12 Effective Ways to Reduce Cart Abandonment & Conquer Customers' Hearts

Abandoned shopping carts are a plague for many e-commerce websites, leaving many owners wondering how to reduce cart abandonment to improve their sales. It’s not an easy fix and requires a lot of work and combined efforts of many departments. So, let’s take a look at what you can do to reduce your store’s cart abandonment.

How to Reduce Cart Abandonment: 12 Ways

Thankfully, we’re not yet at the capitalist dystopia level of mind-controlling your customers to buy your stuff. However, with the easiest option not yet (and, hopefully, never) accessible, you need to find other ways to reduce shopping cart abandonment. Here are 12 things you can do to help your issue.

We often refer to the stats in our article on the reasons for cart abandonment, so feel free to read that beforehand.

1. Use analytics tools

Calculating your shopping cart abandonment rate isn’t necessarily rocket science, but that’s not all the information you need to fix it. Understanding the problem more deeply is essential for choosing the appropriate solution. This is where analytics tools come into play.

Here’s how modern tools can help you:

• Identifying abandonment points with funnel analysis. Analytics tools like Google Analytics or Mixpanel offer funnel analysis features that track users' steps, from adding items to their cart to completing the purchase, helping you identify where users are dropping off the most.
• Behavioral triggers for real-time interventions. Some analytics tools allow you to set up behavioral triggers based on user actions. For example, if a user spends a certain amount of time on the checkout page without completing the purchase, you can trigger a Claspo pop-up offering chat support or a limited-time discount to encourage them to finalize their order. 

Use this template

• Using heatmaps to understand user behavior. Heatmap tools like Crazy Egg or Hotjar visualize user interactions on your website, showing where users click, scroll, or hover. By analyzing heatmap data, you can gain insights into how users navigate your checkout process and identify areas where they may encounter difficulties or confusion.
• User surveys for qualitative insights. While analytics tools primarily focus on quantitative data, integrating user surveys or feedback forms can provide valuable qualitative insights into why users abandon their carts. Apart from pop-ups to prevent cart abandonment, Claspo allows you to create pop-ups to gather feedback from users about their shopping experience, uncovering pain points or issues that may not be captured in analytics data alone. 

Try this template

2. Use exit-intent pop-ups

You probably, definitely, 100% didn’t expect us to mention exit-intent pop-ups. A shocker, really (sarcasm)! But in all seriousness, exit-intent pop-ups are the bomb because they can help you prevent cart abandonment and increase conversions by up to 50%. So, if you’re looking for a way to increase conversions without high investments, Claspo can effectively show you how to reduce abandoned carts.

Try this template

Exit intent software can contain a myriad of different offers, discounts, or surveys, but you need to know which of them works best. For that, we recommend A/B testing your pop-ups, which can be done right in the Claspo builder. Our A/B testing template will help you put your hypothesis into practice and get meaningful results. You can use it to experiment with pop-ups and anything on your website, from different CTAs to brand colors and emails.

3. Streamline your checkout process

Did you know that roughly 49% of customers quit because of an issue during checkout? Yep, 26% of people said they stopped because there was no guest checkout, and 23% quit because the process was too complicated. Customers don’t want to click more than a few times to get their product to their doorstep.

Follow the KISS principle: keep it simple, stupid. One-click checkouts are becoming the new norm. In fact, 50% of businesses already use one-click checkouts, and the growing tendency isn’t likely to change.

4. Provide clear shipping and return policies

Roughly 18% of users will quickly ditch you if your shipping and return policies are vague. Clearly state them to customers, including any fees or restrictions. This can help build trust and confidence with customers, increasing the likelihood of them completing their purchase.

5. Offer multiple payment options

When crypto, PayPal, Klarna, Apple Pay, and other payment options are available, accepting only Visa and Mastercard is not practical. As far as we know, there’s no cap on payment methods before they overwhelm users. So knock yourself out and offer as many options as your budget allows.

6. Keep the site up and running

This is easier said than done, as your dev team must always ensure impeccable functionality. Pay special attention to:

• page load speed
• bugs and errors
• crashes
• software testing

If you plan on doing maintenance that may affect user experience or have screwed up somewhere in your journey, prioritize informing users about downtimes ASAP. You can use social media or one of Claspo's on-site pop-ups.

Try this template

7. Optimize your website for mobile devices

About 60% of all e-commerce purchases are made via mobile devices, so make sure your store is mobile-responsive. 53% of buyers will leave your website if it takes over 3 seconds to load, so keep that benchmark in mind.

Speaking of loading speed, we’ve tested Claspo’s widgets for sites with Google’s PageSpeed Insights, and they showed a 100% performance score. This means that our pop-ups have no impact on your load speeds, so use them to your heart’s content without worry! And yes, you can use our widgets on mobile devices. After editing your widget, you can preview how it will look on PC and mobile and make necessary edits.

8. Use cart recovery emails

Cart recovery emails have an extremely high open rate of 45%, leading to a much higher engagement than most other forms of email marketing. So send those to customers who have abandoned their carts, offering discounts or promotions to encourage them to return to your website and complete their purchases. Use customer data to personalize these emails and get 30% more responses.

However, if the customer never reaches checkout, how would you get their email? It’s actually quite simple with Claspo. You can create widgets that offer discounts or other perks to your users in exchange for their contact information. 

Using Claspo’s widgets, you can ask your customers about their name, date of birth, preferences, or whatever you need for their profiles, save that information, and seamlessly transfer it into your ESP to better tailor your emails. It’s an all-around win situation.

Try this template

9. Avoid excessive elements

If your website looks like a 2007 fever dream, you might want to reconsider your design.

The poor human brain has a limited capacity for perceiving and analyzing data. Therefore, this approach is doomed to make people flee the scene because they are tired, overwhelmed, or bored.

Here are some pointers on how to reduce the cart abandonment rate:

• Too many images and animations. While animations and images can enhance user engagement, excessive animations can slow down the website loading time and distract users from the main content.
• Cluttered layout. A cluttered layout with too many elements competing for attention can confuse users and make it challenging for them to find the information they need. Maintaining a clean and organized layout is essential to improving usability.
• Excessive use of colors. Using too many colors or bright colors excessively can make the website visually overwhelming and difficult to read. Stick to a few harmonious colors that enhance readability and reinforce the brand identity.
• Too much text. Long paragraphs of text without sufficient spacing or visual breaks can overwhelm users and discourage them from reading. It's important to use concise and scannable content to make it easier for users to digest information.
• Auto-playing media. Auto-playing videos or audio can be disruptive and annoying for users, especially if they are unexpected or difficult to mute. It's best to give users control over media playback and allow them to choose whether to play it.
• Too many navigation options. A navigation menu with too many options can overwhelm users and make it difficult for them to find what they're looking for. It's important to prioritize the most critical navigation links and keep the menu concise and organized.
• Pop-ups and ads (unless they’re from Claspo). Excessive pop-ups and ads can disrupt the user experience and annoy visitors. But don’t worry, Claspo’s widgets feature an annoyance protection feature. By default, there is a 3-minute (adjustable) time period between showing each new widget to prevent pop-up bombardment and overlapping. By choosing Claspo, you protect your users’ experiences!

10. Show that you’re trustworthy

Even after decades of e-commerce’s existence, trusting online shops and marketplaces does not come easy, and this attitude is quite reasonable. The Internet is flooded with pictures mocking the difference between the expectations and reality of shopping online. Thus, do not expect users to believe you. Try to earn their trust instead.

Here are some of the most obvious ways:

• Add a special section for reviews & testimonials (95% of shoppers check the reviews & retailer’s reputation).
• Display trust seals, certificates, and other stamps of approval.
• Tell people about your company & upload pictures of real people.
• Provide estimated/guaranteed delivery date and tracking information.
• Don’t forget what we told you about clear shipping and return policies.

Psst… hey. You can use Claspo to display social proof as well. But it’s a secret. Don’t tell anyone. You can now display text, image, or video user reviews in our slider. But very soon, we will also make it possible to show the social proof in the way you see below. So stay in touch so you do not miss our super-updates.

Try this template

11. Implement recommendations

Recommending similar or complementary products to customers based on their browsing and purchase history increases the likelihood of a successful sale. Visitors who click recommended products are 4.5 times more likely to add the item to their cart and finish the purchase. 49% of customers admit to buying an item after it was recommended to them. If these numbers don’t convince you to use recommendations to reduce the shopping cart abandonment rate, we don’t know what will.

12. Ad retargeting

If your customer leaves the shop without finishing their purchase, it’s not the end of the world (yet). Facebook, Google, and other platforms allow you to retarget those people and serve them additional ads about your brand or product.

Retargeting is still a viable tactic. It can increase ad engagement by a staggering 400%, resulting in more sales and better brand awareness.

Conclusion

In the epic battle against abandoned shopping carts, armed with 12 potent strategies, you're now equipped to conquer customers' hearts and clinch those elusive sales. The arsenal of cart-saving tactics is diverse and powerful, but you now have all the tools you need.

One of those tools is Claspo, your trusted pop-up builder. Our widget editor offers an arsenal of functions for enhancing user experience — the main driving power behind conversions. With an intuitive drag-and-drop editor coupled with a library of templates, you can effortlessly create widgets that will solve your cart abandonment issues. And with our A/B testing feature, you’ll quickly understand what works best for you. Start for free today and experience the difference!

FAQs for Reducing Cart Abandonment: Answers to Your Most Pressing Questions

Why do customers abandon their shopping carts?

Customers abandon their shopping carts for various reasons, including unexpected costs at checkout, complicated or lengthy checkout processes, concerns about security, lack of trust in the website or company, or simply getting distracted during the shopping process.

How can I reduce shopping cart abandonment in my store?

There are many strategies on how to reduce your cart abandonment rate, including sending cart recovery emails with incentives such as discounts or free shipping, implementing exit-intent pop-ups from Claspo, and retargeting ads on social media or other platforms.

Are there specific design elements that can help decrease cart abandonment?

Yes, incorporating a clean and intuitive design, clear call-to-action buttons, progress indicators, and trust-building elements such as security badges and customer testimonials can help decrease cart abandonment.