In our continuous effort to help solve online retailers' greatest challenges, we’ve added our own insight along with supporting data from a study on shopping cart abandonment, and published the results in a white paper, “Understanding and Lowering Shopping Cart Abandonment.” Read our guide to learn: - The 4 uses your customers find for your shopping cart besides completing a purchase. - Online store features that can dramatically reduce abandonment if offered in conjunction with the shopping cart - How to know if your physical store needs a mobile app to compete today - How to improve to cart abandonment follow-up emails to reduce distracting or “Big Brother-like” messages

1. UNDERSTANDING AND LOWERING
SHOPPING CART ABANDONMENT

2. While it would certainly be too much to think that
cart abandonment can be eliminated altogether,
there are several things a retailer can do to cut
down on the percentage of customers who show
a lot of initial purchase intent, but then end up
leaving items behind. Getting inside the head
of the customer and figuring out where the sale
went wrong is difficult, and there are lots of factors
involved that make the situation even more
complex.
However, when we break down overall shopper
intent and reasons for not buying, it becomes a little
more straightforward.
As every online retailer
knows, “shopping cart
abandonment” – when
online shoppers fill up the
cart and fail to buy – is a
challenge.

3. We’ve compiled essential information on a recent study
(conducted by Magento and Bronto Software) that
focused on uncovering the reasons behind the rising
number of abandoned shopping carts as a percentage of
all ecommerce website visits. While this study examines
many different areas of interest surrounding shopping
cart abandonment, we are primarily focused on using
these clues to answer the following questions:
SO WHAT CLUES ARE THERE TO HELP US
SOLVE THE MYSTERY OF SHOPPING
CART ABANDONMENT?
kk Cart abandonment is on the rise. Why are
consumers abandoning their shopping carts more
frequently and what opportunities might this
provide marketers?
kk What tactics work well to convert customers who
would likely abandon their cart otherwise?
kk What tactics are more likely to make matters
worse, that would annoy or put the customer off?
kk What are the best shopping cart and shopping
cart abandonment strategies?
Over 1000 online shoppers who had
made an online purchase within the last
twelve months received a survey asking
questions about their experiences. The
study asked them about shopping cart
abandonment and the follow-up emails
that companies often send after the
consumer abandons their cart.
STUDY OVERVIEW
The respondents were split into three
groups—frequent shoppers, occasional
shoppers, and infrequent shoppers.
Frequent shoppers were identified as
those who purchase at least weekly;
occasional shoppers make Internet
purchases at least every month, and
infrequent shoppers buy less than once
a month.

4. HOW CUSTOMERS
BEHAVE WITH THEIR
SHOPPING CARTS
The shopping cart is no longer used the way
retailers expect or want it to be, which is: as the
simple, final step prior to making an online purchase.
Instead, shoppers use the shopping cart for various
reasons, only some of which connect directly to the
purchase.
The study concluded that consumers use their
shopping cart for the following reasons:
kk To summarize and consolidate their potential
buying choices, so that they can see everything
in one place and then decide which items they
want to keep and those they want to remove - a
virtual staging ground;
kk To save items in one place, for purchase
consideration at a later date;
kk To create a wish list of items that will be shopped
for later or shared with friends;
kk To save items so that they can be accessed on
a different device at a later time;
kk To view products on a mobile device while
shopping on a mobile device shopping in a
physical store.
“Shoppers use the shopping
cart for various reasons,
only some of which connect
directly to the purchase.”

5. The conclusion: Shoppers are using carts as wish lists.While it is likely that retailers already haveWish List functionality on their websites,
it is equally likely that customers are simply not using them, opting instead to just store products in the cart. Our recommendation for
retailers, therefore, is to make sure that shopping carts stay cookied for longer periods of time, and that Add/Remove functions are
clearly labeled and easy to use. It is also a good idea to make product attributes – size, color, quantity – easily customizable within the
cart itself.
SAVING ITEMS FOR LATER
Researchers found that shoppers among all three groups occasionally use their shopping carts to save items for later.
However, a majority of shoppers who make a purchase at least once a month (the frequent and occasional shoppers)
were likely to do so every time they shop.
The conclusion: The ability to save items in an online shopping cart for later review is an important one for online
businesses. So, retailers are encouraged to keep items in a customer’s cart, even if they leave the website. Customers
are using the cart as a research device, so forcing them to search for the products all over again and put them back
into the cart is not a good idea.
Shoppers might want to postpone their purchases to read reviews and compare prices before making a final purchase
decision, so let them do that. Just make it easy for them to pick up where they left off. And, as we said in the last
conclusion, it’s important to make Add/Remove/Edit functions as easy as possible.
SUMMARIZING POTENTIAL
PURCHASE DECISIONS
The study found that roughly 55% of frequent shoppers always
use their shopping cart to help make the final decision about
what or what not to purchase. That is, they use the shopping
cart as a staging area, where they can compare products side-
by-side. Add to that the infrequent shoppers group, where
fully 38% reported that they use the shopping cart in this
manner, and we can easily see that almost all shoppers -- 83%
-- use their shopping cart not just to purchase items, but also to
put them in one place for simultaneous viewing and decision-
making.
“The ability to save items
in an online shopping cart
for later review is an
important one for online
businesses.”

6. Now, of course, maybe this is just semantics, because what matters is total conversion in the end: if a customer is
not buying an item, then they are not buying an item; it does not matter if it is attributable to the shopping cart or
to the Wish List.
However, in order to truly get an understanding of what your shopping cart abandonment rate is, make sure that
the control data is as accurate as possible from the beginning. Calculating your abandonment rate by including
products that are only in the shopping cart because shoppers don’t know where else to keep them, is likely skewing
your statistics. Promoting Wish Lists will help to create a fairer starting point for your data set, so that, at the very least,
you’ll have filtered out the chaff, and can begin to get a better understanding of true cart abandonment.
Wish Lists can do a lot more than shopping carts, too. Your customers can set reminders for particular events
(birthdays, payday, etc.), have those reminders sent to herself in email, and more. Wish lists provide consumers with
more control over their purchases, while giving marketers a unique and useful way to engage with customers. And,
highlighting wish lists could give you a better picture of what your real cart abandonment challenge looks like.
PROMOT YOUR WISH LIST
Some customers aren’t planning to buy
right away, but want to build a wish list
for future purchases. The study indicates
frequent shoppers do so about 82% of the
time, while 49% of infrequent shoppers
reported that they use the shopping cart
as a wish list.
The conclusion: Separate wish list apps
can significantly reduce an online store’s
shopping cart abandonment, because
shoppers won’t be using their cart as their
wish lists. If offered, a little over 70% of all
respondents would either use a wish list
exclusively or along with a shopping cart.

7. At the time of the study, only about 9% of all
consumers saved an item in their shopping cart
to view it on a different device later. However, it’s
clear that this number will continue to steadily
and rapidly increase as smartphones and tablets
continue in popularity and challenge the usefulness
of a desktop.
The percentage increases to 19% for frequent
shoppers who are more likely to own a mobile
device. What’s certainly true is that customers use
mobile applications more for discovery, awareness,
and research, and less for actual purpose. The
reason? Probably because it’s easier to type personal
information and credit card details on a desktop,
which has a full keyboard.
VIEWING ON DIFFERENT
DEVICES
The conclusion: It’s essential that all ecommerce
sites be optimized for not only desktop but for
mobile. CrossChannel (or Multi-Channel) cart
functionality is already a very useful capability,
and will only become more necessary going
forward.
What this means is that a customer who views
a product for research on their mobile device
while commuting on the train and then logs onto
their desktop to buy it hours later, still has that
item in their cart, ready for purchase. This multi-
channel capability is essential to lowering cart
abandonment.
9% of consumers reported using their shopping cart on a mobile device to view items while actually inside the
retailer’s physical store. However, this is likely due to the fact that many companies don’t have an easy to use mobile
app or their mobile design is not responsive. As retail app availability increases, the number of people using mobile
apps and mobile for web inside physical stores as they prepare to purchase will certainly only increase.
It’s also worth noting that almost 60% of frequent shoppers already use their mobile devices to find saved information
about products in a physical store.
The conclusion: If you run both online and offline retail stores, make sure your UX on mobile –whether it’s on an app
or just responsive – to merge the two shopping experiences seamlessly.

8. While marketers are often worried that cart abandonment follow up emails may seem intrusive or “Big
Brother-like,” the data suggests otherwise. In fact, almost half of all respondents stated that a follow up email
after they left a full shopping cart behind would be helpful.
Keep in mind that a little over 50% of all respondents do not expect any sort of follow up from a business after they
abandon their shopping cart, so it’s best to understand that many customers will be likely be surprised to receive
emails like these.
The study also found that the timing of a company’s follow up is as important as whether or not it’s sent at all. In
fact, customers waiting for follow-up expected it to come no fewer than 24 hours after they had abandoned their
carts. However, the researchers emphasize that there is no “magic hour” to send a follow up email. Instead,
they suggest experimenting with several different time periods to see which is most successful for your unique
situation.
Finally, the study found that roughly 60% of all customers would be likely to return to a store’s website if they
received a shopping cart abandonment reminder email. Frequent and occasional shoppers were more likely to
actually complete an order at that point.
Over 50% of all customers were likely to complete a purchase if the email contained information about discounts
or sales on their selected items. While this is unsurprising, it does emphasize the important point that the content
of these follow up emails is also a factor in their success, and personalizing this content will go a long ways to
ensuring that sales conversion happens.
FOLLOWING UP AFTER ABANDONMENT
Although shopping cart abandonment will always remain a challenge for online retailers, the insights revealed
by this study show that there a lot of things a retailer can do to curb the trend. They show that consumers are
generally open to completing purchases via a shopping cart if allowed to use it as they see fit, and especially if
they receive some incentive for doing so.
We’d be happy to show you how to turn these study results into actionable insights and profits to help you
prevent and manage shopping cart abandonment and increase sales.
FOLLOWING THROUGH

9. PRODUCT
RECOMMENDATIONS
WORK
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