Abandoned cart
Abandoned cart
E-commerce
A cart where a shopper added items but left before buying.
What is Abandoned cart?
Carts get abandoned for many reasons: unexpected shipping costs, a required account, a slow or confusing checkout, comparison shopping or simply getting distracted. Some shoppers were never ready to buy, but many can be brought back.
Two ways to reduce it: fix the causes on your site (clear shipping costs, guest checkout, fast wallets like Shop Pay and Apple Pay) and follow up with shoppers who left, usually by email or text. That follow-up is called cart recovery.
Formula
Cart abandonment rate = (1 - Completed purchases ÷ Carts created) × 100
Example
For example, a store sees 4,000 carts created in a week and 1,200 completed purchases. Its cart abandonment rate is (1 - 1,200 ÷ 4,000) × 100 = 70%.
Why Abandoned cart Matters
Abandoned carts are shoppers who already showed interest, so each one you recover is a sale with no extra ad spend.
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