What causes people to abandon cart? And how can I reduce it?

Cart abandonment haunts every e-commerce owner I've ever met. The average cart abandonment rate is around 70%, which means for every 10 people who add something to their basket, only 3 actually buy. Painful, isn't it?

What causes people to abandon cart:

The biggest reason why people abandon cart (and I see this constantly) is unexpected shipping costs. Someone's merrily adding items worth £45, gets to checkout, sees "Shipping: £5.99" and suddenly the £45 feels like £51. That's when they bail.

Other common reasons:

• Forcing account creation before purchase (stop doing this!)

• Complicated checkout process with too many steps

• Not enough payment options

• Website crashes or errors (test your checkout regularly!)

• Just browsing and not ready to buy (this is actually fine)
  

Your Cart Recovery Action Plan:

Set up abandoned cart emails immediately if you haven't already. Klaviyo does this brilliantly for UK businesses, and it's worth every penny (we're a Klaviyo partner agency if you need any help). Your sequence should be:

Email 1 (1 hour later): "You left something behind" - simple reminder with a direct link back to their basket. No discount, just helpfulness.

Email 2 (24 hours later): Add some social proof - "This item is popular!" or include a review. Create a bit of FOMO without being pushy.

Email 3 (48 hours later): This is where you might consider a small incentive, but be careful. If you always offer discounts in cart recovery emails, you're training customers to abandon carts to get a discount. Not ideal.

Prevention Is Better Than Cure:

Display shipping costs clearly from the start. If you can't offer free shipping, at least show a shipping calculator on product pages so there are no surprises.

Add trust signals everywhere - secure payment badges, your returns policy, customer service contact info. UK shoppers are cautious, and they need reassurance.

Offer guest checkout prominently. You can always encourage account creation after the purchase when they're happy and have their order confirmation.

Need more help with a full Conversion Rate Audit? Get in touch here