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Abandoned Cart

A shopper adds products to their cart… then leaves without completing the purchase. That's an abandoned cart and it's one of the most expensive behaviors in e-commerce. The cart abandonment rate measures the percentage of sessions where an item was added to the cart but the order was never finalized. On average, more than 70% of all carts created are never converted, making it one of the highest-priority optimization levers for any online retailer.

Updated on April 15, 2026

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Introduction

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Why Do Shoppers Abandon Their Cart?

The reasons almost always come down to the same friction points:

Unexpected shipping costs revealed at checkout
Too long or complex checkout process
Being forced to create an account before purchasing
Lack of trust (no security badges, no customer reviews)
Simple browsing or price comparison behavior
Technical issues (bugs, slow page load)

Understanding why your users abandon is the first step before taking action.

How to Reduce Cart Abandonment?

Several strategies can help recover lost revenue.

Abandoned cart emails remain the most effective tactic. Sent within an hour of abandonment, they remind shoppers of the items left behind sometimes paired with an incentive like a discount code or free shipping offer.

Push notifications and retargeting campaigns (Meta Ads, Google Ads) allow you to re-engage anonymous visitors who didn't leave an email address.

On the UX side, streamlining the checkout flow fewer steps, guest checkout option, showing fees upfront can significantly drop your abandonment rate.