Online Shopping Cart Abandonment

This is an interesting topic as I just recently abandoned an online purchase myself.  I’m a busy and admittingly impatient person when it comes to shopping for something specific online.

Eager for a simple and quick solution, I resulted to search online.  The shoes were quickly found at DicksSportingGoods.com.  Excellent!  Dick’s is a local store that I recognized, and probably more convenient if there was ever need for a return or exchange.  The website displayed (3) different colors. ( I don’t buy running shoes for the appearance, but knowing that the shoe I wanted had options was enticing.)  After setting up the e-mail contact and billing information, I put the shoes in my cart only to find that the color I choose was out of stock.  To make things worse, my second choice was also out of stock.  As mentioned, I don’t purchase running shoes for appearance.  However, after learning that I had did have choices, my mind was now focused on getting the color I wanted.  After all, if I’m spending nearly $200 for a pair of shoes, why not get the color I want?  Before continuing to explore options online, my contact info/e-mail address was deleted.  (I knew my cookies were out there, but at least Dicks couldn’t contact me by e-mail.)  So I thought anyway…  The shoes were found at Zappos.com. They didn’t have the color choices I was looking for, BUT they did have a mind-changing offer; $50 savings from the price quoted on Dicks.  I will absolutely buy the ugly running shoes if it saves me $50!  And I did…

I specifically remember deleting my e-mail info, but since the Zappos purchase, Dicks has been sending me annoying e-mails anyway.  All of this had me wondering how many people react as I did, abandoning their initial cart selection for one reason or another.  I found this article from MarketingProfs.com which states that abandonment rates in the second quarter of 2013 were averaging 75%. The study also found that if an online retailer is able to ‘capture’ contact informationbefore a cart is abandoned because following up with an email can often times become lucrative.

More interesting Q1 2013 facts from SalesCycle.com:

• 73.6% was the average shopping cart, basket and booking abandonment rate (up from 70.7% in Q4 2012)
• Most abandonments happened between 8 and 9pm - with Thursday the most common day
• 48.1% of basket abandonment emails were opened (up from 45.9% in Q4)
• 14.9% of basket abandonment emails were clicked (up from 13.5% in Q4)
• 33.3% of these clickers went on to purchase a product (up from 30.1% in Q4)
• The AOV was 58% higher for purchases from basket abandonment emails compared with direct sales (up from 36% in Q4)
• Revenue per basket abandonment email sent was $5.78  (up from $4.14 Q4)