Cart Abandonment Explained

How Cart Abandonment Is Defined and Measured

Cart abandonment is when a shopper adds items to a cart and leaves without completing the purchase. The abandonment rate is the share of started purchases that never finish, often calculated as one minus the number of completed orders divided by the number of carts created.

The measure is imperfect. Some shoppers add items only to compare prices or to save them for later, and some carts are created by visitors who never return. A high rate is still a useful signal, especially when it rises at a particular step, such as shipping or payment.

Cart abandonment is not the same as checkout abandonment, which tracks shoppers who start the checkout and leave before paying. Both measures help show where a shop loses people. The cart itself is described in shopping cart software.

Common Causes Behind Abandoned Carts

Abandonment has many causes. Some are the shopper's own choice, but many come from the shop. The most common technical and checkout-related causes are these:

• Slow pages: a cart or checkout that takes several seconds to respond gives shoppers time to change their mind, and some will not wait.
• Surprise costs: shipping, tax or fees that appear only at the final step lead many shoppers to leave, because the total differs from what they expected.
• Forced account creation: asking for registration before checkout adds effort before the shopper has committed.
• Payment errors: a declined card with a vague message, or a payment method that fails on one type of device, sends shoppers away.
• Limited payment options: a shopper who does not see a preferred payment method may leave rather than search for one.
• Lost carts: a cart that disappears after a session expires or a cookie is cleared forces the shopper to start again, as explained in how carts remember items.

Many of these causes show up in the checkout flow itself, so reviewing each step matters. The main checkout designs are compared in checkout types.