E-commerce is a thriving business generating trillions of dollars globally each year. In 2017, retail e-commerce sales worldwide amounted to 2.3 trillion US dollars and are projected to grow to 4.88 trillion USD in 2021. Yet for some Publishers to succeed, there’s a sizable hurdle to overcome: shopping cart abandonment. Shopping cart abandonment is when shoppers add an item or items to a website’s or app’s shopping cart but leave before finishing the transaction. Recent reports suggest that the majority of digital transactions, almost 70% globally, are abandoned before a purchase is completed.

Why Do Carts Get Abandoned?

After working hard to get users to visit their website or download their app, it’s troublesome for Brands to think of a user adding items to the shopping cart, only to lose out on the sale. Users will begin to add items to their shopping cart, but exit without completing the purchase. Publishers are always eager to find out why their customers aren’t following through with purchases but generally don’t have the data to make definitive conclusions.

Studies find these among the most common reasons shoppers cited for quitting before buying:

Price	Technology/Process	Commitment	Security
Too expensive	Too complicated to navigate	Just browsing	Excessive payment security checks
Unexpected costs	Process was too long	Decided not to buy	Payment security concerns

Cross-Platform Analytics to the Rescue

Building an e-commerce site or mobile commerce app with best-in-class design and UI, offering price competitiveness, and focusing on attracting and retaining customers with high lifetime value should help combat shopping cart abandonment.  That being said, given the prevalence of the problem, and with the number one task of mobile marketing being engagement, Publishers are thinking or have already thought about sending abandoned shopping cart campaigns via push or email to customers who have left before making a purchase.

App and Website analytics can help each Publisher or Brand understand why users are abandoning their carts and at what step of the process. Is the checkout process too complicated? Is more information required for shipping than needed? Are you making users add billing and shipping information redundantly?  Is the conversion process better on Web vs. Mobile?

Product Analytics can help answer these questions and more to characterize why users are abandoning the checkout process.

Nudge Users Who Leave Carts Abandoned

What kind of notifications can a Publisher craft in order to get potential buyers to act and complete their transaction? Here are a few strategies that might help with the process:

• Get the passive shopper to commit
• Create urgency
• Help solve a problem

Get the Passive Shopper to Commit
Sometimes users like the products they add to their shopping cart, but not enough to make a purchase. The price might be too high, or maybe they want to buy the product, but they don’t really need it. A notification is still effective because it increases the contact point the users have with the products. Push notifications can be paired with an incentive to make it more effective.

Create Urgency
Some users will use shopping carts as wish lists.  They definitely like the products but have no urgency to make a purchase.  A limited time price incentive or notification when a product is about to run out of stock is effective when combined with a push notification.

Help Solve A Problem
As mentioned earlier, price isn’t always the reason a customer might abandon their cart. Publishers may want to send an email to check on whether their shopper had trouble completing their purchase.  It’s suggested to offer up a support email address, phone number, and FAQs while listing the items that were previously in their basket.

Understanding why users are abandoning their cart and adding automation to re-engage users who have abandoned their cart can be an easy way to not just increase sales numbers, but also improve user satisfaction and build loyal users.