Abandoned Checkouts in e-commerce: main causes and how to solve them
Picture this: a customer walks into your store, browses the aisles, carefully chooses several products, puts them in their basket, and heads to the checkout. But, just when they are about to pay, they leave the basket on the floor, turn around, and walk out the door without saying a word. In the physical world, this would be a strange and worrying situation. In the digital world, however, it is the “everyday reality” for e-commerce managers.
We are talking about the phenomenon of abandoned carts, one of the biggest headaches for any online business. If you are worried about seeing traffic arrive at your site and add products, but the conversion rate just doesn’t take off, you are not alone. In fact, it is estimated that the global average for cart abandonment is around 70%. This means that for every 10 people who show a clear intention to buy, only 3 finish the process.
But why does this happen? Is it the price? The technology? The user? In this article, we are going to break down the reasons behind this behavior and, most importantly, what strategies you can implement to reduce purchase abandonment and recover that revenue that is being left on the table.
Why do users abandon the cart?
To solve a problem, you first have to understand it. Users don’t abandon their purchases on a whim; they generally encounter friction, a doubt, or a barrier that outweighs their desire to acquire the product at that moment. Let’s analyze the usual culprits.
1. Hidden costs
This is, by far, the number one reason. The customer sees an attractive price on the product page, gets excited, and decides to buy it. However, upon reaching the final step of the checkout, they find that the final price has risen considerably due to high shipping costs, taxes not included, or handling fees. This unpleasant surprise breaks trust and the perception of value. The user feels the initial price was not honest, which causes an immediate exit.
2. The obligation to create an account
We live in the attention economy and immediacy. If a new user arrives at your e-commerce site and, to buy, you force them to fill out an extensive registration form, validate an email, and create a password, you are putting a wall between them and their purchase. Many users just want to buy and leave. The obligation to register is perceived as a tedious task and an unnecessary barrier to entry, especially for impulsive or low-amount purchases.
3. A complex and long checkout (payment) process
Have you ever tried to pay on a website that asks for your pet’s name, your date of birth, and three address confirmations before asking for your card? A payment process with too many steps, confusing forms, or one that is not optimized for mobile is a direct invitation to abandon. The golden rule in ecommerce conversions is simplicity. Every additional click and every extra form field is an opportunity for the customer to think twice or get frustrated.
4. Lack of trust and security
Security remains a critical factor. If your website doesn’t have a professional design, doesn’t show recognizable security seals, or if the browser warns that the site is “not secure,” the user will not enter their banking details. Furthermore, the lack of known payment methods (such as PayPal, Apple Pay, or Bizum) can generate distrust or discomfort. The customer wants to pay how they want, not how you impose on them.
5. Unclear return policy
Uncertainty is the enemy of conversion. “What if it doesn’t fit, how do I return it?”, “Will it cost me money to return it?”. If the user doesn’t find these answers quickly and clearly before paying, or if the return policy seems draconian, they will prefer not to risk it.
Effective strategies to reduce abandonment and improve your checkout
Now that we have diagnosed the problem, let’s take action. The goal is not to eliminate abandonment 100% (there will always be users who are just “window shopping”), but to reduce it to the minimum possible by optimizing the experience.
Changes regarding costs.
- Be transparent with costs from the beginning. If there are shipping costs, show them on the product page or in a top bar.
- Implement “Guest Checkout”. Allow users to buy by entering only their email and essential shipping/payment details. Do you want them to register? Perfect, offer them that option after they have paid.
Optimize your checkout
- Reduce fields: Ask only for what is strictly necessary. If you don’t need the company name or middle name, don’t ask for it.
- Progress bar: Show the user where they are (e.g., Data > Shipping > Payment). This reduces anxiety.
- Autocomplete: Use Google Maps technology to fill in addresses automatically and detect the credit card type when typing the numbers.
- Mobile-first: Ensure buttons are large and easy to press on small screens. Most of your users probably visit you from mobile.
Recovery strategies: Artificial Intelligence to the rescue
Sometimes, the user abandons for reasons you could have avoided if you had been there to help them at the right moment. This is where AI changes the game, moving from reaction to proactivity.
- Proactive real-time assistance (PIA): Imagine a system that doesn’t wait for the customer to leave, but detects when they are hesitating, stuck, or frustrated while browsing. Through AI models, behavioral patterns (erratic mouse movements, unusual wait times in a field, rewriting data) that indicate a risk of abandonment can be identified. At that instant, the system can deploy contextual help, an incentive, or a clarifying message to unlock the sale. At Luce IT, we implement this technology through PIA (Prompt Intelligent Assistant), our proactive assistant that detects obstacles in real-time and guides the user to ensure conversion before they abandon.
- Intelligent conversational recovery (LIA): If the user finally leaves, the traditional email sometimes falls short. The current trend is to contact the user through more direct and conversational channels like WhatsApp or Telegram, but not with static messages, rather with Generative AI Agents. These assistants can understand why the user didn’t buy (“Did you find the shipping expensive?”, “Did you have a technical error?”) and negotiate or help them resume the purchase naturally, as a human salesperson would. For this, at Luce IT we have LIA (Luce Intelligent Assistant), a multichannel Generative AI solution capable of managing these complex interactions and recovering sales in an automated and close way.
- Online-Offline connection for high-value carts (Track2Call): When the abandoned cart has a high amount or the product is complex (e.g., insurance, mortgages, travel), the best recovery is an immediate human call. Technology allows identifying these “hot” digital users and connecting them automatically with the Contact Center, providing the agent with all the web navigation context to close the sale. This is the basis of our asset Track2Call, which bridges the digital world with the telephone world to maximize recovery in assisted sales processes.
Monitor, measure, and improve with Advanced Analytics
Optimization is not a one-time task, and sticking only with quantitative data (how many enter and how many leave) is like trying to fix a car by looking only at the odometer. You need to know why abandonment occurs.
- Session Analytics: Traditional web analytics tools tell you where users go, but not why. Session Analytics allows you to replay the real user experience and visualize exactly what they were doing before leaving. Did they click furiously on a button that didn’t work (“Rage Clicks”)? Did they scroll up and down looking for shipping information they couldn’t find? This turns assumptions into certainties. At Luce IT we are experts in Session Analytics and we work with leading technologies (such as Acoustic Tealeaf or Quantum Metric) to audit your digital assets and detect invisible frictions.
- “Struggle” Detection (User Effort): Beyond watching recordings, the key is measuring the “Struggle Score” or effort score. Through algorithms, we can quantify how hard it is for a user to complete a purchase. If we detect that effort skyrockets at the payment step, we know there is a critical technical or usability problem silently draining your sales. Within our CRO Service (Conversion Rate Optimization), we use these advanced “Struggle” metrics to prioritize improvements that will have a direct economic impact on your business.
- Data Quality: To make correct decisions about your checkout, you need to trust your data. If you have duplicates, tagging errors, or inconsistencies between what your CRM says and your web analytics, you will be optimizing blindly. Ensuring data integrity is step zero of any recovery strategy. That is why at Luce IT we integrate Data Quality and Data Integrity solutions in our projects, ensuring that information about your carts and users is 100% reliable and actionable.
In short, reducing abandoned carts is no longer just a matter of changing the color of a button. It requires a combination of design best practices and, above all, a layer of technological intelligence that understands and assists the user. By integrating AI and advanced analytics, you not only recover sales but offer a superior shopping experience.
If you want to stop losing sales and start offering a proactive and intelligent shopping experience, at Luce IT we have the tools. From real-time assistance with PIA, to conversational recovery with LIA and deep analysis with our CRO Service, we can help you transform your conversion funnel. Contact us and we will analyze your case.
Frequently Asked Questions about Abandoned Carts in Online Shopping
Why do customers abandon the shopping cart?
The main reasons are usually unexpected additional costs (such as shipping or taxes), the obligation to register by creating an account, overly complex or long payment processes, and a lack of trust in the website’s security.
What is the average cart abandonment rate in e-commerce?
The global average rate for e-commerce cart abandonment sits around 70%. However, this can vary significantly depending on the sector and the device (mobile is usually higher than desktop).
What strategies are effective for recovering abandoned web carts?
The most effective strategies combine sequenced recovery emails, social media remarketing, and, increasingly, the use of conversational AI assistants (like advanced chatbots) that contact the user to resolve doubts and close the sale proactively.
Is guest checkout useful in an online store?
“Guest checkout” is a feature that allows users to make a purchase without needing to create an account or register with a password. It eliminates a major friction barrier and streamlines the process, increasing conversion.
How can checkout be optimized in an e-commerce?
To optimize checkout you must simplify to the max: reduce the number of form fields, implement address autocomplete, offer multiple payment methods, show a progress bar, and ensure the page loads fast and is secure.
