For the past five years SaleCycle has been tracking online cart abandonments – more than one billion. The company shares with WIT the data behind this rising trend, and the 10 things behind these abandonments. (see infographic below)
According to SaleCycle, the problem for most online e-commerce stores is that abandonment is on the rise. The data has shown a continuing upward trend, with a near 15% rise in online abandonments since 2010. The industry experiencing the highest rate of abandonment is travel, with an average abandonment rate of 80.1%.
Throughout the year abandonments rates rise and fall. The lowest rates are recorded during the Christmas period with many leaving their shopping to the last minute, then rushing to fill those stockings. This is closely followed by other big sales days, with great prices persuading customers to snap up items to avoid disappointment.
“The reasons that people are abandoning purchases vary. Unexpected shipping costs, having to create a user account or just browsing are the three most common. On-site remarketing presents users who look like they’re about to abandon with relevant content right when they need it. It has shown to reduce the number of abandonments that occur and lift sales by 3.1%,” said SaleCycle.
“For the carts already left behind, email remarketing has proven to be a great way to get the users back to the cart to finish the purchase. The emails have an average 47% open rate and boost revenue by 4.1%.”
SaleCycle’s highest value recovery was from a customer who first abandoned, then came back and purchased 11 chandeliers.
“Think that’s incredible? Another user abandoned a purchase and did not open the remarketing email they were sent for 534 days! When they eventually saw the email, they purchased the items… 18 months after first looking at the products!” it added.
Over the last five years SaleCycle said it had seen a lot of abandonments and recovered sales, and not one is the same.
• Featured image credit (abandoned cart): samaro/iStock
• Click here to see the detailed infographic.
