Cart Abandonment Definition
Cart abandonment happens when an online shopper adds products to their shopping cart but leaves the website without completing the purchase. It is one of the most closely tracked metrics in ecommerce because it shows how many customers were interested enough to start buying but didn't finish.
How is cart abandonment measured?
It is measured as the cart abandonment rate: the share of shopping carts that never turn into an order.
Cart abandonment rate = (1 − completed orders ÷ carts created) × 100
For example, if 1,000 shoppers add items to their cart and 300 complete a purchase, the abandonment rate is 70%. Rates around this level are common across the industry; Baymard Institute's long-running research has consistently found that roughly seven in ten online carts are abandoned.
A related metric, checkout abandonment, counts only shoppers who started the checkout process and then left. It helps pinpoint whether customers leave while browsing or during payment and delivery steps.
Why do shoppers abandon their carts?
Some abandonment is unavoidable. Many shoppers use the cart to save items, compare prices, or check the total cost before deciding. Others leave because of problems the business can fix:
- Unexpected costs: shipping fees, taxes, or service charges that appear only at checkout
- Complicated checkout: too many steps, long forms, or forced account creation
- Limited payment or delivery options: a preferred payment method is missing, or delivery takes too long
- Lack of trust: unclear return policies or concerns about payment security
- Uncertainty about the product: missing sizes, vague specifications, unclear compatibility, or too few images
How can businesses reduce cart abandonment?
The most effective steps address the causes directly: show full costs early, offer guest checkout, keep forms short, and provide familiar payment methods. Many shops also send reminder emails to customers who left items in their cart, which recovers a portion of lost sales.
Product information plays a larger role than it may seem. A shopper who can't confirm whether a cable fits their device or whether a jacket runs small is likely to hesitate, leave to research elsewhere, and not return. Complete, accurate, and consistent product data removes these doubts before they reach the checkout stage. Businesses selling large ranges across several channels often use a Product Information Management (PIM) system to keep specifications, images, and descriptions complete everywhere products appear. Lower cart abandonment directly improves the conversion rate.
