From PayPal survey: why shoppers abandon their shopping
PayPal have published the results of their second annual Checkout Abandonment Survey, looking at why website buyers don’t complete purchases. Just like last year’s survey, an excessive shipping fee was the number one reason for shoppers walking away. It’s clear that if sellers are able to offer shipping-inclusive prices, this is something that buyers like, however counter-intuitive that might be for those of us who typically sell more than one item at a time. And even if your site charges separate shipping, making that cost transparent at the beginning of the checkout flow – or earlier – is essential.
There’s some suggestion, though, that buyers are getting more savvy with their online shopping: the second most popular reason for abandonment was that buyers wanted to comparison shop, and 25% cited leaving the site to look for a coupon or discount voucher. Sellers should be using this behaviour to their advantage: if you’re not currently listing website coupons on voucher sites, you’re probably missing out on some valuable free advertising, and a fair number of sales.
But there’s some reassurance: a third of shoppers who abandoned their carts later returned to the same site to purchase.
Sellers should consider:
making it easy for shoppers to bookmark their site and specific items they’re interested in,
using social bookmarking tools as well as traditional browser bookmarks/favourites
extending the life of shopping cart cookies so that buyers who return later can find the items they’d already added to their cart,
and offering a wish-list facility for longer-term use.
PayPal are running a video presentation later today to discuss their findings further.