enable guest checkout so people can buy from your site without creating an account. If you want to get their information and add them to your email list, offer exclusive deals for subscribers instead, and present this after they checkout to get them to sign up.  

Myth#3 “The Only Way to Get a Customer to Checkout Items in Their Abandoned Cart Is to Give Them a Discount.”

Discounts aren’t the only way to win back customers and recover lost sales. There are other creative ways you can do without sacrificing a huge chunk of your profit, such as:

• Sending abandoned cart emails specifying which items you’d want them to act upon. Vague abandoned cart emails are never effective.  
• Engineering FOMO (fear of missing out) push notifications or alerts. For example, “Still interested in buying x? Only a few items left in stock!”
• Use real-time notifications to alert users of what other customers are purchasing in real-time. People love to buy what others are buying so seeing that other customers are also buying the items they're eyeing will get them to hit checkout.  

• Include customer testimonials in your emails to build trust and convince customers to buy.  
• Offer other “bestselling” alternatives in your email copy if they lost interest in the original item they added to the cart and prompted their bail.  
• Create a personalized email copy. Address your customer using their first name and be specific about what product they left in their cart that you want them to check out.  
• Incentivize loyal customers first to try and win them back or put discounts on items that have a higher mark-up.  

Myth#4 “Once a Cart Has Been Abandoned, There’s Nothing You Can Do to Win Back That Sale.”

Today, there's a corresponding marketing strategy for every aspect of the customer journey, including abandoned carts.  

This means that there's something you can do to win back sales and get potential customers to complete their transactions on your site, even if they didn’t give you their email.  

Here are cart six cart abandonment strategies (apart from email) you should try:

Cart abandonment retargeting ads

Use retargeting to deliver ads featuring the items left in their carton sites like Facebook, Google, Instagram, and other sites.  

To create effective cart abandonment retargeting ads, behavioral segmentation is key. Make sure you divide your audiences based on:

• Product type – Deliver carousel ads showing a picture of the item they abandoned and other related products to encourage them to consider other products and get back to your site.  
• Exit point – Customers who exit on the category page may respond to related product recommendations, while those who exited on the shipping page may be interested in free shipping deals.  
• Cart value – Customers with a huge cart value may be worth pursuing for a longer period and investing in retargeting ads compared to those with smaller cart value. Don’t be afraid to experiment to figure out.  
• Demographics – Group your customer according to demographics so you can serve ads that are relevant to each group. For example, a younger demographic might respond better to retargeting on TikTok or a fresher, more fun ad copy, while an older audience might respond better to retargeting on Facebook.  

Give users the option to save items in their carts. Your customers might have every intention of completing their purchase, but they need a bit of time first.

By providing your customers with online cart saves, you’re allowing them to return and finish shopping later.

Provide a way for customers to save items without adding them to their cart. To lower your cart abandonment rate, why not offer a Wishlist, Save for Later, and Heart Button options for customers who want to keep a running of items they like and might consider buying later.  

Get around cookie limitations by gathering more customer data. Now that we live in a cookie-less world, you need to get creative and gather more information about your customers to deliver personalized content. Here’s how you can achieve this:

• Offer exclusive deals and discounts in exchange for an email address. This makes it easier to send cart abandonment emails.  

• Offer 10-15% discounts to get customers to answer questions about your checkout process.  
• Create fun social media surveys and polls to get to know your customers better.

Remind users about the items left in their cart and related deals and discounts through push notification alerts and other channels, such as:

• SMS
• Whatsapp

• Facebook Messenger

Bring Customers Back to Your eCommerce Site by Debunking Common Misconceptions

Believing the wrong information about cart abandonment can jeopardize your eCommerce store. Now that you know what’s true and the different ways you can address cart abandonment problems, such as optimizing your web design in West Palm Beach, apply them to reduce your abandoned cart rates and boost your sales!  

At Digital Resource, our team of digital marketing specialists will work with you to create a custom web design in West Palm Beach that reduces cart abandonment.  

Contact us today to start boosting your conversion rates!

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