Stop Losing Sales: 5 Actionable Ways to Reduce Cart Abandonment
Tags: marketing, sales, design, beginners
Published: 2024-03-08 09:00:10

Do you want to find a way to boost revenue with the same set of visitors? If so, you need to start thinking about your cart abandonment strategy.

In case you're not familiar with cart abandonment, it's when a shopper adds an item to their shopping cart but leaves before they finalize their order. This phenomenon can happen for many different reasons, including ones that are outside our control. For example, many people admit to adding items to their cart because they are simply window shopping and have no intention to buy.

However, when you consider the fact that the average cart abandonment rate is [over 70%](https://www.wpbeginner.com/research/shopping-cart-abandonment-statistics/#aioseo-cart-abandonment-statistics), it's clear that there are opportunities to recover some of these lost sales.

For context, this statistic means that for every 10 people who decide to click 'add to cart,' 7 will leave before they ever see your checkout page.

Now, imagine if you could convert a significant portion of these bashful browsers into loyal customers. Well, with the right strategy, you can.

Today, I'm going to show you 5 actionable ways you can reduce shopping cart abandonment and stop losing so many sales.

Let's get started!

### Show Clear Pricing + Shipping Costs

Did you know the number one reason shoppers who intend to buy leave without taking action is unforeseen costs? We found that [55%](https://optinmonster.com/cart-abandonment-statistics/) of people made this choice because the final price went up significantly from what they were promised when they added the items to their cart.

If you think about it, this makes total sense. Imagine you buy a steak for $10, but when you get to the cashier, they tell you it's actually $18. Suddenly, you're not really in the mood to have beef for dinner.

This same concept applies to online shoppers, even more so because they can simply click away from a site without consequence.

My advice is to place your product prices front and center on the page. Don't make customers hunt for the cost or get surprised by high shipping fees at checkout. When prices are transparent and easy to find, people trust your business more and are more likely to buy.

You should also make shipping clear either by including the cost in the mini-cart or by showing what people need to spend if they want free shipping. This seemingly simple gesture will reduce surprise price hikes, which means fewer abandoned carts.

### Make Sure Your Site is Responsive

If your site or app doesn't have a mobile-responsive design, you can expect to see an abnormally high abandonment rate. The reason for this is responsive designs are mostly for smartphone and tablet users. Now, consider that there are [over 5.40 billion](https://smashballoon.com/social-media-marketing-statistics/) unique mobile users, and these same people have the highest cart abandonment rate at [86%](https://wpforms.com/ecommerce-statistics/).

The reason they are leaving sites in such large numbers usually boils down to it not working well on their device.

There's a chance you've browsed an online store on your phone only to leave without taking action because things wouldn't load or you couldn't do basic actions like fill out forms or click buttons.

You'll also want to consider the other factors that go into a [responsive website](https://thrivethemes.com/mobile-friendly-content/), such as short load times and clean, uncluttered design. You'll want to keep things as simple and easy to use as possible so everyone can comfortably browse and shop.

With a fast, simple, and thoroughly tested responsive design, you'll turn more visitors into customers no matter what device they're on. And that means recovering revenue you might have lost while creating a better experience for your customers.

### Optimize Your Checkout Flow

One of the best ways to reduce your abandonment rate is to optimize your [checkout page](https://wpsimplepay.com/heres-what-the-ideal-checkout-experience-looks-like/) and flow. People should be able to seamlessly add items to their cart and place their orders without too much friction.

You'll be happy to know that there are plenty of meaningful changes you can make to your checkout process that convince visitors to become shoppers.

Here are a few tips that have helped us over the years:

-  Add a progress bar so people know how long the checkout process is expected to take. 

-  Remove unnecessary sidebar widgets and banners to keep users focused on the process. 

-  Allow customers to save their cart just in case they abandon it and decide to come back later. 

-  Offer multiple payment options so your customers can pay in ways they prefer.  

-  If there's a problem with one of the payment fields, mark it so users can see exactly what they need to fix.

Optimizing these key parts of your checkout flow can significantly impact your conversion rates and bottom line. Pay attention to the experience from your customer's perspective and make changes to streamline the path to purchase. If done correctly, this one tip will help you recover a ton of would-be lost sales.

### Highlight Trust Signals

Building trust with your audience is another surefire way to prevent them from leaving without taking action. It's hard to know who to trust nowadays, so most consumers look for signs of social proof when they visit an online store.

Simply put, [social proof](https://formidableforms.com/social-proof-examples/) in marketing is evidence that a company is trusted and respected by consumers and other businesses.

For you, this may mean [including reviews](https://affiliatewp.com/social-proof-on-wordpress/) on key parts of your site so prospects know what existing customers think of your products. I like to include these specifically on our product pages and homepage.

You'll also want to think about adding trust badges, which are seals of approval from other companies. These badges typically represent financial and cybersecurity institutes like PayPal and McAfee. You'll want to include these seals on your payment forms and the footer of your site so people see that you're trusted by some of the most recognizable brands out there.

I also suggest adding a clear return policy to your website. People should know exactly what to expect after they make a purchase. I promise our customers a 100% money-back guarantee within 14 days because I believe this is enough time for them to determine if our product is for them. Your policy may vary slightly based on what you're selling.

One thing's for sure, though: these trust signals are bound to make people feel comfortable on your site, which means there's a better chance they'll make a purchase.

### Create an Email Series

Another powerful way to re-engage users and recover lost sales is to create an [automated email series](https://wpmailsmtp.com/how-to-send-automated-email-in-wordpress/) for users who abandon their cart.

The way it works is pretty simple.

Immediately after someone leaves your site without completing a purchase, trigger an automated email reminding them of the items left in their cart. Include eye-catching product images, a brief message expressing your desire to complete the sale, and a prominent link back to their cart.

If they don't convert right away, follow up with a series of 2-3 emails over the next week or so. Each email should highlight different products they showed interest in and reiterate the benefits and value. Vary the content and messaging in each email to keep things interesting.

You'll also want to find a way to sweeten the deal, such as by offering 25% off if they return to your site and finalize their order via the unique link you've included in the email. You'd be surprised at how willing people are to make a purchase they were hesitant about if they can save 25-50%.

We've had the most luck with a total of 3 emails, which helped us recover [close to 70%](https://www.monsterinsights.com/50-breathtaking-online-shopping-statistics-you-never-knew/) of people who left but intended to make a purchase. When you consider this statistic, it's surprising that only [38%](https://trustpulse.com/ecommerce-stats/%5C) of marketers specifically use recovery email campaigns to reduce abandonment.

### Final Thoughts

Now that you know a few ways to reduce cart abandonment, your next step is to take action. Adding just a few of these tips to your existing marketing strategy will help you build rapport with visitors and turn them into happy customers. We've used and adjusted these same strategies over the last decade and have managed to recover plenty of lost sales; I'm confident you can do the same.