Revisiting Abandoned Baskets

Abandoned baskets are an inevitable reality in online retail. Global data reported by Statistica shows the shopping cart abandonment rate hovering around the 70% mark for more than a decade.(1) Despite these statistics, more and more consumers are shopping online. According to a recent Forbes round-up, 20.1% of retail purchases are expected to take place online this year worldwide and the UK is predicted to have 62.1 million e-commerce users by 2025.

This will equate to 38.1% of all UK retail sales and amount to approximately £152 billion. (2)

This means that evaluating and understanding the reasons for even a small proportion of these incomplete transactions constitutes a huge opportunity for businesses to increase their revenue and improve their customer loyalty.

This article explores the issues surrounding incomplete online transactions and what marketers can do to address them.

Finding the root cause of abandoned baskets

It is important to remember that shoppers who abandon their carts or baskets mid-transaction are already warm prospects, so it is in the best interest of retailers to learn more about their needs and invest in trying to win them back.

The first step in this process is to identify and understand why customers are dropping out of their purchases. These reasons can be narrowed down into three general, overarching areas:

1. User experience: Your competitors are only a click away for online shoppers so their experience on your site needs to be as fast, easy and smooth as possible. This includes making sure all the buttons are working properly and timeout limits are of a reasonable length, allowing customers to make their purchases without feeling like they are racing against a clock.
2. Deferred buying decision: Whether they are visiting other sites to compare prices, customer reviews and feedback or waiting for payday, there are numerous reasons for customers deciding not to purchase at that moment. Whatever their motivation, treating these unfinished transactions as opportunities rather than ignoring or dismissing them can help you convert delays into future sales.
3. Outside factors:  A percentage of abandoned transactions are well and truly out of the hands of online retailers, such as a device’s battery dying or a crashed browser. While you can’t control these issues, if you get points one and two correct, you are more likely to win the business when they are back online.

Creating a smooth journey

Data analytic tools can go a long way to help brands identify – and remedy – any hiccups in their user experience. They can tag and monitor purchase pages as well as track cursors to call out design issues to ensure order pages and transaction processes are working as smoothly as possible.

For example, as point one above alludes to, an online retailer had a challenge with an image on their website that looked like a button, but wasn’t clickable. Customers kept trying to click on the image to complete their orders – and abandoning the process when it failed to work. Once their technology platform identified the misleading image as the root cause of the problem, the retailer was able to solve the issue by redesigning their order page to avoid further confusion.

Wooing back customers: tips for brands

While brands can’t stop customers from abandoning their virtual carts and baskets, the way they respond to them can make all the difference. There is no one size fits all approach, but personalised messages based on the customer’s purchase type and transaction history are useful for reminding, re-engaging and building trust – all factors which help nudge unfinished purchases over the line.

Starting with tactics like automated pop-up reminders while the customer is on your site can help prompt a purchase and serve as a reminder before you narrow down your approach to the more personalised emails. Using data is a powerful way to create your customer journeys – which is where investing in a central customer data platform (CDP) that underpins your CRM system makes sense.

Personalising communications through data-led decision making

Not only does a CDP ensure you have a ‘single view of the customer’ by aggregating all of your customer data in one location, but with the help of AI, a CDP can learn more about your customers’ behaviour and preferences over time based on their collective data.

When it comes to personalising responses, putting this data to work will help you to tailor the content and timing of your communications. Factoring in the value of the purchase, the industry you’re in and the timing of customers’ past purchases will help ensure any personalised follow up messages are using the right tone and hitting your customers’ inboxes and mobiles at the times of day when they are most likely to buy something.

A two-way conversation

Communications around abandoned baskets doesn’t need to be a one-way conversation. Providing your customers with the means and opportunity to talk to you will help tailor your approach to them. For example, integrating clickable buttons on emails that allow them to say ‘I don’t need this anymore’ or ‘I’m still thinking about this purchase’ give your customers the chance to tell you – with a single click – what’s going on from their end, rather than receiving a raft of emails they ignore.

Using simple response mechanisms like these will not only provide you with invaluable insights, but allow you to either move the customer out of the campaign, or adjust your follow up timings according to their timescales, leading to an improved customer experience.

As with any campaign, there is always room for improvement. Testing everything from subject lines, images and offers helps marketers to fine tune their messages and delivery tactics to boost response rates, improve customer journeys and meet their business goals.

Using abandoned baskets as an opportunity for growth

Even the best timed, most personalised responses will not eliminate abandoned baskets or carts, but ensuring you have a simple, smooth order process can help brands to minimise the impact of this issue. When visitors do fail to complete a purchase, remember it is an opportunity to engage with them. Recognising whether they are a loyal customer or a warm prospect will help you to tailor your communications, improve your customer experience and ultimately contribute to your bottom line.

(1) Online shopping cart abandonment rate worldwide between 2006 to 2024. 14 May 2024: https://www.statista.com/statistics/477804/online-shopping-cart-abandonment-rate-worldwide/

(2) 33 E-Commerce Statistics For 2024. 12 June 2024: https://www.forbes.com/uk/advisor/business/ecommerce-statistics/.