Shopping cart abandonment: Top 10 reasons and the best solutions to fix it (Part 2)

If you are the owner of an online business we’re sure that the term shopping cart abandonment sounds familiar to you. Undoubtedly, shoppers leaving their carts behind and quitting websites happens a lot and that’s why it is worth discussing this issue. 

In the first part of our article we talked about 5 reasons behind the issue and today we’re ready to share 5 more with you. Just as we previously did, for each reason we are going to give you some useful tips and solutions that can help you make your visitors stay on your website and actually purchase the items they put in their carts.

#1 Concerning security 

When it comes to making online payments, security is key. If your customers don’t feel comfortable and secure sharing their financial information on your website, they won’t make a purchase. If your website looks unprofessional and the checkout page looks odd, people will turn back and cancel on shopping from you. 

Solution: The best thing you can do is to comfort your visitors and communicate concisely about payments. Make sure that paying on your website is secure and looks safe so your visitors can confidently follow through with the payment.

#2 Lack of various payment gateway

One of the most annoying issues when making online payments is when your payment options are limited. For some people paying through the default gateway with their VISA cards might be the most convenient option, but others might prefer other options. If you cannot offer your customers a broad range of options to pay for your products and services, they will abandon their cart and search elsewhere. 

Solution: Allow your customers to choose from a wide range of payment options. The most basic ones are paying with their cards, making a bank transfer, or using PayPal as their payment method.

#3 Unfriendly return and refund policy

Companies with an unclear and unfriendly return and refund policy are not popular among online shoppers, and we can definitely see why. People like to feel assured that in case something goes wrong with their order they are covered. Most businesses offer a time frame within which customers can return the purchased items and receive a full or partial refund. 

Solution: If your business doesn’t have a return and refund policy that is appealing to your customers and makes them feel secure, it might be time to change that.

#4 No promotions and discounts

Sometimes shoppers need some encouragement to put items in their cart and actually, finalize their order. Promotions, sales, coupon codes, and special discounts have always power that triggers the visitors to shop. Many e-commerce websites are flooded with these, and without any doubt, they work. People love receiving discounts either in a newsletter or on-site. 

Solution: Make your customers feel appreciated when they sign up or place a larger order, or encourage them to shop by offering them promotions and discounts on your website.

#5 Long delivery delays

The one thing that most people hate about online shopping is the delivery part of the process. No one likes to wait, especially if the delivery time takes longer than expected. If you keep your customers waiting for too long for their order to arrive, they might end up canceling it before you could even ship it. 

Solution: Try to make the order processing period quicker, so you can ship the packaging as soon as possible. Work with reliable delivery companies that have a good reputation and are famous for their responsible and fast delivery.

Closing thoughts

Shopping cart abandonment is a common challenge in the world of e-commerce many business owners and marketing specialists need to deal with. It’s not easy to find the right audience for your product and it is not simple either to convert your visitors into customers. When you think you have got them, they might suddenly quit your website abandoning their cart for no obvious reasons. 

Luckily, some solutions help. But in order to improve the situation, you need to understand what makes your customers change their minds and leave your website. Let’s wrap up the 10 most common reasons we discussed why shoppers abandon their carts last minute:

1. The lack of a guest check-out option
2. Unexpected shipping and delivery fees
3. Complicated checkout process
4. Slow website and poor website performance
5. No customer support
6. Concerning security 
7. Lack of various payment gateway
8. Unfriendly return and refund policy
9. No promotions and discounts
10. Long delivery delays

We hope this list can help you understand the issues behind your customers leaving your website without sending their orders. Tools like Google Analytics can help you see if there are unfinished purchases on your website, so you can send out reminders or use other remarketing tools to make those visitors come back and finish their orders.