Shopping cart abandonment reasons and how to reduce them - e-commerce CRO tips

Summary

In this video, Punit Tandon of Young Weapon Project's YouTube channel discusses the high rate of cart abandonment on e-commerce websites, where 70% of customers add items to their cart but fail to complete the purchase. He identifies common reasons for this behavior, such as insufficient product information, complex checkout processes, limited payment options, and unexpected additional fees. Tandon offers solutions to reduce abandonment, including improving product descriptions, simplifying the checkout process, offering multiple payment methods, and being transparent about additional costs. He also suggests using analytics tools to identify and fix issues in the sales funnel.

Takeaways

• 🛒 Cart Abandonment is Common: 7 out of 10 people add products to their cart but don't complete the purchase.
• 📈 Importance of Reducing Cart Abandonment: It's crucial for digital and performance marketers to reduce cart abandonment to improve ROI and conversions.
• 🔍 Identifying the Problem: Often, the issue isn't with the ads but with the user journey after they click on the ad and visit the website.
• 📚 Product Description Matters: Clear and detailed product descriptions, images, videos, and benefits are vital to convince customers.
• 📷 High-Quality Visuals: Invest in good images and videos to showcase product usage and avoid poorly edited stock images.
• 🗣️ Social Proof: Reviews and testimonials are essential as they provide social proof and build trust with potential customers.
• 🔄 Simplify Checkout Process: A complex checkout process can lead to higher abandonment rates; aim for a maximum of four steps.
• 🛂 Reduce Friction: Ensure the checkout process is easy to navigate and that the billing form is concise, only asking for critical information.
• 💳 Accept Multiple Payment Methods: Offering a variety of payment options can prevent customers from abandoning their carts due to unavailable preferred methods.
• 💵 Be Transparent with Fees: Unexpected additional fees at checkout can deter customers; it's better to disclose potential costs upfront.
• 📊 Use Analytics Tools: Utilize tools like Google Analytics to identify and fix issues in the conversion funnel.

Q & A

What is cart abandonment and why is it significant in e-commerce?

Cart abandonment refers to the phenomenon where customers add products to their shopping cart on e-commerce websites but do not complete the purchase. It is significant because it represents a high rate of potential sales that are lost, with industry averages showing around a 70% cart abandonment rate.

Why might customers not be convinced enough to make the final purchase on an e-commerce site?

Customers might not be convinced due to insufficient product information, lack of product images or videos, unclear benefits, or missing social proof such as reviews and testimonials.

How can product copywriting and page structure help reduce cart abandonment?

Product copywriting and page structure can help by providing detailed product information, highlighting benefits in bullet points, investing in quality images and videos, and including realistic reviews and testimonials to build trust.

What is the recommended maximum number of steps in the checkout process to reduce cart abandonment?

The recommended maximum number of steps in the checkout process is four, as each additional step or complexity can increase the likelihood of cart abandonment.

Why is it important to keep the checkout process simple and easy to navigate?

A simple and easy-to-navigate checkout process reduces friction along the user journey, making it more likely that customers will complete their purchase.

What is the impact of not accepting multiple payment methods on cart abandonment?

Not accepting multiple payment methods can lead to cart abandonment if customers cannot find their preferred payment option during checkout.

How can e-commerce websites select the right payment gateways to cater to their customers' preferences?

Websites can select the right payment gateways by understanding the popular payment methods in their target market and choosing gateways that support those methods, such as debit cards, UPI, or credit cards.

Why might additional fees at checkout cause customers to abandon their carts?

Additional fees, such as high shipping costs, taxes, or convenience fees, can be unexpected and unwelcome, leading customers to abandon their carts if they feel the total cost is too high.

What can e-commerce websites do to manage customer expectations regarding additional fees?

Websites can mention additional costs upfront, even if not exact, to prepare customers mentally for potential extra charges like GST and shipping.

How can analytics tools help in identifying and fixing issues related to cart abandonment?

Analytics tools like amplitude, Mixpanel, or Google Analytics can help identify where the sales funnel is leaking, allowing businesses to address the specific issues causing cart abandonment.

What is the role of social proof in the sales process and why is it important?

Social proof, such as reviews and testimonials, plays a crucial role in the sales process as it builds trust with potential customers, who often trust other people's experiences more than brand claims.

Outlines

00:00

🛒 Cart Abandonment in E-commerce

This paragraph discusses the common issue of cart abandonment, where 70% of customers do not complete their purchases after adding items to their cart on e-commerce websites. The speaker, Punit Tandon from Young Weapon Project's YouTube channel, emphasizes the importance for digital and performance marketers to understand and reduce this phenomenon to improve ROI and conversion rates. The video promises to explore the main reasons for cart abandonment and provide solutions to minimize it. Punit also mentions that often the issue is not with the ads but with the user journey post-click on the ad, highlighting the need for a seamless experience from ad click to purchase completion.

05:02

🔍 Tackling Cart Abandonment Strategies

The second paragraph delves into specific reasons for cart abandonment and offers strategies to address them. The first reason identified is insufficient customer conviction, which can be due to inadequate product information, poor product imagery, unclear benefits, or lack of social proof such as reviews and testimonials. To combat this, the speaker suggests enhancing product copywriting, page structure, and including more detailed product information, high-quality images, videos, and genuine reviews. The second reason is a complex checkout process, which can deter users. The advice here is to simplify and shorten the checkout process to a maximum of four steps, ensuring it's easy to navigate and understand. The third reason discussed is the lack of multiple payment options, which can prevent customers from completing their purchase if their preferred method isn't available. The speaker recommends selecting popular and appropriate payment gateways based on the target customer's preferences and location. The final point in this paragraph is about unexpected additional fees at checkout, such as high shipping costs or convenience fees, which can lead to cart abandonment. The solution is to disclose all potential additional costs upfront to set the right expectations for customers.

Keywords

💡Cart Abandonment

Cart abandonment refers to the phenomenon where customers add items to their online shopping cart but do not complete the purchase. This is a key issue in e-commerce as it represents lost sales opportunities. In the video, it is mentioned that seven out of every ten people abandon their carts, highlighting the importance of addressing this problem to improve ROI and overall sales.

💡Digital Marketing

Digital marketing encompasses the promotional tactics used to endorse products or services through digital channels, such as search engines, social media, email, and websites. The video discusses how digital marketers and performance marketers can tackle cart abandonment to enhance the effectiveness of their digital marketing efforts.

💡Performance Marketing

Performance marketing is a results-driven approach to marketing where the focus is on measurable outcomes, often using paid advertising strategies. The script emphasizes the role of performance marketers in reducing cart abandonment rates to improve return on investment (ROI) from digital campaigns.

💡Product Description

A product description is a written account of a product's features, benefits, and usage instructions. It is crucial for convincing customers to make a purchase. The video script points out that not having a detailed and exhaustive product description can lead to cart abandonment, suggesting the need for informative and compelling product copy.

💡Social Proof

Social proof is a psychological phenomenon where people conform to the actions of others under the assumption that those actions are reflective of correct behavior. In the context of the video, social proof comes in the form of reviews and testimonials, which are essential for building trust and reducing cart abandonment.

💡Checkout Process

The checkout process is the sequence of steps a customer must go through to complete a purchase on an e-commerce website. The video emphasizes the importance of a streamlined and simple checkout process to minimize friction and reduce the likelihood of cart abandonment.

💡Payment Gateway

A payment gateway is a service that authorizes credit card payments for e-commerce businesses. The script discusses the importance of offering multiple payment options through various payment gateways to accommodate different customer preferences and reduce cart abandonment due to unavailable payment methods.

💡Additional Fees

Additional fees are extra charges that may apply at checkout, such as shipping costs, taxes, or convenience fees. The video mentions that unexpected high fees can deter customers from completing their purchase, suggesting the need for transparent pricing and upfront disclosure of potential costs.

💡Analytics Tools

Analytics tools are used to collect, analyze, and interpret data to understand and optimize business processes. The script recommends using analytics tools like Google Analytics to identify where customers are dropping off in the purchasing process, allowing marketers to address the specific issues causing cart abandonment.

💡Return on Investment (ROI)

Return on investment (ROI) is a financial metric used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment or compare the efficiency of different investments. In the video, improving ROI is presented as a primary goal, with reducing cart abandonment being a key strategy to achieve this by increasing the conversion rate of digital marketing efforts.

💡User Experience (UX)

User experience (UX) refers to a person's emotions and attitudes towards using a particular system, product, or service. The video script highlights the importance of a positive UX in the checkout process to reduce cart abandonment, emphasizing the need for ease of navigation, simplicity, and clarity in the user interface.

Highlights

Seven out of every 10 people abandon their carts on e-commerce websites without completing the purchase.

Reducing cart abandonment is crucial for digital and performance marketers to improve ROI and sales.

The industry average cart abandonment rate is around 70%, indicating significant potential sales are lost.

Often, the issue is not the ads but the user journey after they click on the ad and visit the website.

A common reason for cart abandonment is that customers are not convinced enough to make the final purchase.

Product copywriting and page structure can help address the lack of customer conviction.

A complex checkout process increases the likelihood of cart abandonment.

Keeping the steps required to complete a purchase to a maximum of four can reduce friction.

Not accepting multiple payment methods can lead to cart abandonment if the user's preferred option is not available.

Selecting the right payment gateway and offering multiple payment options is important.

Charging additional fees at checkout, such as high shipping costs or taxes, can deter customers.

Mentioning all additional costs upfront can prepare customers and reduce cart abandonment.

Use analytics tools like amplitude, Mixpanel, or Google Analytics to identify where the sales funnel is leaking.

Improving the checkout process and being transparent about costs can help reduce cart abandonment rates.

The video provides practical tips and tricks to reduce cart abandonment and improve sales.

Punit Tandon's Performance Marketing course is recommended for those looking to drive ROI-centric paid ad campaigns.

Transcripts

did you know that seven out of every 10

people that add products to their cart

on e-commerce websites don't end up

completing the purchase this is called

card abandonment now it's true that not

everyone who adds products to their cart

will purchase them but it is also true

that we can try and maximize the

purchases if we can reduce the number of

card abandons as digital marketers or

performance marketers it's important for

us to figure out how to reduce the

abundance or to figure out how to

recover these cards so that we can

improve the overall Roi or Os in this

video I'm going to talk about the main

reasons why people abandon their cards

on your website and what can you do to

stop it so let's go

welcome to Young weapon Project's

YouTube channel if you are new here my

name is Punit Tandon and we talk about

deep insights into digital marketing

Performance Marketing and online

advertising if you are interested in

that kind of stuff please do subscribe

to our Channel based on Research by the

bay Mart Institute the industry average

of cart abandonment rate is around 70

that is a lot of potential sales lost

and this is happening across niches a

lot of people ask me this question Punit

I'm running ads and the sales are just

not coming I think the ads are not

working for me now more often than not

it is not the ads that are the problem

the problem is in the journey that the

user has to go through after they click

on your ad and come to your website

imagine spending so much effort and

money on running ads email marketing SEO

and other channels to bring relevant

traffic to your website but that traffic

doesn't convert because they drop off

even after taking an action like adding

a product to the think about it a

user sees your ad and gets entry clicked

they click on it to come to your website

then they like the product and add it to

the cart but they don't go ahead to make

the payment just forget about the

product there could be many reasons

behind abandoning the cart and we are

going to look at the most common ones in

this video and we will also look at ways

to reduce these abundance so keep

watching this video till the end to find

out all these tips and tricks reason

number one the most common reason for

card abandonment is that the customers

are just not convinced enough to make

the final purchase this could be because

your product description is not

elaborate and exhaustive or there aren't

many product images or videos showing

the usage of the product or the benefits

are not coming out clearly or the social

proof which is reviews or testimonials

that's missing this is where the product

copywriting and Page structure can help

you massively here's the solution to all

of this make sure you have added a lot

of information about the product and

have highlighted the benefits in

increased bullet points invest in good

images and videos to show the product

usage avoid badly edited stock images

here and please please please add

reviews and testimonials it is better to

use good realistic ones than to

fabricate over the top positive reviews

but have those on your website on

product pages remember people trust

people more than they trust Brands which

is why social proof is such an important

part of your sales process reason number

two your website might have a very

complex checkout process the more Hoops

you make your users jump through the

more probability that they will drop off

your goal is to reduce the friction

along the user Journey but a lot of

people for the sake of making a fancy

website will forget this basic user

experience principle try to keep the

steps required to complete a purchase to

a maximum of four for every extra step

or complexity that you add your thought

abundance might increase also see if

your checkout process is easy to

navigate navigate and if the checkout

form the billing form if it's too long

if it's long make it shorter take only

the critical information that you

required keep things simple short and

easy to understand ensure that on the

cart page customers can easily update

the quantities of items they want to

purchase or remove if necessary also

include a prominent checkout button on

the cart page to make it clear where the

users need to click to complete the

purchase function over Frills will help

you reduce cart abandons reason number

three not accepting multiple payment

methods the user could be really

interested in buying your product and

they might be fully convinced to do so

but what if they can't find their

preferred payment option while checking

out in that case they will have no

option but to abandon the card this will

depend on the kind of payment Gateway

you are using on your e-commerce website

I see some websites only offering PayPal

as a payment Gateway or a payment method

but the problem with that is a lot of

people especially in India do not use

that depending on the country your

customers are then you can select the

popular payment gateways from there for

example in India people primarily use

debit cards UPI buy now pay later

options a lot of people do not use

credit cards here so payment gateways

like Razer pay and CC Avenue work really

well International gateways like stripe

also work well in India selecting the

right payment Gateway is really

important for adding multiple payment

options choose it wisely reason number

four you might be charging additional

fees at checkout which might be too high

for people a lot of e-commerce websites

have a nominal product cost but when you

check out you will find some exorbitant

costs added I'm not saying those costs

are wrong what I mean is that the

customer might not be expecting them

when they are adding the products to the

cart this could include a high shipping

cost taxes or some form of convenience

fee this can leave a bad taste in the

customer's mouth and they might abandon

the card and honestly it happens with me

too so what you can do is you can

mention all the additional costs upfront

even if you're not giving the exact

amount because shipping gets calculated

later based on the delivery location you

can at least mention that GST and

shipping will be charged extra this will

prepare the customer mentally for all

these additional costs it's much better

than sneaking up with all these costs

later on so these were some of the

reasons why customers abandoned the

cards and I hope you've got some good

ideas on how to reduce it apart from

this you can use analytics tools like

amplitude or mixed panel or our good old

Google analytics to identify where your

funnel is leaking so you can fix those

exact issues if you're someone who wants

to go deeper into Performance Marketing

in order to drive Roi Centric paid ad

campaigns you can check out our 10-week

Performance Marketing course it's the

best one in the market I will leave the

link in the description and if you like

this video please click on the Subscribe

button for more videos like these and

don't forget to get notified so press

this is young urban project and I will

see you in the next video bye