
U.S. shopping cart abandonment rates of selected categories 2018
Online shopping cart abandonment
Despite a growing share of shopping happening online, getting customers to follow through and complete an online purchase can be difficult. Online shoppers are faced by a barrage of distractions when browsing or attempting to make a purchase online. Not only do the retailing websites attempt to display the most trending items and inspire add-on purchases, but in-site advertisements for other stores can lead the shopper away from the intended goal as well.
A large number of consumers tend to use other media such as radio, television, or online chat rooms when shopping online along with the added distractions of phones and email. These outside interruptions, along with the internal website issues of costs, security, and efficiency can cause a shopper to forget about or intentionally abandon their online shopping basket.
A growing number of consumers are shopping online via mobile devices. Conversion rates tend to be higher, however, when customers shop online from larger devices such as PCs as opposed to smartphones. It appears that shoppers will use their mobile devices to browse rather than to complete a purchase. There is less cart abandonment on major shopping holidays, such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and, unsurprisingly, online retail giant Amazon.com has the most successful conversion rate of all e-tailers.