15 Smart Tactics to Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment

Cart abandonment is when a shopper adds an item to their cart and leaves without buying. It’s common: about 7 in 10 online carts never become orders.

Many of the reasons shoppers give for leaving are fixable on your own checkout. You can reduce cart abandonment by showing the full cost early, offering guest checkout, and making checkout shorter and faster.

Trust signals at the payment step help too. Popups and reminder emails can then win back shoppers who still leave.

Below, we’ll walk through 15 tactics to reduce cart abandonment on your store, starting with fixes for the reasons shoppers give most often.

In This Article:

What Is the Average Cart Abandonment Rate?

The Baymard Institute puts the average cart abandonment rate at 70.22%, based on 50 published studies.

Rates vary by device and industry. In Dynamic Yield’s benchmark, phone shoppers abandon about 80% of carts, compared with about 70% on desktop. Luxury and jewelry stores sit near the top of its industry list, and pet care stores sit near the bottom.

A zero rate isn’t a realistic goal. Baymard found that 42% of US online shoppers had abandoned a cart because they were just browsing or not ready to buy.

That makes your own rate over time the benchmark that matters most. To work it out, divide abandoned carts by carts created and multiply by 100. We walk through the calculation in our cart abandonment tracking guide.

Why Shoppers Abandon Their Carts

Leaving aside shoppers who were just browsing, Baymard’s checkout survey found these were the most common reasons for abandoning a cart:

• Extra costs like shipping, tax and fees were too high (40%)
• Delivery was too slow (20%)
• They didn’t trust the site with their credit card information (19%)
• The site wanted them to create an account (18%)
• The checkout process was too long or complicated (17%)

Baymard’s full chart below also includes less common reasons, such as declined cards and too few payment methods.

Most of these are problems with your own checkout, which means you can fix them.

How to Find Where Your Store Loses Shoppers

Before you change your checkout, find out where shoppers leave and which products they leave behind.

MonsterInsights, the Google Analytics plugin for WordPress, puts that information in your WordPress dashboard. Its eCommerce reports need MonsterInsights Pro and the eCommerce addon.

We walk through setting up eCommerce tracking in WordPress in a separate tutorial.

Check Your Store’s Cart Signals

Your store’s cart signals are on the eCommerce overview report. In WordPress, go to Insights » Reports, open the eCommerce dropdown and choose Overview.

Scroll to the tile row below Top Products and Top Conversion Sources. It shows Total Add to Carts, Total Removed from Cart, New Customers and Abandoned Checkouts.

Abandoned Checkouts is the tile to watch for the checkout stage.

If Abandoned Checkouts is high, focus on the checkout itself, such as guest checkout, a shorter form and more payment options. If shoppers add plenty to their carts but few reach checkout, start with the cart page.

Those tiles cover your whole store, so the next step is to see which products the abandoned carts hold.

See Which Products Get Abandoned

The MonsterInsights Cart Abandonment report shows your cart abandonment rate product by product. Open the eCommerce dropdown in Insights » Reports and choose Cart Abandonment.

The report counts shoppers who added a product to their cart but never started checkout. Shoppers who start checkout and then leave count as checkout abandonment instead. The Totals row gives you the rate across all the products in the table.

When one product’s rate stands out, that product page is the first place to check. Its price, its stock level and the shipping cost shoppers see are all worth a look.

Below the product table, Cart Abandonment by Day shows the same rate for each date. A bad day is worth checking against your traffic sources, device types and site performance for that date.

Once you know which products and days lose the most carts, the next question is which checkout step loses them.

Find the Step Where Shoppers Drop Off

A funnel exploration in Google Analytics shows where shoppers drop off between adding to cart and buying. You choose its steps yourself. For a store, those steps can be add to cart, begin checkout and purchase. The exploration then counts how many shoppers reach each step.

Each step before purchase gets a completion rate and an abandonment rate. Recent figures in an exploration can change for 24 to 48 hours while Google Analytics processes them.

The step with the highest abandonment rate tells you which group of tactics to start with.

We walk through how to build a funnel exploration for your store in our beginner’s guide.

See Which Recovery Emails Bring In Orders

The MonsterInsights User Journey Report shows the campaign, medium and source behind each completed order. That means it can show which orders your recovery emails brought in.

In WordPress, go to Insights » Reports, open the eCommerce dropdown and choose User Journeys. The report needs the User Journey addon as well as the eCommerce addon.

Each row is a completed order. The columns are Transaction ID, Purchase Date, UTM Campaign, UTM Medium, UTM Source, Order Total and Steps to Purchase.

If your reminder emails carry UTM tags, the All Campaigns, All Mediums and All Sources filters can pick out the orders those emails brought in.

Click a Transaction ID to open that order’s journey. The order’s page lists each page the customer viewed, by date and time, with the time spent on each.

A high Steps to Purchase count can be a sign that the route from shop to cart is longer than it needs to be. We walk through setting up the report in our customer journey guide.

15 Ways to Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment

The 15 tactics below start with the reasons shoppers give most often for leaving. The last few cover ways to win back shoppers who leave anyway.

1. Show the Full Cost Before Checkout

A clear total before checkout tackles the biggest reason shoppers give for leaving, apart from just browsing. Baymard found 40% abandoned over extra costs, and 12% because they couldn’t see or calculate the total up front.

A surprise at the last step can undo a sale. These three changes bring the total forward, onto the cart page:

• A shipping estimate or calculator on the cart page, so shoppers see delivery costs before they enter payment details.
• Taxes, or an estimate of them, shown as early as your setup allows.
• A final step with no new fees on it.

If a fee has to appear late, a short line next to it explaining why helps it read as expected rather than hidden.

2. Offer Free Shipping or a Free Shipping Threshold

Free shipping removes one of the extra costs behind the biggest fixable reason Baymard found for abandoned carts.

If free shipping on every order doesn’t fit your margins, a free shipping threshold is the middle ground. Shoppers get free shipping once their order reaches a set amount.

One starting point is a threshold a little above your average order value.

To find your average order value, go to Insights » Reports › eCommerce › Overview and look for the Avg. Order Value tile. The report needs MonsterInsights Pro.

Treat the threshold as a test, then check whether average order value changes after you launch it. Our average order value guide covers the Google Analytics route too.

3. Show Delivery Dates Before Checkout

Delivery dates shown before checkout answer a question that can stop a sale. Baymard found 20% of shoppers abandoned because delivery was too slow.

An estimated delivery date or window on product and cart pages lets shoppers judge the wait before they commit.

If you offer faster shipping, it helps to list it next to the standard option with its price and its date. A shopper who needs the order by a certain day can then pay for speed instead of leaving.

Honest estimates matter here, since a missed date could cost you the next order.

4. Build Trust With Security Badges and Social Proof

Security badges and social proof ease payment worries. Baymard found that 19% of shoppers abandoned because they didn’t trust the site with their credit card information.

Without a visible security signal, a hesitant buyer could decide the risk isn’t worth it. A security badge at checkout gives them that signal.

In Baymard’s 2023 trust-seal survey, 33% of US adults picked Norton’s seal as the badge that gave them the best sense of trust. No other seal was picked more often. A generic “secured” seal outscored the badges from Comodo, GeoTrust and Thawte.

Baymard concluded that, beyond a few strongly recognized brands, the specific seal matters less than having a visible seal or icon near the card fields.

Social proof adds a second kind of reassurance. TrustPulse shows small notifications of recent purchases and other activity on your site.

Those notifications show hesitant shoppers that other people are buying from your store. For more options, see our roundup of social proof plugins.

5. Add Reassuring Copy Near the Buy Button

Reassuring copy near the buy button answers last-minute doubts before they turn into an abandoned cart.

Returns are one of those doubts. Baymard found 13% of shoppers abandoned because the returns policy wasn’t satisfactory.

Groupon’s checkout puts reassurance where shoppers hesitate. A “3 days hassle-free refund guarantee” line sits under the item, and “Secure Transaction” sits under the Pay button.

Further down the page, the Groupon Promise sits beside a link to its FAQ on promo codes, shipping, refunds and error messages.

You don’t need a full redesign to do the same. A single line, such as “Free returns within 30 days” or “Your payment is encrypted and secure,” can ease the hesitation at the last step.

6. Offer Guest Checkout

Guest checkout removes the account barrier. Baymard found 18% of shoppers abandoned because the site wanted them to create an account.

You can still offer shoppers an account once the sale is made.

In WordPress, go to WooCommerce » Settings and open the Accounts & Privacy tab. Under Checkout, make sure Enable guest checkout (recommended) is checked.

Next, under Allow customers to create an account, check After checkout (recommended) and click Save changes.

Once guest checkout is on, a test order from a logged-out browser confirms that shoppers can pay without signing up.

7. Shorten Your Checkout Form

A shorter checkout form gives shoppers fewer chances to give up. Baymard found 17% of shoppers abandoned over a checkout process that was too long or complicated.

Baymard’s research found that most sites need only 8 form fields in total for checkout, yet the average checkout in 2024 had 11.3.

Baymard also found that the number of fields matters more than the number of checkout steps.

These three changes cut fields:

• Fewer optional fields, such as a company name you don’t need.
• Address autocomplete, so shoppers pick their address instead of typing it out.
• A single Full Name field, and an Address Line 2 hidden behind a link.

For more ideas, see our list of ways to raise your store’s conversion rate.

8. Offer the Payment Methods Your Shoppers Expect

Familiar payment methods at checkout keep a missing option from ending the sale. Baymard found 9% abandoned because there weren’t enough payment methods.

Digital wallets and PayPal let shoppers pay with details they’ve already saved. Groupon’s checkout, for example, offers Apple Pay, Google Pay, Credit/Debit Card and PayPal.

Baymard also found 10% of shoppers abandoned because their credit card was declined. With a backup method on offer, those shoppers can switch to a wallet or PayPal instead of leaving.

If a payment does fail, a clear error message that says what went wrong gives the shopper a reason to try again.

9. Speed Up Your Site and Checkout

A slow or unreliable checkout gives a hesitant shopper one more reason to leave. Baymard found 17% of shoppers abandoned because the website had errors or crashed. That makes it worth running a test order after every plugin or theme update.

Google’s Core Web Vitals guidance sets 2.5 seconds or less as a good Largest Contentful Paint, which measures how fast your main content loads. Google recommends checking it at the 75th percentile of page loads, on mobile and desktop separately.

For the other metrics and how to improve them, see our guide to Core Web Vitals.

To check your own speed, go to Insights » Reports and choose Site Speed. The Site Speed report needs MonsterInsights Plus or higher.

The report shows an Overall Score with six tiles, including Largest Contentful Paint, Interaction to Next Paint and Cumulative Layout Shift. The phone and monitor icons beside the Site Speed heading switch between mobile and desktop results.

The How to Improve list below the tiles gives you, or your developer, a starting point, one metric per row. For more fixes, see our WordPress speed optimization guide.

Your hosting also affects how fast checkout feels. Cart and checkout pages change for every shopper, so they can’t be served from a page cache the way product pages can. Every add-to-cart and payment request goes straight to your server.

If your current host struggles with that load, Levamo is managed WordPress hosting with a setup tuned for WooCommerce stores. Its caching rules skip cart and checkout pages automatically. Each site also runs in its own isolated container, so another customer’s traffic spike can’t slow down your checkout.

10. Make Checkout Easy on Mobile

A mobile-friendly checkout matters because phone shoppers abandon carts more often than desktop shoppers in Dynamic Yield’s benchmark.

These four changes make a checkout easier to finish on a phone:

• Buttons and form fields large enough to tap with a thumb.
• Digital wallet payments, so shoppers skip typing in a card number.
• Autofill-friendly fields, so the phone can fill in names and addresses.
• A short form with only the fields you need.

Before you change anything, a test purchase from your own store on a real phone shows you what shoppers go through. The Site Speed report in MonsterInsights also has a mobile view with your phone speed scores.

11. Make It Easy to Get From Shop to Cart

An easy route from shop to cart removes small detours that give shoppers a chance to drift away.

These three steps keep the route from shop to cart short:

• Review the path exploration report to identify where customers are dropping off, then address those friction points directly.
• Don’t force shoppers to hit the back button after adding a product to their cart. A “continue shopping” option or a direct link to the cart keeps them moving.
• Keep the cart visible on every page so customers can return to it whenever they’re ready to complete the purchase.

Each of these is small, so it’s easy to test one at a time and watch your cart abandonment rate afterward.

12. Display Popular Products on Product Pages

Popular products on product pages give undecided shoppers a shortlist other buyers have already chosen.

MonsterInsights Pro includes a Popular Products widget that shows your top-selling items on product pages. Go to Insights » Popular Posts, then click the Popular Products tab.

Under Choose Theme, pick one of four designs: Alpha, Beta, Charlie or Delta.

Customize Design lets you match the widget to your store. Exclude These Product Categories and Exclude These Products keep chosen items out of it.

Turn on Automatic Placement to add the widget at the end of Single Product pages. To place it anywhere else, use the Gutenberg block or the shortcode instead.

Our WooCommerce guide covers more ways to put your top sellers in front of shoppers.

13. Use Exit-Intent Popups on Cart and Checkout Pages

Exit-intent popups on cart and checkout pages give shoppers one last offer as they’re about to leave.

OptinMonster’s Exit-Intent® technology detects when visitors are about to leave your site. On mobile, it detects when visitors scroll up instead.

OptinMonster, a popup and opt-in form builder, lets you set exit intent as a display rule on a popup campaign. You can then run that campaign on your cart and checkout pages. Exit-Intent® comes with OptinMonster’s Pro plan and higher.

These four offer types suit cart and checkout pages:

• Free shipping on exit from the cart page, for shoppers who balk at the delivery cost.
• A discount code for shoppers who are close to buying.
• A “complete your order” reminder with a link back to the saved cart.
• A help or live chat prompt on the checkout page, for shoppers stuck on a question.

For a discount offer, OptinMonster’s Abandoned Checkout Coupon template is one starting point. Its preview shows a 20% discount with a coupon code.

Test one offer at a time, so you can tell which one brings shoppers back. For other tools, see our WordPress popup plugin comparison.

14. Send Abandoned Cart Reminder Emails

An abandoned cart reminder email is a personalized message about a shopper’s incomplete order. It gives shoppers who left a direct way back to their cart.

Hayneedle, a home-goods retailer whose site now redirects to Walmart, sent the two-email sequence below. The first email was a plain reminder with a View Your Cart button. The discount only arrived in the second, “last chance” email.

The pattern is simple to copy: remind first, save any discount for a later email, and point every button back to the cart.

It’s worth tagging your recovery emails with UTM parameters, so you can see the revenue each one brings back in Google Analytics. Our guide to Google Analytics email tracking shows how.

Our guide to recovering abandoned carts covers a full recovery sequence, including how many emails to send.

15. Retarget Abandoners With Ads and Push Notifications

Retargeting ads and push notifications reach abandoners after they’ve left your site. Remarketing (also called retargeting) shows ads to people who visited your store but left without buying.

You can run remarketing campaigns on social and display networks, showing shoppers a reminder of the item they left behind. Our list of retargeting tips for Google Ads covers how to set them up.

Demographics and interests data from your site can also help you target those ads. Our docs explain how to turn on demographics and interests reporting.

Push notifications reach shoppers without needing an ad budget or their email address. PushEngage can send automatic cart abandonment push notifications to subscribers who leave items in their cart.

PushEngage’s WooCommerce cart abandonment campaigns need its Growth plan or higher. Push only reaches shoppers who opted in through the browser prompt, so it works alongside email rather than replacing it.

We compare more abandoned cart plugins for WooCommerce in a separate roundup.

Frequently Asked Questions About Shopping Cart Abandonment

If you make one change at a time and check your rate after each one, you’ll see which of these tactics works for your store. For more on tracking and recovering lost carts, check out these guides:

• How to Track WooCommerce Cart Abandonment in Google Analytics 4
• Essential Abandoned Cart Recovery Strategies
• How to Find Your Average Order Value in Google Analytics (2 Ways)
• How to Track Add to Cart Events in Google Analytics (Easy Way)
• Top eCommerce Metrics & KPIs to Track in Google Analytics 4
• How to Set Up WooCommerce Google Analytics (Track Revenue Correctly)

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