Abandonment - Why Visitors Don’t Turn Into Customers

Abandonment in e-commerce is what we call it when a visitor to your website abandons the shopping cart without completing the purchase - they leave without buying anything. Abandonment primarily occurs for two reasons: 1) the customer couldn't find what they were looking for and 2) the checkout process seemed too long.

In this article, I'm going to cover some of our recommendations on how you can reduce abandonment rates on your store with: 1) segmenting visitor traffic and prioritizing content that will result in sales 2) reducing or eliminating checkout friction and 3) using customer touchpoints outside of your site.

Reducing or Eliminating Checkout Friction

An easy way to reduce abandonment rates on your website is by eliminating checkout friction. When customers have a good experience on your site, they're much more likely to become repeat customers than those with poor experiences.

Four main checkout scenarios in e-commerce:

1) Customers who have already been to your website before and know exactly what they were looking for: These are known as "pre-engaged" customers. Their conversion rate is high and you can use the data gathered from them to increase the conversion rate of the remaining customers.

2) Customers that do not remember what they've been to your site before: These are called "post-engaged" visitors. They have a low level of engagement and even though they have a good experience on your site, they're likely to abandon the cart. You want to make the checkout experience as frictionless as possible so that they have a positive experience and don't leave without completing their purchase.

3) Customers that remember your site but forgot the product name or couldn't find what they were looking for: These are known as "pre-disengaged" customers. They probably had a poor experience on your site. This group of customers have low conversion rates but you can still prevent them from leaving altogether by making the checkout process as frictionless as possible.

4) Customers that do not remember your site or were never engaged on it in the first place: These are known as "post-disengaged" visitors. These customers do not have a good experience on your site, and have a low conversion rate. You can't do anything to increase their conversion rate since they never engaged with your brand in the first place.

How to Make Checkout Friction as Low as Possible

Keep these 3 points in mind when designing the checkout process:

Make it clear and simple. It's important that people know what's expected of them at each step of the checkout process, otherwise they might just be confused or even not realize what they need to do next. This applies to both customers that are pre-engaged and post-engaged. Make sure there are no unnecessary steps where possible so that people aren't wasting time during the checkout process.

Conclusion The checkout process is one of the places where you can reduce abandonment rates. Make sure the checkout process is as frictionless as possible for pre-engaged customers so that they have a positive experience and are more likely to return on your website. Try removing any unnecessary steps and make sure all items in the checkout process are clearly defined so that people don't have to click around several pages looking for information.

2) What's Wrong With The Website And How To Fix It

Question: Why do customers buy from my company? We provide great customer service, great products, and are easy to deal with. All the evidence suggests we're doing just fine.