# Cart Abandoning



## publick (Mar 14, 2010)

I think I need help with my online store. We have been running over a few months now. 

We can not say we have many visitors per day (as indicated by google analytics), however we found out that the more and more people putting t-shirts in their cart but did not proceed to checkout. 

In average, out of 20 cart, 1 make it to chekcout. It makes us wondering, is it normal?
Why would someone put something in the chart when they have no intention of purchasing?

It also left us wondering too if our website has an error which makes some people unable to complete the checkout process. We design the website to run on IE and Firefox...


Any advice?

Also if you happen to use mac, or other browser and unable to open the website, please let us know.


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## Artsplace-CBR (Feb 22, 2007)

I've had people do that in order to check the shipping amount, maybe they think the shipping is too high.


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## pdpatch (Aug 30, 2009)

I licked on create an account and got the error.
There is 1 error :


invalid e-mail address
You can see the box around the email input, so it's not really clear that you have to enter an email here then click create an account. Most carts don't require you to enter the email before you start to create the account to that may be throughing people off.

Also the very light gray used for the input boxes makes it hard to see then and hard to fill out, You may want to make them more visible.

Tom


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## Artsplace-CBR (Feb 22, 2007)

I still think it could be the shipping, on my site I list the shipping in advance. That way they
know the total before they checkout.
www.artsmems.com


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## paulamandel (Mar 18, 2010)

I agree with the shipping thing, i think people might want to know their total cost before they enter their full name and address. I personally do the same thing when I shop online, I view cart and check-out just to see what the total cost would be before I make up my mind.


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## wonubee (Oct 2, 2007)

I do that all the time. I will put things in the cart to get a grand total plus the shipping cost. I will do that on several sites to find the best total cost. Some people have great prices but rape you in the shipping costs. So I always check.


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## Artsplace-CBR (Feb 22, 2007)

At the top of your site where you have Boy Girls Contact etc., why not add a the word
Shipping next to the word Contact & set it up there, that's where I usually look for such
information.


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## hostingdiva (Mar 31, 2006)

Some people may also be turned off because they have to create an account just to buy one item. It's just another username and password they have to remember.....


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## Artsplace-CBR (Feb 22, 2007)

I agree totally with that, I don't like creating an account. The person just wants to buy 
the item & get going.


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## Teeser (May 14, 2008)

First, I'd check the content of the carts. I know my Volusion site counts the same abandoned cart more than once. If I go in and look at all the abandoned orders there will be repeats. This only happens when the cart isn't associated with a existing customer. When a customer with an account abandons a cart it is only counted once. I think it counts every time the customer with an item in their cart hits the site and leaves as a new cart. I've also noticed that it doesn't delete the abandoned orders when I know it has been completed. Since I don't know how it actually works, I don't pay much attention to the abandoned cart function. 

Personally, I think abandoned carts are just the online version of window shopping. I put items in my cart so I can see all the items in one place or use it to save items for later if I have an account. I'm sure I throw ppls stats way off the way I shop.


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## publick (Mar 14, 2010)

Teeser said:


> First, I'd check the content of the carts. I know my Volusion site counts the same abandoned cart more than once. If I go in and look at all the abandoned orders there will be repeats. This only happens when the cart isn't associated with a existing customer. When a customer with an account abandons a cart it is only counted once. I think it counts every time the customer with an item in their cart hits the site and leaves as a new cart. I've also noticed that it doesn't delete the abandoned orders when I know it has been completed. Since I don't know how it actually works, I don't pay much attention to the abandoned cart function.
> 
> Personally, I think abandoned carts are just the online version of window shopping. I put items in my cart so I can see all the items in one place or use it to save items for later if I have an account. I'm sure I throw ppls stats way off the way I shop.


 
That's quite true i think.. Worrying about this cart abandoning is not necessary. Most of the carts on my site are just randomly created.


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## publick (Mar 14, 2010)

this is what I found so far:

1. some people do not enable cookies - as the result they are not able to add item to cart. However, everytime they click "add to cart", my site register a new cart. When they found out nothing was added, reclicking happens, thus a lot of cart created.

2. i removed shortcut to "add to cart". Previously it was next to the title of the product. I guess some people sliped, and pressed the "cart" thus creating new cart while they are not inted to add the item to cart at the first place. After removing the shortcut I notice there is less cart created, thus less abandoned cart.


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## Teeser (May 14, 2008)

publick said:


> this is what I found so far:
> 
> 2. i removed shortcut to "add to cart". Previously it was next to the title of the product. I guess some people sliped, and pressed the "cart" thus creating new cart while they are not inted to add the item to cart at the first place. After removing the shortcut I notice there is less cart created, thus less abandoned cart.


My customers have to enter a size for it to be counted as a cart. The Add shortcut just takes them to the product page. I have always thought the shortcut was useless for apparel and any product that requires size/color etc to be specified.


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## animarket (Jul 8, 2010)

Another thing. Cart abandonments are important to remedy. But it is true that your statskeeper might be giving you some false positives. 

Also, check your stats and see where your visitors are coming from. You can get a real good idea about Visitor paths from start to finish using Statcounter.com's real-time stats.

Sometimes visitors from other countries place an item in the cart and then realize that you do not ship to Malaysia, etc.


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## Print and Pray (Aug 6, 2008)

Offer free shipping with no need to create an account and ship worldwide..You will see cart abandonment go down.


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