The 64.6% Problem with Carts

Of all the intent signals, the add-to-cart rules them all.

With a tap your shopper says, ‘I want this.’

And it gives us a true pivot point along the shopper journey. If you split the site visit in two, there's everything that happens before cart ("BC") and everything that happens after cart ("AC").

Unfort, the AC typically means abandoned cart, as 85% of all mobile carts are lost. Buuuuut…

There’s a wrinkle in there.. AC has two distinct stages:

1️⃣ Abandoned carts: 64.6% of carts never reach checkout

2️⃣ Abandoned checkout: 20.4% of carts reach checkout, though don’t convert

Abandoned checkouts have served as inspo for real commerce (namely, mobile) innovation over the past half decade +.

Tech giants (Apple with Apple Pay) and industry leaders (Shopify with Shop Pay) have successfully tackled the slippery mobile checkout. Now, mobile checkouts are faster and smoother than their larger screened ancestors.

Heck, even Harley Finkelstein shouts about it.

When it comes to abandoned carts, though, the widely accepted solutions are productive, though tired - we’ve been sending cart recovery emails for *decades.* And, those efforts happen later, after the session breaks; Klaviyo suggests 2-4 hrs after checkout start, while Sendlane says within 24 hours of abandonment.

Most brands show little or no change to the AC on-site experience. And, the massive cart attrition reflects this.

The next tranche of innovation should be pointed to this opportunity. And, with 76% of all carts created on mobile, we know the device to target.

For those looking to test their way through this, there are dozens of tests to run, but most importantly, respecting shopper (and cart) segments is paramount. Buyer v. non-buyer, first-time visitor v. repeat visitor. Single or low UPT v. high UPT. High page view consumption v. low.

Follow the value - and there’s loads of it here. A 1 ppt improvement in abandoned cart rate can yield a 2.8% lift in conversion. But don’t wait - solve the session to find conversion.