Cart abandonment: What it means for your store and how to deal with it

Cart abandonment is one of the most closely watched metrics in eCommerce performance analysis. When shoppers add products to their cart but leave before completing the purchase, merchants naturally want to understand what may be preventing customers from finishing their order.

Interpreting this metric, however, is not always straightforward. Cart abandonment rates are often high across the industry, and without the right context, it can be difficult to determine whether your store’s performance reflects normal customer behaviour or friction somewhere within the purchase journey.

For merchants and eCommerce managers, the real value of cart abandonment lies in the signals it provides about where customers drop off after adding items to their cart. Analysed correctly, these signals can help identify opportunities to remove friction in the purchase journey and convert more purchase intent into completed orders.

This guide explains how to interpret cart abandonment correctly, identify the factors that cause shoppers to leave at different stages of the purchase journey, and prioritise actions that reduce abandonment and recover lost sales.

The insights in this guide are drawn from On Tap’s experience working with eCommerce businesses over the past two decades, helping brands optimise their storefronts, improve purchase journey performance, and scale online revenue. 

Cart abandonment occurs when a shopper adds products to their cart but leaves the website before completing the purchase.

In a typical online buying journey, the process looks like this: Product browsing → Add to cart → Checkout → Payment → Order confirmation

This means the shopper may leave at several possible points, for example:

• Leaving directly from the cart page

• Exiting during the checkout process

• Stopping before completing payment

In all of these cases, the cart is considered abandoned because the purchase was never finalised.

In some discussions, you may also see terms like checkout abandonment or payment abandonment, which refer to more specific drop-off points later in the checkout process. However, these are typically treated as subsets of the broader cart abandonment concept.

Cart abandonment rate is calculated by comparing the number of completed purchases with the number of carts created.

The formula is:

Example: Suppose:

• 100 shoppers add products to their cart

• 28 shoppers complete the purchase

The cart abandonment rate would be: 1 − (28 ÷ 100) = 72%

This means 72 out of every 100 carts created did not result in a completed order.

Cart abandonment matters because improvements at this stage can have a direct and disproportionate impact on both revenue and profit.

• Small improvements here can significantly increase revenue: Cart abandonment occurs at the final stage of the buying journey, when shoppers are already close to completing their purchase. Even modest improvements can therefore produce meaningful revenue gains.
  Industry research also suggests that a meaningful share of abandoned purchases can be recovered. The Baymard Institute estimates that the average large eCommerce site could increase overall conversion rates by up to 35% through improvements to checkout usability alone. Based on combined online retail sales of $738 billion in the US and EU, this improvement represents roughly $260 billion in potentially recoverable orders, highlighting how optimisation within this stage can unlock significant additional revenue.

• Optimising this stage often improves profit more efficiently than acquiring new traffic: By the time a shopper adds items to the cart, the business has already paid to acquire that visitor through ads, SEO, or other channels. Improving conversion from the cart stage onwards converts more of that existing traffic into orders without increasing marketing spend.
  For example, if a store spends $10,000 to acquire traffic that generates 300 orders, improving conversion after the add-to-cart stage to 330 orders means the same $10,000 marketing cost now produces more sales, increasing the profit generated from that traffic.

Once you understand what cart abandonment means in the purchase journey, the next question is whether your store’s rate falls within a normal range or signals a potential issue in the purchase journey.

Industry research consistently shows that cart abandonment rates are high across most eCommerce sectors. On average, roughly 70% of shopping carts are abandoned before the purchase is completed.

However, this global average should not be interpreted as a universal standard. Cart abandonment rates vary significantly depending on several factors, including the device used, the type of products being purchased, and regional shopping behaviour. For this reason, merchants should always benchmark their store against comparable categories and customer contexts, rather than relying solely on the global average.

The following benchmarks are based on industry research examining cart abandonment patterns across devices, product categories, and regions.

Average cart abandonment rate by device

Customer behaviour differs across devices, which affects abandonment patterns. 

Evaluate device abandonment before concluding performance. If a large share of your traffic comes from mobile devices, a higher overall abandonment rate may still fall within a normal range.

Average cart abandonment rate by industry category

Different product categories involve different purchase behaviours and decision cycles. Categories that involve higher prices or longer research processes typically show higher abandonment levels.

Compare your store’s abandonment rate with businesses selling similar products. High-consideration purchases usually have higher benchmark ranges.

Average cart abandonment rate by region

Shopping behaviour varies across markets. Factors such as payment preferences, delivery infrastructure, and the maturity of the local eCommerce ecosystem can influence how customers behave after adding products to their cart and whether they continue to complete the purchase.

When analysing performance, prioritise benchmarks from the regions where most of your customers are located.

Expert insight: Why cart abandonment rates are naturally high

Cart abandonment rates appear unusually high compared with most other eCommerce metrics. This is largely because adding products to the cart requires very little commitment from the shopper. Unlike submitting payment or placing an order, the add-to-cart action is often part of the browsing and evaluation process rather than a final purchase decision. In practice, carts are frequently used to compare total costs, save items for later, or continue the purchase on another device.

Industry research reflects this behaviour. According to credible industry research, 43% of shoppers abandon their cart simply because they are browsing or not ready to buy. 

For this reason, a high abandonment rate does not automatically indicate a problem. The key is to identify whether abandonment reflects normal shopping behaviour or friction in the purchase journey.

Cart abandonment is acceptable when it sits within the benchmark range for your category, region and device, and remains broadly stable over time. For most eCommerce businesses, 65%–75% overall is commercially normal, provided it aligns with relevant market averages.

A cart abandonment rate becomes a performance concern when the following patterns appear:

• The rate consistently exceeds relevant industry benchmarks: If your abandonment rate is materially higher than the typical range for your category, region or device mix, it often indicates structural friction in pricing transparency, checkout usability, or payment options.

• The metric changes sharply after a site update or operational change; sudden increases often occur after redesigns, checkout modifications, payment gateway changes, or shipping policy updates. These shifts suggest that a new element in the purchase flow is introducing hesitation.

• Drop-off increases at a specific stage after add-to-cart: If analytics shows a noticeable increase in drop-off after customers add items to their cart, this may indicate problems at a particular step in the purchase flow, such as the cart page, delivery options, checkout forms, or payment stage.

When these signals appear, a structured review of the purchase journey after add-to-cart becomes necessary to identify the factors limiting order completion.

On Tap helps merchants interpret these signals, uncover the root causes of cart abandonment, and prioritise the most effective improvements.

When cart abandonment indicates a potential performance issue, the next step is identifying the reasons shoppers leave after adding products to their cart. Understanding where and why customers drop off helps merchants determine which parts of the purchase journey require improvement rather than making broad changes across the entire funnel.

The table below highlights the most common drop-off points in the purchase journey and the underlying issues that frequently cause shoppers to abandon their cart.

Diagnosing the causes of cart abandonment is rarely straightforward because very different underlying issues can produce similar drop-off patterns after the add-to-cart stage. Each of these situations requires a different optimisation strategy.

In practice, identifying the right improvement requires careful analysis of shopper behaviour across the purchase journey combined with real-world optimisation experience.

Once the drop-off points in the purchase journey are identified, the next step is deciding how to address them.

In practice, merchants tackle cart abandonment through two complementary strategies:

• Reducing abandonment by removing friction from the purchase journey

• Recovering abandoned carts by re-engaging shoppers who leave before completing their purchase.

Most eCommerce teams prioritise removing friction from the purchase journey first, then implement recovery campaigns to capture additional conversions. Together, these strategies help merchants convert more of the demand that already reaches their store.

Reducing cart abandonment focuses on removing friction after shoppers add products to their cart, helping more customers continue through the purchase journey and complete their order during the same session.

Why it matters

Reducing abandonment improves the store’s structural conversion rate by removing friction from the buying process. This means the improvement scales with traffic. As more visitors move beyond the add-to-cart stage, the benefits of a smoother purchase experience apply to all of them.

Typical tactics to reduce cart abandonment rate:

The tactics below address the most common causes of abandonment identified in the previous section. They are organised by the stage of the purchase journey where friction typically occurs, making it easier to prioritise improvements across the cart, checkout, and payment stages.

• Reveal the total cost earlier: Many customers hesitate when they only see the full order cost after entering the checkout flow. Making the total cost visible earlier helps customers evaluate the purchase before entering checkout.
  This can be done by adding a shipping cost estimator to the cart, displaying estimated taxes earlier in the journey, and highlighting free-shipping thresholds to encourage larger baskets.

• Clarify delivery and returns upfront: Uncertainty about delivery timing or return policies often delays purchase decisions. When this information appears only deep in the checkout process, shoppers may abandon the session to seek clarification.
  Providing this information earlier reduces hesitation. Display estimated delivery dates on product pages, show stock availability, and place clear return policy summaries near the add-to-cart button so customers can assess the risk before proceeding to checkout.

• Reduce product uncertainty: Customers sometimes abandon their cart because they are still unsure whether the product meets their needs. This is particularly common for products that involve size, fit, compatibility, or quality considerations.
  To reduce uncertainty, you should surface customer reviews and user-generated content near purchase actions, provide detailed sizing or product guidance, and place key FAQs close to the add-to-cart button to address common objections.

• Reinforce trust signals throughout the purchase journey: Some shoppers abandon their cart because they are unsure whether the store is trustworthy or their payment details will be secure, particularly when visiting the store for the first time.
  To build confidence, display recognised trust signals throughout the purchase journey. Examples include customer reviews and ratings, secure payment badges, clear return policies, visible contact information, and recognised payment logos. 

• Simplify the checkout flow: Even motivated shoppers may abandon the purchase if the checkout process feels unnecessarily complicated.
  Make guest checkout prominent, reduce the number of required fields, enable address autofill or postcode lookup, and use clear progress indicators so shoppers understand how many steps remain.
  Explore more tactics to reduce checkout friction in our guide on eCommerce checkout optimisation

• Offer relevant payment options: If customers cannot use their preferred payment method, they may abandon the transaction even after completing most of the checkout process.
  As a result, you should provide locally preferred payment methods, prioritise accelerated checkout options such as digital wallets, and ensure the payment interface loads quickly and reliably.

• Enable persistent baskets: Some customers abandon their cart simply because they intend to return later.
  Persistent carts allow products to remain saved across sessions and devices, making it easier for customers to resume the purchase when they return.

• Use exit prompts carefully: When a shopper shows signs of leaving the site, a well-timed reminder can help retain purchase intent.  Targeted exit prompts should therefore be used to highlight items left in the cart, remind shoppers of free shipping thresholds, or provide quick links back to the purchase.

• Ensure technical reliability: Technical instability during the purchase journey can undermine even a well-designed buying experience. Slow page loads, checkout crashes, or transaction timeouts can cause immediate abandonment.
  Maintaining technical reliability requires monitoring errors across the purchase journey, preventing session timeouts, reducing payment gateway failures, and ensuring fast page load times from cart to order completion.

• Optimise for mobile behaviour: Mobile sessions often involve shorter attention spans and more interruptions than desktop browsing.
  The mobile purchase experience should therefore minimise typing effort and interface friction. Mobile-friendly input types, thumb-accessible buttons, and strong performance on mobile networks can significantly improve completion rates.

Recovery strategies take a different approach. Instead of removing friction from the purchase journey itself, they focus on re-engaging shoppers after they have already left the store.

Why it matters

Recovery campaigns can perform well because they target shoppers who have already shown interest by adding products to their cart. However, they only reach a subset of abandoned carts, so their overall impact is typically smaller than improvements that reduce abandonment within the purchase journey itself.

Common tactics to recover abandoned carts:

• Use email as the primary recovery channel: Email is often the most scalable recovery channel because it allows merchants to reconnect with abandoned shoppers through an owned channel at very low cost.
  Trigger abandoned cart emails shortly after the session ends, include a clear return-to-cart link, and send follow-up reminders only if the initial message does not convert.

• Use SMS selectively for high-intent carts: SMS can be effective when immediacy matters, particularly for high-value baskets or time-sensitive products.
  Keep SMS messages concise, include a single clear call to action, and limit message frequency to avoid customer fatigue. Always ensure explicit consent before sending SMS recovery messages.

• Extend recovery through paid retargeting: Some shoppers leave before providing contact information, making them unreachable through email or SMS. Retargeting platforms can still reconnect with these visitors using browsing signals captured during their session.
  Create retargeting audiences based on cart abandonment events, run dynamic product ads showing the exact items left in the basket, and set frequency caps to avoid overexposing shoppers to the same ads.

• Align recovery messages with the likely barrier: Recovery messaging works best when it addresses the reason the shopper left.
  Segment recovery flows by basket value or product type, personalise messages with the abandoned items, and highlight information that removes hesitation, such as delivery clarity or return policies.

• Use incentives strategically: Incentives can increase recovery rates, but should be used selectively to protect margins.
  Start with non-discount reminders, then apply targeted incentives only if those messages do not convert. Focus incentives on higher-value baskets, test free shipping versus percentage discounts, and limit validity windows to encourage quick completion.

Reducing and recovering abandoned carts are only effective when their impact can be measured. Without clear performance signals, it becomes difficult to determine whether improvements within the purchase journey or recovery campaigns are actually increasing completed orders.

Instead of relying on a single metric, merchants should evaluate cart abandonment through a set of indicators that reveal how customers move through the purchase journey after add-to-cart, how recovery campaigns perform, and whether technical or experience issues are affecting completion rates.

These signals can be organised into three measurement layers: funnel performance, recovery performance, and experience health indicators.

1. Funnel performance metrics

Funnel metrics help identify where shoppers drop off after adding products to their cart and whether improvements within the purchase journey are increasing completion rates.

When analysing these metrics, merchants should segment results by device, traffic source, customer type, and product category, as behaviour often varies across these dimensions.

Tracking these metrics together helps merchants identify where abandonment occurs within the post–add-to-cart funnel, rather than focusing only on the overall cart abandonment rate.

2. Recovery performance metrics

Recovery campaigns should be evaluated not only by the number of recovered orders, but also by how efficiently each channel performs and whether recovery tactics genuinely generate additional conversions.

Evaluating these metrics together helps merchants understand not only how many orders recovery campaigns generate, but also how efficiently and sustainably those campaigns perform.

3. Experience health indicators

Changes in cart abandonment often reflect broader experience or technical issues within the purchase journey after add-to-cart. Monitoring these signals helps identify problems before they significantly affect conversion performance.

Common indicators include:

• Mobile performance metrics, such as Core Web Vitals

• Checkout error monitoring, including crash rates and failed transactions

• Page load time during payment, which directly affects checkout completion

Many of these issues are difficult to detect through manual testing or traditional analytics because they occur intermittently and affect only a portion of purchase sessions. As a result, merchants may notice rising cart abandonment without immediately identifying the underlying cause.

Once performance is measured, cart abandonment data can be used to guide optimisation decisions. Merchants should analyse trends across segments to identify where improvements will have the greatest impact.

For example:

• If abandonment rises on mobile, focus on improving the mobile purchase experience and performance.

• If conversion improves but revenue remains unchanged, prioritise increasing basket value rather than only improving completion rates.

• If recovery revenue grows but profit margins decline, reassess the incentive strategy and validate incremental lift before scaling discounts.

• If performance stabilises after improvements in one stage of the purchase journey, shift focus to the next largest opportunity within the funnel.

In this way, cart abandonment data becomes a tool for prioritisation rather than simply a performance indicator.

While reducing cart abandonment can improve conversion performance, many additional optimisation opportunities exist across the purchase journey. Our guide on eCommerce conversion rate strategies explores additional tactics that help increase overall conversion rates across the purchase journey.

Cart abandonment is an unavoidable part of the online buying journey. Because adding products to the cart requires little commitment, many shoppers use it as part of their browsing and evaluation process.

However, abandonment data remains one of the most valuable signals in eCommerce performance analysis. When interpreted correctly, it reveals where friction appears in the purchase journey and which improvements can convert more intent into completed orders.

For most merchants, the most effective approach combines two priorities:

• Reducing abandonment by improving clarity, usability, and trust across the purchase journey

• Recovering abandoned carts through targeted re-engagement strategies

Together, these improvements help businesses convert more of the demand that already reaches their store, often generating revenue gains without increasing traffic acquisition costs.

If your store is experiencing unusually high cart abandonment, inconsistent conversion rates, or unclear performance signals, a structured analysis of the purchase journey can quickly reveal the underlying issues.