Shopping Cart Abandonment Rate (2024)
The shopping cart abandonment rate refers to the percentage of online shoppers who add items to their checkout carts on a particular ecommerce website but fail to follow through with the purchase. How has this metric evolved over the past 12 months?
Shopping cart abandonment rate: key statistics
- As of July 2024, the average shopping cart abandonment rate across ecommerce stores was 73.94%. This means that close to three-quarters of online shoppers did not follow through with purchasing items in their shopping carts.
- Over the past 12 months, the highest and lowest abandonment rates came in August 2023 (74.95%) and December 2023 (70.66%), respectively.
- High extra costs are the biggest reason people choose to abandon their carts.
Shopping cart abandonment rate: August 2023–July 2024
|
Month |
Shopping cart abandonment rate |
|
Aug 2023 |
74.95% |
|
Sep 2023 |
74.48% |
|
Oct 2023 |
74.01% |
|
Nov 2023 |
71.14% |
|
Dec 2023 |
70.66% |
|
Jan 2024 |
73.02% |
|
Feb 2024 |
73.59% |
|
Mar 2024 |
73.65% |
|
Apr 2024 |
73.59% |
|
May 2024 |
73.34% |
|
Jun 2024 |
73.54% |
|
Jul 2024 |
73.94% |
The latest shopping cart abandonment rates show that in July 2024, 73.94% of all online shopping carts fail to make it to the checkout stage. In other words, nearly three out of every four online shopping baskets are ditched without the purchase process being completed.
Looking at data from August 2023 to July 2024, this is slightly higher than the average abandonment rate over this period, which is 73.12%. The lowest rates came in December 2023, at 70.66%, while the highest was in August 2023, at 74.95%.
Reasons behind high shopping cart abandonment rates
As an ecommerce store owner, it is important to understand why potential customers are abandoning their intended purchases and how to retarget these visitors.
The most common reason for high abandonment rates is that people were put off by the high extra costs (be it shipping fees, taxes, or fees). Nearly half (48%) of online consumers gave up on their intended purchases because of this.
Other reasons include having to create an account to check out (26%), a lack of trust in the site with credit card information (25%), and long delivery times (23%).
To improve shopping cart abandonment rates for your ecommerce business, consider streamlining your checkout process. You could also offer popular payment methods and free shipping. These are some of the most recommended tactics to optimize and convert shopping cart additions.
Shopping cart abandonment rate by device
|
Device |
Shopping cart abandonment rate (as of July 2024) |
|
Mobile |
77.06% |
|
Desktop |
66.39% |
|
Tablet |
70.01% |
Before you start working on strategies to reduce your cart abandonment rate, you may also want to take into account the differences in devices.
At 77.06% in July 2024, the average cart abandonment rate on mobile devices is significantly higher than those on tablet devices and desktops, which stands at 70.01% and 66.39%, respectively.
The driving factors behind this large difference relate to the user experience. Consumers tend to find the online shopping experience on desktops more seamless. On mobile devices, on the other hand, difficulties such as trouble reading text and locating where to click are a hindrance to checkout.
That said, if most of your store’s web traffic is coming from mobile devices, consider taking additional steps to optimize your customer’s mobile experience on your website to reduce those rates. Tactics include adding a sense of urgency such as a sale, being transparent with your charges, and recovering abandoned carts.