Retail ecommerce cart abandonment rates reach 84%
The average retail ecommerce cart abandonment rate was 84.24% in the first half of 2019, according to new data from SaleCycle. Cart abandonment refers retail site visits where shoppers add items to their basket but leave without buying.
Cart abandonment data from more than 250 retail clients across eight different types of retail website was studied, and we can see a lot of variation between them. The data comes from more than 250 of our retail clients.
While the overall abandonment rate is around 84%, this varies across different types of ecommerce site. For example, more considered purchases such as jewellery and homewares / DIY (88.6% and 88.36%) tend to drive the highest cart abandonment rates.
For such products, the customer’s research process is often longer. People are more likely to visit several sites as they decide, adding items to shopping baskets, and comparing prices and products across different retailers.
(View the full Ecommerce Remarketing Report.)
Grocery abandonment rates, at 72.06%, are by far the lowest. This reflects the different buying process, where shoppers need to sign-in or register and choose a delivery slot before adding items to their shopping basket. Once they made this effort, they’re less likely to abandon a purchase. In addition, it’s a more regular and habitual purchase than many of the other retail categories.
Looking at trends, we can see the effects of sales on patterns of cart abandonment.
Shoppers are less likely to abandon during sales periods, as they are often time sensitive with limited stock, so if shoppers leave items behind they risk missing out altogether.
For this reason, we can see that abandonment rates are low in January across all eight retail types, before rising again in February.
Even if shoppers abandon purchases, this isn’t always the end. They may be taking time to think about purchases, consulting friends or family, or waiting for a more convenient time. Cart abandonment emails can offer a useful reminder to shoppers, and provide a prompt to tempt them back to complete a purchase.
Remarketing emails out-perform most other types of marketing emails, with an average open rate of 40.14% and click through rates of 38.82%.
Salecycle email stats show that grocery emails perform best in terms of open rates (45.69%) while Homewares and DIY emails have the best click through rates (32.22%).
Overall, cart abandonment emails deliver an average sales uplift of 4.43% for retailers.
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SaleCycle
Founded in 2010, SaleCycle is committed to helping the world’s top brands recover lost sales online.
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