You have a beautiful website with great products that you’ve spent tons of time perfecting. You have an SEO and Marketing strategy and everything is looking good. Customers are browsing your eCommerce website, adding products to their cart – and leaving!? Shopping cart abandonment can be frustrating for eCommerce businesses, but fortunately, an abandoned cart does not mean a lost customer.
What is an Abandoned Cart?
For online retailers, shopping cart abandonment occurs when an online customer adds item(s) to their shopping cart but leaves the website before completing the purchase. In fact, according to Baymard Institute, an average of 67% of all online shopping carts are abandoned. So you’re not alone.
Why Do Customers Abandon Carts? 
Customers abandon carts for many reasons; the checkout process is too difficult, they were just browsing, the customer didn’t want to create an account in order to purchase, their preferred payment option wasn’t available, they just weren’t ready to purchase, shipping costs were unexpectedly high or the product cost more than expected. The list goes on and on. Fortunately, epicFlowers websites are equipped to combat many of these common factors in cart abandonment. For instance, the checkout process is an easy-to-follow 1 page checkout; guest checkout is provided for customers who prefer not to create store accounts; various payment options are available, including PayPal and so on.
According to a study by WorldPay the most common reasons for abandoned carts centers on pricing. This doesn’t mean you have to lower the cost of your products, but it gives insight into what your customers expect from your eCommerce website. The number 1 reason online shoppers leave without buying is that they are presented with unexpected costs. This usually comes in the form of shipping and handling fees or taxes that weren’t clearly listed on the product or information pages. Customers have come to expect free shipping/delivery costs when buying online, especially during the holiday season. In fact, free shipping offers are twice as effective as percent-off offers when it comes to conversions. (retention science) There are many realistic ways to offer free or discounted shipping and delivery without hurting your company wallet. Entrepreneur has several great ideas! There are countless reasons customers abandon carts, which we will delve further into at a later time, but the silver lining is that there is something you can do about it.
How Do I Recover Abandoned Carts?
There are numerous ways to retarget cart abandoners, but a surefire cost-effective and timely solution are recovery emails. It sounds too good to be true, but studies show that cart abandoners spend 55% more. (seewhy) You just need to know what to do and when to do it. epicFlowers makes this easy! epicFlowers eCommerce websites utilize the BigCommerce software platform, which contains built-in software for getting those customers back! The Abandoned Cart Saver feature in BigCommerce comes installed on every epic Site. This feature converts an average of 15% of abandoned carts to sales through recovery emails!
Any time a customer abandons a cart on your epicFlowers eCommerce website, a customized email will be automatically sent out to encourage them to return. You can include various incentives such as coupon codes, loyalty programs and free shipping to entice your cart abandoners. Who knows, they might return and spend more than they originally intended! The Abandoned Cart saver not only saves you time, it generates sales that would otherwise have been lost.
Cart Abandonment Isn’t So Bad After All
Abandoned shopping carts are part of the eCommerce world and always will be. However, by being proactive and learning to limit major causes of abandonment while retargeting those visitors who do leave, you gain a major opportunity to not only recover those shoppers, but create loyal life-long customers. An epicFlowers website makes this opportunity much easier and more valuable. We’re here to help you create the best experience possible for your customers, because a successful eCommerce website is all about the customer.