What is cart abandonment?
According to cart abandonment rate statistics from the Baymard Institute, the average shopping cart abandonment rate is approximately 70%, indicating that a substantial majority of online shoppers abandon their carts before completing checkout.
Cart abandonment refers to the situation when a customer adds products to their online shopping cart but leaves the site without completing the purchase. It means the shopper had purchase intent but failed to finalize the order. This can occur at any point during the checkout flow, particularly on the checkout page.
It’s a key metric in e-commerce because it highlights friction in the buying process. It also directly impacts the conversion rate and overall revenue of any online business.
Why do users abandon their carts?
There are several common reasons why online shoppers abandon their carts without completing a purchase. According to the same research done by the Baymard Institute, the five most frequent issues include:
- Unexpected costs like tax or fees (39%)
- Slow delivery (21%)
- Concerns about payment security (19%)
- Mandatory account creation (19%)
- Complicated or long checkout process (18%)
These reasons point to friction in the checkout stage or a poor user experience. Identifying the exact pain points for your e-commerce business is crucial to reducing cart abandonment and improving your conversion rates.
What is a cart abandonment survey?
A cart abandonment survey is a short feedback form shown to users who add items to their cart but leave without completing the purchase. Its main goal is to collect qualitative data on the reasons for cart abandonment and help online businesses reduce the cart abandonment rate.
Abandoned cart surveys are typically triggered on the shopping cart page or during the checkout stage, either when a user has been inactive for some time or is showing signs of exit intent
How to use a shopping cart abandonment survey effectively
To get meaningful results from a cart abandonment survey, it’s not enough to just display a form — you should think it through. Here’s how to make it work for you:
1. Ask clear, targeted cart abandonment survey questions
Typically, there’s only one question in a cart abandonment survey, which goes something like: “What stopped you from completing your purchase?” or “Why didn’t you complete your purchase?”. Keep it like that: simple and straightforward.
Offer multiple-choice answers based on common abandonment reasons (check the list above). Consider adding a free-text field as a second step for unique feedback, but keep the field optional.
2. Trigger the survey at the right time
We’ve already mentioned that generally, you should show the popup survey either when the user is about to leave or has been idle for some time. This captures feedback at the exact stage of abandonment. Exit intent is generally a more accurate sign of cart abandonment.
But you can actually test both scenarios with Claspo’s A/B testing. Create different display rules for the same widget and see which one yields better results for you.
3. Keep your survey form to the point
Check Claspo’s shopping cart abandonment survey templates, and you’ll see that all of them have two steps: multiple choice and a free-text field. As tempting as it might be to ask more questions, keep it simple. The shopper is already leaving, so they’re not in the mood for an interview.
4. Analyze and act on the data
Probably the most important piece of advice. Don’t collect data just to store it. Usually, the survey is implemented as an ongoing part of a greater cart abandonment strategy. So, make sure to review the survey responses regularly actually do something about the friction points.
5. A/B test survey formats
Try different survey templates, question structures, and timing to see which combination brings the most actionable feedback and leads to a measurable increase in conversion rate.
Collect actionable feedback with Claspo
Claspo is a simple drag-and-drop builder with a wide range of ready-made templates — all you need to do is pick one and customize it to fit your brand. Our flexible display rules let you precisely target the right audience at the right moment.
Plus, with Claspo, you can also run customer satisfaction surveys and exit intent surveys to gather even more valuable insights and improve both user experience and business profitability.
Try our free plan now and start collecting meaningful feedback from your customers!