Have you ever spent hours setting up your online store only to realize that customers are leaving items in their shopping carts without completing their purchases? This phenomenon, known as “cart abandonment,” a major headache for Shopify merchants. In fact, studies have shown that as many as 70% of online shopping carts are abandoned before checkout. So, what are the reasons for cart abandonment, and how can you deal with them?
Is it the shipping cost that’s deterring your customers from completing their purchases? Or perhaps they’re hesitant to create an account? Maybe they’re simply window-shopping and have no intention of making a purchase. Whatever the reason, understanding the factors that lead to cart abandonment is crucial for any online business looking to improve its sales.
In this blog post, we’ll explore the top reasons for cart abandonment in Shopify and provide actionable tips on how to deal with them. From optimizing your checkout process to offering incentives, we’ll cover everything you need to know to turn abandoned carts into successful transactions.
Looking for a solution to reduce cart abandonment on your Shopify store? Retainful can help! With features like exit-intent popups and personalized emails, you’ll be able to recover lost sales and increase your revenue.
What is Shopify abandoned cart?
Shopify abandoned cart refers to an online shopping behavior where a customer adds items to their cart but leaves the website before completing the purchase. As a Shopify store owner, this can be frustrating because you’ve put in a lot of effort to get the customer to your store, only for them to leave without buying anything.
What is cart abandonment rate?

Abandoned cart rate is the percentage of visitors who add items to their online shopping cart but leave the website without completing their purchase. Studies by Baymard Institute states abandoned cart rates varies from each device where mobile and tablets have the highest numbers.
Desktop: 69.75%
Mobile: 85.65%
Tablets: 80.74%
The average abandoned cart rate across various platforms is 68.81%.
What are the reasons for cart abandonment?

If you’re a Shopify store owner, you’re probably familiar with the frustration of seeing potential customers add items to their carts, and abandon them before completing the purchase. Unfortunately, this is inevitable So, why do so many customers fail to follow through with their purchases? We’ll explore the top reasons for cart abandonment and provide practical tips to help you reduce cart abandonment rate and boost your Shopify sales.
Payment declined
One of the most common reasons for shopping cart abandonment is payment decline. Did you know that 4% of customers abandon their carts due to payment-related issues? This means that potential customers are interested in purchasing your products, but they encounter payment problems that prevent them from completing the transaction.
Solution: Check your payment gateway settings and ensure your payment methods are working correctly. Additionally, you can also provide clear instructions to customers on how to properly enter their payment information.
No or improper customer support
Did you know that no customer support or improper customer support is one of the top reasons for cart abandonment? According to a recent survey, over 51% of customers stated that they are more likely to purchase from a site if it had customer support. That’s a lot of lost revenue!
Solution: Equip your customer service team to handle any issues that may arise during the buying process. If you answered no, you must use chatbots to provide quick responses to your customers.
High additional cost
Additional costs may happen when customer adds items to the cart and final prices are not displayed upfront. These include costs due to shipping, taxes and other charges. They sometime can be as expensive as the product price.
Solution: Being transparent about your pricing is the first step in combating this issue. You can offer free or discounted shipping, bundle products to offer better value, and clearly communicate any additional costs upfront to avoid surprises at checkout.
Forced Account Creation
Studies show that up to 28% of customers abandon their carts due to this issue alone! Think about it – when you’re in a rush to purchase something online, the last thing you want to do is create an account or fill out a lengthy form.
Solution: Offering a guest checkout option or simplifying your account creation process. By doing so, you can make the purchasing process easier and more efficient for your customers, ultimately leading to increased sales and a boost in customer satisfaction.
Complicated checkout
According to a study, 28% of customers abandon their carts due to checkout-related issues. Customers look for simple and easier checkout options and complicating them affects user experience.
Solution: Reducing data entry while entering address and payment information can make checkout easier. You can set up autosave options or auto-fill forms to reduce time and complexity.
Lack of trust
60% of shoppers abandon their carts due to a lack of trust in the store. That’s a huge number of potential sales lost due to concerns about security and reliability. So, how can you overcome this problem and make people trust your Shopify store?
Solution: Include trust badges, such as SSL certificates, and display customer reviews and ratings on your website. Offer clear shipping and return policies, and make sure your checkout process is seamless and easy to navigate. Additionally, you can provide excellent customer service, promptly addressing any concerns or questions your customers may have. By taking these steps, you can build trust with your customers and reduce Shopping cart abandonment on your Shopify store.
Try Retainful today and recover lost revenue with targeted email campaigns and abandoned cart recovery tools.
Slow loading website
Did you know that a delay of just one second in page load time can cause a 7% decrease in conversions? That’s a huge loss in potential sales! It reduces customer satisfaction, increase bounce rate, and lower search engine rankings.
Solution: Make sure your website has a simple, easy-to-navigate layout. improving your website’s loading speed, optimising images, minimising HTTP requests, minimize your CSS and JavaScript files.
Complex return policies
Did you know that 66% of customers are ready to spend in an eCommerce store that has a generous return policy? Customers feel hesitant to purchase products from stores that have a difficult return process, which leads to cart abandonment.
Solution: To retain customers and boost sales, simplify your return policy. Clearly display your return policy on your website and make it easy for customers to understand. Consider offering free returns or exchanges, which can increase customer confidence in your store.
No Flexible payment
As a Shopify store owner, you must be well aware of the fact that online customers expect convenience and if they don’t find payment options that they prefer, then you have to be ready to deal with Shopify abandoned carts.
Solution: Offer multiple payment gateways, such as credit cards, PayPal, and Apple Pay. By giving your customers more payment options, you’ll be able to reduce your Shopify abandoned carts and improve your conversion rates.
Better pricing by competitors
Better pricing by competitors is another reason for cart abandonment. Customers like to research the product they wish to buy and if they find the same product available in another website for a better price, they would, of course, buy the product from that website. It can be frustrating to lose potential customers because of pricing, but there are ways to solve this issue and retain your customers. According to a study by Baymard Institute, 25% of customers abandon their carts due to high prices.
Solution: Try offering price-matching or price-beating policies, loyalty programs, or bundle deals to incentivize customers to complete their purchases. Don’t let pricing be one of your cart abandonment reasons – take action and retain your customers!
No coupon or discount available
A stat by Statista states no coupon or discount code available is a reason that amounts to 8% cart abandonment reasons. Customers generally wait for coupons to appear or customers will abandoned cart and will move to the next store.
Solution: To solve this issue and retain your customers, consider offering discounts to first-time shoppers, sending next order coupons through email, or implementing a loyalty program. This makes them feel valued and engage with your shopify store.
High shipping cost
Shipping costs are one of the biggest reasons for cart abandonment in Shopify. A whopping 58% of online shoppers abandon their carts due to high shipping costs. As a Shopify store owner, you don’t want to lose potential customers just because of shipping costs.
Solution: One way is to offer free shipping. Studies show that 93% of online shoppers are more likely to make a purchase if free shipping is available. You can also offer discounted shipping rates, set a minimum order value for free shipping, or use a third-party shipping carrier to reduce costs. By taking these simple steps, you can combat Shopify abandoned cart and retain customers.
Not mobile compatible
As a Shopify store owner, it’s crucial to ensure that your website is mobile-compatible because it’s one of the reasons for cart abandonment. According to recent research, 53% of mobile shoppers abandoned their cart if website doesn’t load in 3 seconds. Think about it – when was the last time you tried to shop on a website that was difficult to use on your phone?
Solution: Optimizing your website for mobile and all other devices and making it more responsive and compatible designs. This can be achieved by leveraging browser cache, reducing server response time, not adding sidebars, etc.
Just browsing
58.6% of US online shoppers have stated just browsing as the reason of cart abandonment. Customers who are simply browsing may add items to their cart without any intention of making a purchase.
Solution: Offering personalized discounts or incentives to encourage them to complete their purchase. You can also send email reminders to customers who have left items in their cart and offer free shipping or a limited-time discount code to entice them to return.
How to recover abandoned carts in Shopify?
As a Shopify store owner, one of the biggest challenges you may face is recovering abandoned carts. While the reasons for abandoned carts may vary, you can reduce abandoned cart rate by offering incentives such as free shipping, next order coupons, loyalty points and rewards and perfectly timing your cart recovery emails. You just need to use best Shopify abandoned cart apps to help you recover lost carts.
One helpful tool for recovering abandoned carts is abandoned cart emails, which Retainful offers. You can personalise cart recovery emails with best abandoned cart subject lines sent to customers with offers, encouraging them to complete their purchases. Additionally WhatsApp chat + abandoned cart by Shopjar allows store owners to reach out to customers via WhatsApp and offer support in real-time, which can help to build trust and encourage customers to complete their purchases.
With Retainful, you can increase revenue with automated emails, exit-intent popups, and more. Sign up today and start tackling the top cart abandonment reasons in Shopify.
Conclusion
In conclusion, cart abandonment remains a challenge for many Shopify store owners. However, by understanding the reasons for cart abandonment and taking steps to address them, you can significantly reduce cart abandonment rate and increase your sales. By optimizing your checkout process, offering free shipping or other incentives, simplifying account creation, and providing prompt customer support, you can turn abandoned carts into successful transactions.
As a Shopify store owner, it’s important to remember that lost sales due to cart abandonment are not lost forever. By implementing abandoned cart recovery strategies you could recover up to 75% of those lost sales. With the right approach and a willingness to adapt, you can turn abandoned carts into successful transactions and improve the success of your online business.
Shopify abandoned cart email is an automated email sent to customers who have left items in their shopping carts without completing the purchase. The email reminds customers of their abandoned cart and encourages them to complete the purchase.
Abandoned carts can be measured by dividing the number of completed purchases by the number of started purchases, then subtracting the result from 1 to get the abandonment rate. Alternatively, many ecommerce platforms have built-in tools to track and analyze abandoned carts.
The best time to send an abandoned cart email is within 24 hours of the cart being abandoned. However, testing different timeframes can help determine the most effective timing for your industry and target audience.
Cart recovery methods are strategies used to entice customers who have abandoned their shopping carts to finish their purchase. These can include email reminders, retargeting ads, personalized offers, and optimizing the checkout process.