Abandoned shopping carts account for between 55% and 80% of carts across the internet, according to the “Complete List of Cart Abandonment Statistics: 2006-2020” study. In general, metrics suggest that customers abandon more than half of potential purchases before finally completing them.
There are many factors behind this abandonment of carts, as has already been seen in other articles, and one of them is the perception of the purchase process which, in turn, we can split into a good number of underlying causes. Some refer to what is called user experience or UX from a design perspective, which determines the probability that a customer will complete the purchase or fall along the way.
UX factors for abandoning online shopping carts
A collection of studies by Baymard Institute highlights some of the most common factors in cart abandonment based on user experience. They are displayed in a list (sorted from the most to the least usual) along with some basic tips:
- The site wants me to create a customer account. There is a 28% drop in sales when users discover they have to register. Allowing unregistered purchases—sometimes called a guest account—or embedding automated systems such as the Customers API simplifies this step and eliminates friction.
- The checkout process is overly complicated or long. 21% of carts are abandoned because there are too many phases or some are confusing. Setting the number of stages through a visible timeline (for example, “confirm your cart”, “shipping address”, “payment method”, “purchase”) helps the user understand how many points are left.
- It is unclear what the total price will be. This is common in certain sectors, such as travel tickets where 18% of sales disappear because the user cannot see the final price up-front or in the early stages of checkout. A positive UX is based on the customer having all the information available to choose from.
- The website contains visible errors. Crashed, 13% of abandoned carts are the result of poorly designed interfaces with visual errors. Glitches, visible code, lack of uniformity in aesthetics, unresponsive environments, screen flicker and unconfigured elements penalize buyer confidence.
- There are not enough payment methods. A lack of payment methods results in 6% of sales not taking place. The customer wants to be able to choose the payment method, so having a range of options and gateways will increase sales. Allow credit cards in addition to debit cards, PayPal, Bizum, etc.
In the case of the aforementioned API, Customers, available at BBVA API_Market, the objective is to eliminate the need to fill out forms and make entries that frequently appear throughout checkout , each of which represents a reason for abandoning the cart.
This API allows customers to consent and share their information with a single click, thus filling in the fields of the registration form instantly. In addition to providing accurate and reliable information to the company, it reduces the rate of process abandonment by greatly simplifying the process.
Can abandoned shopping carts be recovered?
A significant proportion of carts abandoned because of UX can be rescued from neglect and converted back into a potential sale, thus reactivating the purchase. One of the classic methods of doing this is to draw attention through email marketing campaigns, sending a personalized SMS and even making phone calls, depending on the sector and goods in the cart.
For example, abandoning a shopping ‘basket’ of a vehicle customized to the customer’s liking, and abandoned in the last stage of payment, may merit the time of a commercial call rather than an email, due to the price of the object and the previous time spent by the user. Custom campaigns are more effective, but they also require more resources.
Within these reminders to the potential customer, there is the possibility to use the channel to solve any doubts. Instead of simply sending an email reminding them about the abandoned cart, which will probably end up in spam, take the opportunity to answer some typical questions or envisage talking to a person to resolve any concerns that the customer may have.
Remarketing and retargeting: keeping in mind the checkout phase in which the purchase was abandoned
Analyzing what point in the user experience poses a barrier to buying is key when it comes to understanding what is failing in the conversion funnel. Not only to go back to the user through retargeting or remarketing, but also to improve the usability of those areas of checkout that need fine tuning.
While retargeting is associated with the early stages of purchase and involves using that information to launch new ads, remarketing has the minimum contact data that the PSD2 allows you to collect, with which it is possible to send a campaign. Also an optimization of the entire purchase process. Let’s look at an example.
Throughout the checkout shown above there are five phases – which may be different, there is no single definition or model of phases – with their respective percentages of customers continuing with the purchase. It highlights how some points make us lose more customers, such as customer registration, while others barely have friction (product search). This gives clues on which UX is optimized and which is not.
Through an A/B test analysis, the site in question reveals that facilitating registration by using third-party APIs significantly improves the user experience at this particular point in the conversion, thus increasing final sales in the process. However, you can also report on which retargeting/remarketing strategy to follow with those who fall along the way.
UX also exists in the offline channel
Abandoned shopping carts are not just an online event. In offline supermarkets there is a relationship between the time customers have to wait in line at the till and abandoning the cart or taking items off it: the longer the wait, the greater the probability that the customer will stop buying. Can APIs be used at physical points of sale?
Absolutely. APIs like Alipay incorporate a new digital payment method in physical establishments that add the ability to pay with your cell phone. Part of the objective of using these interfaces is to be able to consolidate the online and offline universes through a digital layer that eliminates friction points between the two worlds.