Do you feel like you have made every effort to make your site look intuitive and user-friendly, yet you still struggle with a large number of shopping carts being abandoned? We looked at some of the reasons for this behaviour of users, we have also created a list of the most common elements in the online shopping journey and suggested solutions to avoid abandoned carts.
What is the Cart Abandonment Rate and Why Does it Matter?
The cart abandonment rate is an e-commerce metric that measures the percentage of online shoppers who add items to their shopping carts but exit them without making any purchases.
For instance, if an online store records 1000 customers adding products to their cart in a month but only 300 of those transactions are completed then the cart abandonment rate can be calculated as:
Cart Abandonment Rate = ((Total Carts Created – Total Purchases Completed) / Total Carts Created) * 100
Cart Abandonment Rate = ((1000-300)/100)*100= 70
For an e-commerce store cart abandonment is an important aspect. Here are the shopping cart abandonment statistics.
- Abandonment rate differs on various devices: Desktop-69.75%, Tablet-80.74%, Mobile- 85.65%
- Check-out abandonment is 70%
- ECommerce cart abandonment rate is 69.99% (2023)
A high abandonment rate may indicate poor UX (user experience) or a broken sales funnel and this results in lost sales, which leads to lost revenue.
However, a bad abandonment rate may not be bad sometimes. Keep in mind cart abandonment rates can vary based on industry, product type and even the type of devices.
Your next step is to analyze why users abandon their carts and identify solutions to improve the checkout experience.
Most Common Reasons for Cart Abandonment
No doubt that every e-commerce store is unique. However, there are some reasons why users stop in the middle of the sales funnel and dropout:
Extra Costs: It is a bit disappointing that a customer is ready to buy an item and is “surprised” by the unexpected cost of shipping and other fees.
Website Forcing to Create an Account: Not everyone wants to create an account on every single website when it’s not required.
Complicated Checkout Process: Customers who get to the checkout stage expect the purchase to be easy. If the checkout page is full of complex forms it will interrupt the user’s checkout flow.
Limited Payment Options: Offering more payment options can remove another potential reason why customers abandon their cart.
Unsatisfactory Return Policy: The survey shows that 68% of consumers view a return policy before making a purchase. As per the Metapack survey, 56% of shoppers had been discouraged from shopping due to insufficient return policy.
Complicated UX: a website that has confusing navigation or too many popups results in frustrated customers abandoning their shopping carts.
How to Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment Rate (What you can do?)
UX and UI work together to ensure that a product is visually appealing and functional and the users have the elements they need to interact with it. Regarding cart abandonment, UX design can help improve the purchase flow and reduce the rate at which users abandon their carts.
1. Show the charges upfront or you can come up with different shipping options.
For example: Faster shipping costs more, leaving the decision to the customer.
2. Implement a guest checkout so that you can achieve significantly higher conversion rates.
3.Do a short one-page checkout, eliminate all the unnecessary fields and use a checkbox at billing and shipping addresses, they are often the same. With the help of a checkbox, customers don’t need to fill in the same information again.
4. Implement more payment options like GPay, PhonePe, Digital Wallets etc.
5. Look at the return policy and adjust it to be beneficial to customers. To make your return policy more clear you can:
- Provide free returns (if it works)
- Clarify the return policy
- Offer a brief summary of the return policy
6. Design a path that’s well lit for users to navigate through.
Solutions to fix the errors:
- Minimize distractions and simplify your sites to make CTAs stand out more.
- From your shopping cart, it must be easy to go back to the product section or other sections of the site to continue shopping.
How UX Affects Shopping Cart Abandonment?
The most successful e-commerce businesses have one thing in common: they take a lot of effort to improve the customer experience which covers a variety of factors such as friendly customer services, fast shipping, easy returns and most importantly factor user experience (UX).
A well-designed UX can keep the user engaged on a site to achieve their goals compared with poor UX which is difficult to navigate and impacts the overall UX. There are chances that the visitor will likely switch to another website if they face any difficulties during site navigation.
By analysing cart abandonment rates, businesses can identify sore points which mean pain points in their checkout process and thus increase the probability of converting customers into sales.
A less complicated checkout process with a guest checkout is supposed to be helpful in keeping your customers engaged and blocking them from going to your competitor’s site.
Some more tips to achieve this:
- Minimize the number of checkout steps
- Offer a social media registration option
- Provide autocomplete of the form
- Avoid too many banners and popups
Optimize website speed and performance by avoiding slow loading of web pages as it frustrates users. To achieve high website speed, businesses can: Compress files, optimize images, use browser caching and use AMP (accelerated mobile pages) if possible.
Why are UI UX Consultants Required for D2C Sites?
For D2C brands websites and apps are like a virtual salesperson which introduces them to potential customers. This is where the importance of a UI UX design consultant comes in. UX design for D2C focuses on making the user journey smooth on the other hand UI design focuses on visual elements like typography, colour schemes, imagery, icons and layouts. For a detailed analysis refer to our case study.
Effortless Impact of UI UX Design Consultancy
Enhanced User Engagement: A proper UI UX design for the D2C brand ensures that every interaction with the brand’s website is smooth. Take Amazon’s website as an example which delivers a seamless shopping journey:
- Well-designed product categories
- User-friendly search features
- Easy checkout process
- Order tracking management
- Easy access to customer support
Brand Reputation: A smooth experience with a brand’s website can lead to recommendations and positive word of mouth. This is a powerful marketing tool that attracts new customers.
Differentiation: UI UX design consultancy helps D2C brands to stand out. By providing an exceptional user experience brands can attract customers and take a competitive advantage.
| With UI UX Design Focus | Without UI UX Design Focus |
| Airbnb allows users to easily search for accommodations and confidently book their stays.
Interface and features like instant booking and secure payment options set Airbnb apart from competitors. |
An online travel agency with a decluttered website may frustrate users. |
Brand Loyalty: When users effortlessly find what they need and complete purchases they are more likely to become loyal customers.
Hassle-free Purchasing Journey: Users are more inclined to purchase when they get a hassle-free process from browsing to checking out.
Apple’s online store effortlessly guides users through their purchasing journey. Such experiences improve user satisfaction and encourage repeat purchases.
Yellow Slice Case Study
Brand- Chaayos
Chaayos is a popular chain of Tea cafes with a presence in over 200 cities across India. The brand reaches its customers through online food-ordering platforms and now wants to create a mobile app for its loyal customers to customize their tea and orders.
Problem Statement: Redesign & enhance the UI/UX design of the Point-Of-Sale (POS) system and design the Chaayos Cafe app to encourage user customization leading to higher retention.
Check out this link for a full case study- Chaayos
Final Words,
This blog confirmed the importance of a good UX. There are no shortcuts in the D2C businesses. By understanding the common reasons behind abandonment and implementing targeted solutions brands can significantly reduce cart abandonment rate. Your reward will be satisfied customers and completed purchases.
Yellow Slice is an expert UI UX design consultant who can help your business accomplish these goals–contact us and learn how.
FAQs On D2C Sites Need UX Consultants to Reduce Cart Abandonment
1. What can be done to build trust with customers?
To build trust with customers offer clear and transparent policies and provide excellent customer service.
2. How important is a streamlined checkout process?
A streamlined checkout process is essential for reducing cart abandonment. Complicated checkout processes create friction and increase the likelihood of customers abandoning their carts.
3. Why should marketers measure cart abandonment?
Measuring cart abandonment helps identify issues in the checkout process, understand customer behaviour and improve the shopping experience.
4. What trends in UI UX design impact the success of D2C brands?
UI UX design impacts the overall customer experience from brand discovery to completing the purchase.
