Empty Cart Syndrome

Cart abandonment seems to be on the rise; according to an e-tailing group survey 60% of retailers are seeing rates over 20% this year. Unfortunately it’s just too easy to leave that filled cart… so easy that some shoppers are repeat abandoners.

The Sad Tale of Abandoned Shopping Carts in eMarketer cites the e-tailing survey along with a study by PayPal and comScore which offers details from the shopper’s POV… as you can probably guess the major reason for cart abandonment was attributed to high shipping charges (46% of respondents.) Other reasons were their interest in comparison shopping (37%,) searching for a coupon (27%) and customer service concerns – i.e. need to reach a CSR or were concerned about security of checkout.

Unfortunately the economic downturn isn’t helping retailers, so to combat the current strife you have to ask if it would be best to give recipients what they expect… at least in the short term. Maybe offering a shipping discount or a coupon would help generate some additional revenue and reduce the number of abandoned carts – especially when you consider that the average abandoned cart value is $109!

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