Cart Abandonment Rate
Cart abandonment rate is the percentage of online shoppers who add items to their shopping cart but leave the site without completing the purchase. It is one of the most critical ecommerce conversion metrics.
Also known as: shopping cart abandonment, basket abandonment rate
Formula
(1 - (Completed Purchases / Carts Created)) x 100
Why It Matters
Cart abandonment represents the closest thing to a lost sale in ecommerce. These are not casual browsers - they actively selected products and began the purchase process, then stopped. Understanding why they stopped and how to bring them back is often the highest-ROI activity an ecommerce team can pursue.
The financial impact is staggering. If your store generates $500K in monthly revenue with a 70% cart abandonment rate, there is potentially $1.17M in unrealized revenue sitting in abandoned carts. Even recovering 10% of that through email sequences, retargeting, or checkout optimization would add $117K in monthly revenue.
Cart abandonment rate also serves as a diagnostic tool for your checkout experience. A rate significantly above your industry benchmark signals friction in the checkout process - unexpected costs, complex forms, limited payment options, or trust concerns. Tracking this rate over time after making changes tells you whether your optimizations are working.
How to Calculate
Divide the number of completed purchases by the number of shopping carts created, subtract from 1, and multiply by 100. Alternatively, divide abandoned carts by total carts created and multiply by 100. A cart is considered abandoned when items are added but the checkout is not completed within a defined time window, typically 24-48 hours.
Cart Abandonment Rate Calculator
(1 - (Completed Purchases / Carts Created)) x 100
Industry Applications
A fashion retailer reduces cart abandonment from 78% to 65% by adding PayPal and Apple Pay options at checkout, eliminating the need for customers to enter credit card details on mobile devices.
Benchmark: Average ecommerce cart abandonment rate is 69-72%; mobile rates are typically 80-85%
A SaaS company with a self-serve checkout flow discovers 55% cart abandonment at the pricing page. Adding a live chat widget and an FAQ section addressing common pricing questions reduces abandonment to 38%.
How to Track in KISSmetrics
KISSmetrics tracks cart abandonment by capturing add-to-cart events and matching them against completed purchase events for each user. Use funnel reports to visualize where in the checkout flow users drop off. Set up triggered email campaigns based on cart abandonment events to automatically recover lost sales. Segment abandonment by traffic source, device, and cart value to prioritize recovery efforts.
Common Mistakes
- -Treating all cart abandonment as lost sales - many users add items to cart as a "save for later" behavior or price comparison tool
- -Sending abandonment recovery emails too early (within minutes) or too late (after 48 hours) instead of the optimal 1-4 hour window
- -Not segmenting abandonment by stage - users who abandon on the product page vs. at payment entry need different recovery approaches
- -Ignoring mobile-specific abandonment, which is typically 10-15% higher than desktop due to UX friction
- -Over-discounting in recovery emails, which trains customers to abandon carts intentionally to receive discounts
Pro Tips
- +Implement a 3-email abandonment sequence: reminder at 1 hour, value reinforcement at 24 hours, and urgency/scarcity at 72 hours
- +Add exit-intent popups that offer to save the cart or email cart contents, capturing contact info for future recovery
- +Display trust signals (security badges, return policies, reviews) prominently on checkout pages to reduce anxiety-driven abandonment
- +Offer guest checkout - mandatory account creation is one of the top reasons for abandonment
- +Test adding a progress indicator to multi-step checkouts so users know how close they are to completing the purchase
Related Terms
Checkout Conversion Rate
Checkout conversion rate is the percentage of users who begin the checkout process and successfully complete a purchase. It measures the effectiveness of your checkout flow at converting intent into transactions.
Add to Cart Rate
Add to cart rate is the percentage of website visitors or product page viewers who add at least one item to their shopping cart. It measures how effectively your product pages convert browsing interest into purchase consideration.
Average Order Value
Average Order Value (AOV) is the average dollar amount spent each time a customer places an order. It is calculated by dividing total revenue by the number of orders in a given period.
Revenue Per Visitor
Revenue per visitor (RPV) is the average revenue generated for each visitor to your website. It combines conversion rate and average order value into a single metric that measures the total monetary value of your traffic.
Shipping Conversion Impact
Shipping conversion impact measures how shipping costs, speed, and policies affect purchase conversion rates. It quantifies the relationship between shipping variables and the likelihood that a visitor completes a purchase.
See Cart Abandonment Rate in action
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