TL;DR
Shopping cart abandonment has always been a headache for online retailers. Your shoppers carefully select products, add them to their shopping cart, and then just … disappear without finalizing the purchase. And it happens all the time – no matter what you sell – leaving you to watch helplessly as potential revenue slips through the cracks.
Just think about it, for every 100 potential customers, nearly 70 of them will leave without purchasing after adding items to their shopping cart. That’s a huge revenue loss and wasted acquisition spend. In fact, according to SellersCommerce, ecommerce stores lose $18 billion in sales annually because of cart abandonment. Now imagine how much revenue you could recover by converting even a fraction of those abandoned carts.
In this blog, we’ll look at why cart abandonment happens in the first place – and, most importantly, what you can do to reduce your ecommerce cart abandonment rate, turning more hesitant shoppers into real conversions.
Shopping cart abandonment happens when a potential customer adds products to their online shopping cart but leaves the website without completing the purchase. In other words, the shopper shows strong buying intent but drops out somewhere in the process before checkout is finished. So, what exactly counts as an abandoned cart?
Most retailers use specific triggers to flag a session as an abandoned cart based on how their analytics or ecommerce platform is set up. Generally, a cart is considered abandoned if:
According to multiple studies, the average cart abandonment rate is about 70%. And based on SellersCommerce, that rate can significantly differ based on the industry. Here are some specific numbers:
Cart abandonment rate also varies by region and device. For example, cart abandonment is highest on mobile devices, where 75.5% of carts are abandoned (which is 5.31% above the global average). Desktop shoppers abandon 69.04% of carts, while tablets see the lowest abandonment rate at 68.55%.
Online shoppers abandon their carts for a variety of reasons. Now, to be fair, a significant portion of cart abandonment happens because of the nature of how users shop online. Some shoppers just compare pricing, save items for later, explore gift options, etc. Obviously, you can’t influence that. And according to a study from Baymard Institute, 43% of US online shoppers have abandoned a cart because they were just browsing but not actually ready to buy.
Some other common reasons for cart abandonment include unexpected costs, slow delivery, lack of trust, mandatory account creation, complicated checkout process, unsatisfactory return policy, lack of diverse payment options, and more. And fortunately, these are mostly fixable.
As you’ve seen from the stats above, in many cases cart abandonment happens because of inefficiencies in the checkout process. And by focusing on fixing checkout usability issues alone, the average large-sized ecommerce website can actually see a 35.26% increase in conversion rate, according to Baymard Institute.
Based on combined U.S. and EU ecommerce sales of $738 billion, a 35.26% improvement in conversion rates represents as much as $260 billion in recoverable revenue, achievable through optimized checkout flow and design.
Download the playbook: How ecommerce brands turn lost checkouts into revenue
So what exactly can you do to reduce your cart abandonment rate? These are the top 10 proven strategies that work in 2026:
Based on data from SellersCommerce, 48% of shoppers abandon their carts because of additional charges at final checkout. This is totally avoidable by simply being more transparent with shoppers. That means clearly displaying all costs upfront, including taxes and shipping charges, early in the process (ideally, before a user reaches the final checkout stages).
Plus, you can provide price comparison tools to help shoppers see how your offerings stack up against competitors.
Your checkout process needs to be quick and effortless because shoppers clearly prefer speed and simplicity when making online purchases. If there are too many steps or if the process isn’t fast and intuitive, abandonment is inevitable. The stats above show that nearly 1 out of 5 shoppers have abandoned a cart due to a “too long / complicated checkout process.”
In practice, that means minimizing the number of steps a user needs to take to finalize the purchase. And according to data from MarketingLTB, reducing checkout steps from 5 to 3 can decrease cart abandonment by 27%.
On top of that, you can display a progress bar, showing the user’s progress throughout the checkout process and providing a greater sense of control and transparency. When shoppers can see how much they’ve already invested in the process, they’re less likely to drop off midway through checkout.
Recommended reading: How to boost your checkout conversion rate in 5 easy steps
Optimizing the checkout experience for mobile isn’t a ‘nice to have’ anymore, especially considering that over half of all online purchases are now happening through smartphones. In fact, based on Statista, by 2027, mobile commerce will account for 62% of all ecommerce transactions.
Moreover, stats say that 13% of mobile shoppers abandon carts because of bad mobile checkout design. Here are some mobile-first checkout best practices to implement:
Offering a guest checkout option is one of the most effective ways to reduce shopping cart abandonment. Data from Baymard shows that nearly 20% of shoppers drop off at checkout when they are forced to create an account. For first-time shoppers or those looking to make a quick purchase, in particular, that can be a major turnoff.
In addition, based on research from Capterra, 66% of online shoppers expect to complete online checkout in 4 minutes or less, while 29% expect to finish it in under 2 minutes. Guest checkout provides a faster and smoother experience for first-time buyers, reduces friction, and ultimately helps you reduce abandoned carts.
According to research, 76% of US consumers want the ability to use their preferred payment method when shopping online. And when their preferred method isn’t available, many will abandon the cart without completing the purchase. Some of the most popular options include:
The Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) option in particular is getting increasingly popular. Based on stats from Chargeflow, merchants often report lower cart abandonment after introducing Buy Now, Pay Later options. Better yet, BNPL is often linked to higher order values, typically increasing cart sizes by 15–40% depending on the merchant and sector.
Returns are inevitable in ecommerce – and shoppers want to know what to expect in case they’re not happy with their purchase. Being transparent about your return policy upfront helps you lower the abandonment rate by reducing the perceived risk and building trust and credibility. Here are some best practices to follow:
Nearly 20% of online shoppers abandon their carts simply because they don’t trust the website enough to share their payment details. Adding social proof and trust signals (especially on the checkout page) can help reduce cart abandonment by reassuring shoppers right when they’re deciding whether to complete their purchase.
These signals show that your store is legitimate, secure, and trusted by other customers. Examples include:
Adding a AI chatbot widget to a checkout page is another highly effective yet heavily underutilized strategy to reduce cart abandonment. Multiple studies have shown ecommerce chatbots can cut cart abandonment by 20-30%. And rightly so. AI chatbots can immediately answer last-minute questions about your shipping or return policies to reduce hesitation, help resolve payment errors, or even recommend complementary products.
When adding an AI chatbot to your checkout page, here’s how you can get the most out of it:
Running cart recovery email campaigns is one of the most impactful ways to re-engage shoppers who left without completing their purchase and recover otherwise lost revenue. And the numbers back it up. According to stats published by Convertcart, abandoned cart recovery emails achieve a 41% open rate, 21% CTR, and 50% conversion rate.
Want your cart recovery email campaigns to really work? Here’s how to craft and send them more strategically:
Image source: Really Good Emails
While running effective cart abandonment email campaigns can help you recover a significant portion of abandoned carts, you shouldn’t rely on email only. The strongest cart recovery strategies use more than one channel. Data from Omnisend shows that campaigns using three or more channels drive a 287% higher purchase rate. Additionally, campaigns that include SMS are 47.7% more likely to convert.
When setting up cross-channel cart recovery campaigns, here’s what to keep in mind:
Cart abandonment is an unpleasant reality that all ecommerce stores face. But when handled strategically, you can recover at least some of those abandoned carts and improve your conversion rates. That’s where having the right tools makes all the difference. Here’s how using Maropost’s unified commerce platform can help you recover abandoned carts and increase conversions:
Book a demo now to see the Maropost unified commerce platform in action and learn how it can help your business generate more sales without needing to orchestrate a bunch of disconnected tools.
Cart abandonment is a broader term that generally refers to a situation when a shopper adds items to their shopping cart but abandons it without purchasing at any stage in their journey, often before initiating the checkout process. Checkout abandonment happens when a shopper actually initiates the checkout process (by entering information like an email or shipping address) before dropping off.
To calculate the shopping cart abandonment rate, divide the total number of completed purchases by the total number of shopping carts created within a specific timeframe. Then, subtract that result from 1 and multiply by 100 to get the final percentage. The formula is:
Cart Abandonment Rate (%) = (1 - (Completed Transactions / Created Carts)) * 100
For example, if your store had 500 carts created but only 150 converted into actual sales, your abandonment rate would be 70%.
To solve shopping cart abandonment, start with improving the user experience and reducing checkout friction by offering guest checkout, multiple payment methods, and showing all extra costs (such as shipping and taxes) upfront. Featuring customer reviews and security badges can also help build trust and reduce abandonment. Other best practices include adding an AI chatbot to the checkout page, optimizing for a mobile-first checkout experience, and running cart recovery campaigns across email, SMS, and retargeting ads.