The Ultimate Cart Abandonment Guide For Ecommerce Stores

Identify Cause Of Cart Abandonment

To create a solution, you need to identify the problem first.

And one way to achieve this is by having a website audit.

But first, what is a website audit?

It's looking into your website and figuring out which areas could use some enhancements.

For example, you can test the loading speed. Or if you need to update your content because there are changes in your business.

So, it's important to conduct a website audit and see what drives them away from your eCommerce store.

And here's your website audit to make sure you're not missing any details.

Website Audit Checklist To Avoid Shopping Cart Abandonment

1. Test Your Checkout Process

One thing you need to check is your checkout process.

Why do you think they're abandoning their carts? Maybe they think you have an unnecessarily long checkout process.

Or, they think your process is too complicated to grasp.

Now, how can you optimize it to make their lives easier?

Well, you can choose between having a single or multi-page, to begin with.

If you have a single-page checkout, it doesn't mean you can't improve it anymore.

You can check if your Calls To Action are clear. Or if you're asking your customers too much information and they feel lazy filling out the form.

If that's the case, then you need to make some adjustments because that might be one of the reasons why shoppers abandon their carts.

The other kind of checkout page is called "multi-page."

This means you have different pages for each process or step.

For example, the first page is Step 1, which is their Personal Information. The next page is Step 2, Shipping And Delivery Information, and Step 3 is the Payment Details.

Each of them has pros and cons.

For single-page checkout, seeing how many forms they need to fill out might overwhelm them at first glance.

While for multi-page checkout, going back to the previous process might have some loading time.

But whatever it is you choose between these two, you need to identify which gets the most conversions and less cart abandonment.

And A/B Testing can help you with that.

Once you find which one works better, then you are slowly starting to recover the cart abandonment rate.

Another thing you need to check is...

2. Test The Loading Speed Of Your Website

Did you know that customers expect a website to load within 3 seconds?

3. Darn. Seconds.

And, 53% will leave if it doesn't load within that time frame.

So, it's important to test the loading speed of your website.

Who knows? Maybe some of your product pages are loading slowly. Or the cart itself is hardly loading.

If you notice that they're loading slowly, then that's another factor that might be contributing to customers' shopping cart abandonment.

And another one is...

3. Review Your Payment Methods

The digital age is emerging.

There are more and different payment methods available now. It's not just limited to bank transfers anymore.

To name a few... Google Pay, Apple Pay, and Paypal are there to make seamless transactions.

So, if you think that your shoppers abandon their cart during the checkout process... you need to evaluate your payment methods. The limitations might be one of the reasons why.

Make sure to review it and give them flexible options.

The next one is....

4. Check Your Shipping Costs

Maybe they wanted to complete the transaction... upon checkout, they saw that you have a high shipping cost.

Uh-oh!

But wait... what if this is something out of your control? And you can't just offer free shipping as a small eCommerce business?

Well, good news!

Because there are ways to trim down the shipping costs:

1. Reduce the weight of your packages.
2. Let them choose their preferred carriers.
3. Use third-party logistics.

To know more about 3PL or third-party logistics, watch Debutify's video to learn everything you need to know about it:

Reducing shipping costs might help you increase your sales and reduce the shopping cart abandonment rate.

And lastly...

5. Review Your Returns And Refund Policies

If you have first-time buyers, it's normal not to immediately trust your products yet.

They need to try it first before deciding if they love your products.

But in case they didn't, you need to have Return and Refund Policies.

You need to indicate which are eligible for returns, when will you refund the payment, or when can they ship the products back to your logistics.

This will ease their concerns because you have clear policies.

You see, conducting a website audit is really helpful in identifying the cause of shopping cart abandonment.

Because once you know the root cause of the problem, you can offer a competitive solution.

And speaking of which, you can start with...

Customer Segmentation

Once you've already identified the cause of shopping cart abandonment, you need more analysis to implement a strong solution.

And Customer Segmentation is one of the first steps in creating a recovery plan.

This helps you create a strategy based on your customers' actions.

For sure there are a few questions brewing in your mind right now...

What Is Customer Segmentation And How Can This Help You?

Customer Segmentation means dividing your customers into groups based on different categories.

This is helpful because:

1. You can craft a strategy based on their behavior.
2. You know who are most likely to abandon their carts.
3. You can figure out which category needs the most improvement.

So, customer segmentation is definitely a valuable process in recovering your shopping cart abandonment rate.

And for sure, you're asking this now...

What Are The Types Of Customers Who Abandon Their Carts?

1. Repeat Buyers vs. First Time Buyers

These are buyers who have already purchased from your eCommerce store.

And on their second or third visit to your eCommerce website, they decided not to finish the transaction.

Once you separate your repeat buyers from other shoppers, then you can create a recovery plan that targets them.

And it can be easier because they've already gone down the customer or sales funnel.

You just have to make them purchase again.

The next segment is First Time buyers.

These are people who haven't finished their transaction with you yet.

If you find that there are too many, then you need to identify what could be the possible reasons?

It can be the lack of trust and credibility since they haven't made a purchase from your eCommerce store ever.

So, these first-time buyers need specific content strategies to stop them from abandoning their carts the next time.

Another segment is...

2. Cart Value

The purpose of dividing them into cart value is to separate those with $1000 worth of products between shoppers with $50 - $100.

Check out the carts of your shoppers...

If there are shoppers who added hundreds of dollars to their cart, you need a more enticing strategy to convert them into customers.

For example, you can choose a bigger discount for those who have a higher cart value. And for smaller value, you can offer smaller discounts.

But it all boils down to your average order value.

If your AOV is around $800, then a $1000 cart value can be high.

The next one is...

3. Products

To create relevant content for your retargeting strategy, you can also segment your customers through products.

What products are they buying?

For example, if a customer has been buying coats from your store, then your messages or content directed at them should include coats.

Knowing which products certain customers are most likely to buy can help you send and create tailored messages or content to them. And this increases your chance of getting more results.

And lastly...

4. Location

Segmenting your customers by their location can also help you identify the best offers you can give them.

If you have domestic customers, then you can offer free shipping.

If you have international customers, you can offer them free shipping if they reach a certain threshold. or if they check out their carts now.

Again, the main purpose of customer segmentation is to tailor your messages and offers to your customers.

Once you're done, you can start with your recovery plan.

Have A Recovery Plan On Your Website

After dividing your customers into different categories, strategizing is easier.

Why? Because now, you can create a recovery plan based on their categories.

And since you've already identified the cause of the cart abandonment, you can also find solutions to improve them.

So, where will we start?

Optimize Your Product Pages

Product pages play a big role in convincing your shoppers to complete their purchases.

In fact, 87% of customers say that the contents of product pages are important in their purchasing decision.

So, to reduce your cart abandonment rate, you should optimize your product pages. You can also consider this as your conversion rate optimization strategy. 😉

Here are the things you need to ensure the efficiency of your product pages:

1. Clear Product Images

Having clear and high-quality images of your products is important.

Why? Since they're not buying your products physically, they need to see what your product looks like in and out.

Make sure to include images that fully display the features of your products— front, back, and sides. If you're selling clothes or bags, show the texture.

Having high-quality images helps your shoppers get the "feels" of your products on your online store.

2. Use Strong Calls To Action

What is Calls To Action or CTA?

Calls To Action lead your shoppers to the next step or which action they have to take next.

These are helpful in prompting your customers to take your desired action. And in this case, you want them to check out their shopping carts.

To create strong Calls-To-Action, you can start with having urgency.

Here are some examples:

1. Limited Time Only!
2. Buy Now!
3. Until Supplies Last
4. You're Running Out Of Time!
5. Hurry!

These will urge your shoppers not to abandon their carts and proceed to checkout because they don't want to miss your deals.

3. Write Great Product Descriptions

For physical stores, it's easier to sell their products most of the time.

It's because they have the chance to describe and demonstrate their products.

But it's different for online stores.

That's why you should write product descriptions that showcase the features of your products.

How can you do this?

A. Sell The Benefits

Stop selling the products alone.

Tell your customers how they can benefit from your products.

It's called a value proposition. Because you're showing how valuable your products can be to them.

B. Use Your Brand Voice

Staying on-brand might be a challenge to some online businesses. It requires cohesiveness and a well-executed strategy to stay on-brand across multiple channels.

But who says you can't get creative when writing product descriptions?

Yep. You don't need to be really formal unless that's your brand voice.

So, don't be afraid to add some ✨ personality ✨ to spice up your product descriptions and get more sales.

C. Focus On Readability

Don't make your product descriptions chunky.

Put them into bullets if possible, so it's easier to read for your customers.

Oh, and make sure to highlight the most important features to capture their attention.

After some product page optimization, you can also...

Add Frequently Asked Questions Section

What's the importance of FAQs on your website?

Of course, you can address your customers' needs.

Depending on your shoppers' customer journey, some customers still have concerns and questions about your products.

Not only that, but Frequently Asked Questions can also help you with SEO or Search Engine Optimization.

So, how to write an FAQ section for your eCommerce store?

My number one tip is to identify the problems of your customers.

Because you can't write an informative FAQ page if you don't know which problems or questions they have about your products. Check out this Debutify Reviews FAQ to get some ideas.

Another is to break them into categories.

This will help your customers find what they're looking for.

For example, you can create separate categories for Refunds and Returns, Delivery and Shipping, and Payment concerns.

Saves time, right?

Another is...

Offer Customer Support

Customer support is vital in the customer journey.

Because they're almost there...

They're already adding the products to their shopping carts.

They just need a little push to check them out.

If they have some concerns, it's best to have customer support.

You can have a live chat or chatbots... whatever works best for your eCommerce store.

As long as someone is there to attend to your customers' needs during their shopping.

After having a recovery plan for your website, there's another thing you need to do...

Create A Robust Retargeting Strategy

To make them come back to your eCommerce store, you need to create an effective retargeting strategy.

And this is where Step 2, which is Customer Segmentation, comes in handy.

Because to create a fool-proof ecommerce retargeting strategy, you need to ensure you are communicating with your customers

What Is Retargeting?

Retargeting means targeting people who have already visited your eCommerce website. That's why it's called "re" in the first place.

And it includes potential customers who have already created their shopping carts on your online store.

So, you're going to create a retargeting strategy to make them come back to your store.

But first...

How Does Retargeting Work?

Retargeting works through "cookies" embedded on your eCommerce website.

It's a tracking cookie that tracks your customers' behavior and displays ads based on their behavior or actions.

And now that you have an idea about what it is, let's find some ways to make your retargeting strategy powerful.

What are these strategies?

Send Retargeting Emails

Email Marketing is a common marketing strategy to reach out to customers.

So of course, you can also use this to reach cart abandoners.

This is very helpful because you can tailor emails based on their actions and purchase history.

To make retargeting emails more successful, you should send emails that point out their abandoned carts.

You can include the contents of their carts and remind them to check out.

And remember, when creating your subject lines... you should make it more enticing to open.

Here are some subject lines for abandoned cart email examples:

1. Did you forget something?
2. You left something in your cart!
3. This item in your cart is currently on sale!

These might prompt your customers to open their emails and check what they left.

And who knows, they might finally complete their purchase.

Another way is...

Display Retargeting Ads

Retargeting ads are shown on other websites that your customers visit.

It's a way to retarget them because once they see your display ads, they will remember your eCommerce store.

And it's a way of re-engaging with them to visit their shopping carts again.

Here's an example of a retargeting ad displayed on Facebook:

I may have visited and created a shopping cart on Cider. So when I hopped on Facebook, I'm now seeing ads..

And this is how you can create dynamic retargeting ads, too. Let's start on Facebook.

1. Go to Ads Manager.
2. Create a dynamic ad.
3. Find the Audience section in your Ad Set.
4. Select Retarget ads to users who have engaged with your products, both on and off Facebook.
5. Choose retargeting options and update the days and products.

Make sure you know the basics of Facebook Advertising to navigate Ads Manager smoothly.

Now, let's talk about Google Ads.

Since Google Advertising is broader than Facebook, there are different ways to create dynamic ads. Of course, you're targeting a wider audience on the web, after all.

So, let's start with setting up your Google Ads:

1. Go to Google Ads
2. In the navigation bar, select the tool icon
3. Then choose Audience Manager under the Shared Library category
4. Click Your Data Sources
5. Under the Google Ads Tag, select Set Up Tag
6. Customize the data you want to collect from your visitors and select your business industry
7. Save
8. Install the tag

Here's what it looks like:

After setting it up, here are some options for your retargeting campaigns.

As you can see, there are different options and it's based on your industry. But at the bottom part, you'll see the Shopping Cart Abandoners.

This is now your segment for shoppers who didn't complete your transaction.

The next thing you have to do is create a dynamic ad based on their behavior. And make sure that your ad goal is to make them check out their carts.

Now, here's another way to remind your shopping cart abandoners...

Send Push Notifications

Sending push notifications helps in having customers return to your website. And yes, even cart abandoners.

That's why this is common for eCommerce websites that have mobile apps.

You can send notifications about your crazy deals, sales, and of course... a reminder of the cart they left on your app or website.

How to make this successful?`

1. Create urgency. Always. This pushes them to take action as soon as possible because they don't want to miss out on your offers. An example of an urgent notification is "This item in your cart is almost sold out! Hurry!"
2. Be mindful of your segments. Step 2 always comes in handy, am I right? It's because you need to send notifications based on what they might respond to. So, make sure to send relevant notifications.
3. Be timely. If the products on their carts will be on sale, make sure to notify them in advance. But not way advanced because they might not remember it again.

Now, you already have a recovery plan for your website and a retargeting strategy.

The next thing you need to do is to...

Measure The Results

After implementing these strategies, you need to measure the results.

Answer these questions:

• How many people clicked on your ads?
• Which ad performed the best?
• Which segment has the most conversion rate?

If you answer these, you know what to do on your next retargeting campaign.

But the most important thing is...

You need to see if the cart abandonment rate decreased.

Because maybe you converted those who previously created shopping carts on your eCommerce website.

But your new visitors are abandoning their carts. Then that requires a new set of retargeting strategies.

You need to know that the purpose of measuring and analyzing your data is to fine-tune your strategies the next time you're launching a retargeting campaign.

You can check your performance on Google Analytics as well as your ad spend for your retargeting strategy.

And since you're here, let's try being proactive to reduce your shopping cart abandonment rate.

Proactivity is better than being reactive.

So, let's try to maximize our efforts in making sure you'll have fewer cart abandonments in the future.

How?

You'll learn to optimize your checkout pages to prevent cart abandonment!

How To Optimize Your Checkout Page For More Conversion

To increase your sales and reduce the shopping cart abandonment rate, I've prepared some checkout page optimization tips for you!

These will help you lead your customers to checkout and complete their transactions with you.

And you'll notice that some of these might seem little...

But these details are totally helpful in driving more sales to your online store!?

Let's start with...

Display Estimated Delivery Dates

Displaying the estimated delivery date on your product and checkout pages is effective.

Why? Because it gives your customers an idea of when their orders will arrive.

Let's say your customers need to give your products as gifts. Then they probably need to have the orders are their doorstep at a specific date.

And if they find the date close, they might check out their carts.

So, display your estimated delivery dates using Debutify's Delivery Time Add-On.

The next one is...

Offer Different Payment Gateways

Having different payment methods is another way to keep your customers.

Because think about this...

What if your customers prefer paying using digital wallets? Or cash on delivery?

Offering different payment methods is important because it gives your customers choices to choose what works best for them.

And here are the most popular payment methods:

• Apple Pay
• Google Pay
• Alipay
• Paypal
• Credit Card
• Bank Transfer
• Cash On Delivery

Or you can also try allowing cryptocurrencies as a payment method, too.

You see, the main purpose of this is to make it more flexible for your customers. The more choices they have, the higher the chance of completing their transactions with you!

Another way is to...

Offer Upsells

What is upselling?

Upselling means offering a more expensive version of their initial order. It can also help you increase your average order value.

For example, your customer orders a basic shirt from your eCommerce store. You can try to offer a more expensive, but better shirt upon checkout.

Another example is upselling through bundles.

If a customer purchases a shirt from you, then you can try to upsell with a pair of shorts or another shirt for a discounted price.

Upsells can make your customers save more while you also sell more products.

And to have an easy upsell feature, you can try Debutify's Upsell Bundles Add-On and add it to your Debutify theme.

Debutify Upsell Bundles Add-On

The next one is...

Use Social Proof

Social proof is another efficient way of driving sales.

If your customers are still hesitant to buy your products, they can see that other people have already been buying from your eCommerce store.

But another way to display social proof is by putting a trust badge on your payment methods.

Of course, if it's their first time purchasing from your online store. They might still have second thoughts about giving their card or billing information.

Luckily, you can put a trust badge using Debutify's Trust Badge Add-On to make your life easier!

Debutify Ecommerce Add-Ons

Another way is...

Offer Special Coupon Codes

To help them decide whether they'd finish their transaction with you or not... why not try offering discounts on your checkout page?

I mean... we love discounts, don't we??

You can put a discount box where your customers can input the voucher codes. You can send them via email, or a welcome popup, or it can also automatically be applied.

Try out Debutify's Cart Discount Add-On to allow your customers to add their coupon codes!

And of course, lastly...

Create Urgency

Again? Yep!

I'm sure you've heard this a lot. And I've already mentioned this, too.

But prompting your customers' sense of urgency can help boost your sales.

Who wants to be left out, anyways??

So, now you're armed with the best cart abandonment tactics to implement!