Cart abandonment rate
Short definition
Cart abandonment rate shows the share of shoppers who add an item to their basket but leave before completing payment.
It is calculated as the share of baskets started but never paid for, against the total number of baskets. Unexpected shipping costs, forced account creation, a long checkout form and low trust are the most common causes. A higher rate on mobile usually points to a checkout step that is awkward to use on a small screen.
Cart abandonment can never reach zero; some visitors add items purely to compare prices. But a rate well above the industry norm points to a concrete problem in the checkout flow. Measuring each step of checkout separately shows exactly where the drop-off is concentrated.
Reminder emails and remarketing adverts aimed at abandoned baskets are designed to recover part of that loss.
Why it matters
A high abandonment rate means most of the traffic brought in by advertising is lost right at checkout. Fixing the checkout flow can lift revenue without bringing in a single extra visitor. Fixing checkout is often cheaper and faster than raising the advertising budget to bring in more traffic instead.
Illustrative example
When a flooring manufacturer's online shop revealed shipping cost only at the final checkout step, abandonment rose; showing it earlier on the basket page brought the rate back down. Only the timing of that disclosure had changed.
