Study: Targeting ‘true abandoners’ can reduce cart abandonment

LOS ANGELES — Cart abandonment is a problem that continues to plague online retailers, but some answers may have been uncovered. A site abandonment survey of more than 60,000 e-commerce shoppers by Bizrate Insights, a division of retail marketing solutions firm Connexity (formerly Shopzilla), found that retailers can reduce abandonment by targeting customers who visited with the intent to buy, but didn’t complete a purchase (“true abandoners”).

According to the Bizrate Insights study, 11% of e-commerce visitors are True Abandoners and break out this way: 50% are visit abandoners who don’t engage the cart; 18% are cart abandoners who leave after engaging the cart but before checkout; and 32% are checkout abandoners who leave after starting checkout. The majority of True Visit Abandoners had difficulty finding the item (21%), size, color or style (17%) they were looking for.

In addition, 13% of true abandoners had technical problems; 10% were still deciding if they wanted to buy a product; and 8% were unable to redeem a coupon.

Small discounts and sales notifications might bring the majority of True Cart Abandoners back, with 59% saying they would purchase with a 20% or less discount, and 20% say a notification of when the item goes on sale would help them purchase.