eMarketing & Commerce (eM+C)

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Editor-in-Chief

The View From Here

By Melissa Campanelli

About Melissa

Melissa Campanelli is the editor-in-chief of Target Marketing's eM+C brand and Retail Online Integration, a monthly print magazine, website and e-letter (The ROI Report) that's all about the integration of sales channels, including print/catalog, transactional websites and retail stores, as well as email, mobile, social media and more.

Prior to becoming editor-in-chief of eM+C, Melissa spent ten years at DM News, where she was first a senior editor and then deputy editor. She's also a leading expert in small business e-commerce and author of the books "Entrepreneur Magazine's Open an Online Business in 10 Days" and "Start Your Own e-Business."

 

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Abandonment Issues

By Melissa Campanelli | Posted on June 24, 2009
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Throughout my 10-plus years covering online marketing and commerce, one nagging issue that’s remained top-of-mind for all in the space has been shopping cart abandonment and how to stop it from happening. In fact, a survey released by PayPal on June 23 showed that 45 percent of online shoppers abandoned their carts multiple times in the three weeks prior to the survey, which was conducted May 12 to May 15 by comScore. It polled 553 active shoppers who recently had abandoned shopping carts. Another finding: The average value of goods in abandoned shopping carts in the U.S. is $109. High shipping costs, security concerns and lack of convenience were cited as the main reasons survey respondents abandoned their carts. Although high shipping costs was cited as the No. 1 reason for cart abandonment, 40 percent of respondents said if they’d known shipping costs up front they might have completed their purchases. Thirty-seven percent of survey respondents abandoned their carts because they wanted to comparison shop. Another 36 percent didn’t have enough money after shipping and handling charges were added to totals. Twenty-seven percent of respondents who abandoned their carts did so to search for coupons, although a third of those shoppers later returned to the same site to buy. An additional 20 percent purchased the items at brick-and-mortar stores or competitors' Web sites. Other reasons shoppers abandon their carts include the following:
  • 26 percent wanted to shop offline;
  • 24 percent couldn't find preferred pay options;
  • 23 percent said the item was unavailable at checkout;
  • 22 percent couldn't find customer support; and
  • 21 percent were concerned about the security of credit card data.
While this information may not solve your abandoned shopping cart problems, maybe it will give you some ideas as to how to improve them. If you make customer service easy to find on your site, for example, your abandonment rates may go down. This is an excellent topic for an open dialogue. Have any of you seen improved shopping cart abandonment rates based on a strategy or technique you’ve implemented? If so, let us know by leaving a comment here. We'd love to hear from you!
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COMMENTS

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Most Recent Comments:
Stephen Cobb - Posted on June 30, 2009
Melissa -- thanks for highlighting these numbers, they really do tell an interesting story. And e-retailers who take the time to understand the implications will definitely increase their revenue.

I was particularly happy to get validation on the number of respondents who abandoned their carts to search for coupons (27%). Since we started giving our e-retail clients the ability to selectively hide the Coupon box on the checkout page it has proven to be a popular and profitable offering. (I don't recall specific lift percentages off-hand, but they are impressive.)

You might wonder why that Coupon box is there at all, given that it is such a distraction? The answer points to a broader concern that many online retailers have: The challenge of aligning I.T. with marketing. The Coupon box is typically hard coded into standard back-end software. When marketing asks the I.T. folks if they can take it out, or hide it for specific segments of traffic, they are told No, I.T. can't do that, or doesn't have resources to do that.

Fortunately, it *can* be done. And when it is done, the results are in line with the numbers you cite: That 27% slice of coupon-chasing cart abandoners complete the sale.
Click here to view archived comments...
Archived Comments:
Stephen Cobb - Posted on June 30, 2009
Melissa -- thanks for highlighting these numbers, they really do tell an interesting story. And e-retailers who take the time to understand the implications will definitely increase their revenue.

I was particularly happy to get validation on the number of respondents who abandoned their carts to search for coupons (27%). Since we started giving our e-retail clients the ability to selectively hide the Coupon box on the checkout page it has proven to be a popular and profitable offering. (I don't recall specific lift percentages off-hand, but they are impressive.)

You might wonder why that Coupon box is there at all, given that it is such a distraction? The answer points to a broader concern that many online retailers have: The challenge of aligning I.T. with marketing. The Coupon box is typically hard coded into standard back-end software. When marketing asks the I.T. folks if they can take it out, or hide it for specific segments of traffic, they are told No, I.T. can't do that, or doesn't have resources to do that.

Fortunately, it *can* be done. And when it is done, the results are in line with the numbers you cite: That 27% slice of coupon-chasing cart abandoners complete the sale.