What Is Cart Abandonment? Causes, Stats, and What It Costs You
Cart abandonment is when a shopper adds products to their cart but leaves without purchasing. Learn what causes it, how much it costs, and what Shopify stores can do about it.
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要点
- Cart abandonment occurs when a shopper adds one or more products to their online shopping cart but exits the site before completing the purchase.
- The average cart abandonment rate across ecommerce is approximately 70-75%. This has been consistent for over a decade.
- The leading causes are checkout friction (unexpected costs, mandatory account creation, complicated checkout) and behavioral factors (just browsing, comparing prices) that cannot be prevented but can be recovered.
- Cart abandonment is not a failure — it is normal. The question is not how to eliminate it but how to reduce the preventable portion and recover the unavoidable portion.
- The total revenue impact of unrecovered cart abandonment for a typical Shopify store is significant: a store with $50K monthly revenue may have $35K+ in cart abandonment value — and could reasonably recover $5-15K of that with the right infrastructure.
Key Takeaways
- Cart abandonment rate = sessions with cart additions minus completed purchases, divided by total sessions with cart additions.
- 70% average abandonment rate means 7 in 10 shoppers who add to cart don't purchase.
- The #1 cause is unexpected shipping costs (48%). The most preventable.
- "Just browsing" (34%) and "comparing prices" (27%) cannot be prevented — but they can be recovered through abandoned cart email marketing.
- The biggest missed opportunity: most stores only recover revenue from ~14% of cart abandoners due to Klaviyo's native tracking limitations.
Definition: what is cart abandonment?
Cart abandonment is the act of a website visitor adding one or more items to an online shopping cart and then leaving the website before completing the purchase transaction.
It is distinct from:
- Browse abandonment: A visitor views product pages but never adds anything to cart
- Checkout abandonment: A visitor begins the checkout process (enters email, shipping details, or payment information) but doesn't complete the transaction
- Wishlist abandonment: A visitor saves items but doesn't add them to cart
When most people say "cart abandonment," they mean the first definition: shopper adds to cart, does not complete checkout.
Cart abandonment statistics
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Average global cart abandonment rate | 70-75% |
| Average mobile cart abandonment rate | 76-80% |
| Average desktop cart abandonment rate | 60-65% |
| Global ecommerce revenue lost to cart abandonment (annually) | ~$18 billion (US) |
| Average abandoned cart email open rate | 50.5% (Klaviyo, 143K+ flows) |
| Revenue recovered per abandoned cart email recipient | $3.65 average (Klaviyo) |
What the 70% figure means: If your Shopify store had 1,000 shoppers add something to their cart last month, approximately 700 of them left without buying. You potentially converted 300.
Why shoppers abandon their carts
Understanding the specific causes of cart abandonment helps prioritize which fixes produce the largest impact.
Baymard Institute research (50+ cart abandonment studies, 2012-2026):
| Reason | % of abandoners | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Extra costs too high (shipping, tax, fees) | 48% | Preventable |
| Required to create an account | 26% | Preventable |
| Delivery was too slow | 18% | Partially preventable |
| Didn't trust the site | 17% | Preventable |
| Too long/complicated checkout | 22% | Preventable |
| Couldn't see total cost upfront | 21% | Preventable |
| Just browsing / not ready to buy | 34% | Not preventable |
| Comparing prices on other sites | 27% | Not preventable |
| Changed their mind | 15% | Not preventable |
| Payment method not offered | 9% | Preventable |
| Credit card declined | 4% | Not preventable |
The preventable reasons cluster around checkout friction — things you can fix directly on your site. The non-preventable reasons (browsing, comparing) represent shoppers who simply aren't ready yet, but who may be recovered through follow-up.
How much does cart abandonment cost your store?
Here is a way to calculate the revenue impact of cart abandonment for your specific store:
``` Monthly cart abandonment value = Monthly cart additions × average cart value × abandonment rate
Example: 1,000 cart additions × $80 average cart value × 70% abandonment = $56,000 abandoned per month ```
From that $56,000:
- Klaviyo's native tracking reaches ~14% of abandoners (790 shoppers)
- At a 5% recovery rate: 39 recovered orders × $80 = $3,120 recovered
- Remaining unreachable: 86% of abandoners, or ~$48,000 in potential recovery
This is why improving tracking reach is the highest-leverage intervention: every percentage point of additional abandoners you can reach translates directly into recoverable revenue.
The two-part response to cart abandonment
Part 1: Reduce preventable abandonment
Fix the checkout friction that causes avoidable abandonment:
- Show shipping costs on product pages (not just at checkout)
- Enable guest checkout
- Add Shop Pay and accelerated payment options
- Simplify checkout to as few steps as possible
- Display trust signals (SSL, payment badges, return policy)
These changes typically reduce abandonment rate from ~70% to ~58-65%.
Part 2: Recover unavoidable abandonment
For the abandonment that remains — browsers, comparison shoppers, distracted buyers — the recovery system matters:
- Klaviyo abandoned cart flow (3-email sequence)
- Checkout abandonment flow (separate, faster timing)
- Browse abandonment flow (for product viewers who didn't add to cart)
- Retargeting ads through Meta and Google
The critical gap in most recovery systems: Klaviyo's native tracking only identifies ~14% of cart abandonment events. Attribuly ReCapture closes this gap by connecting behavioral data to Klaviyo profiles when native tracking fails — expanding flow reach from ~14% to ~55%+, guaranteed to return at least $4 for every $1 invested.
Cart abandonment vs. checkout abandonment
These two terms are often used interchangeably but describe different behaviors:
| Cart abandonment | Checkout abandonment | |
|---|---|---|
| What happened | Added to cart, never started checkout | Started checkout, didn't complete purchase |
| Intent level | Moderate — could be browsing or researching | High — entered personal information |
| Typical rate | ~70% of cart additions | ~15-25% of checkout starters |
| Recovery timing | First email: 1-4 hours | First email: 30-60 minutes |
| Recovery rate | 3-7% of flow recipients | 5-10% of flow recipients |
Both need separate Klaviyo flows. Both have the same native tracking gap problem.
Common mistakes
Mistake 1: Treating all cart abandonment the same
A shopper who added to cart three times and started checkout twice has very different intent than someone who added a single item while casually browsing. Segment by intent and adjust your recovery approach accordingly.
Mistake 2: Measuring abandonment rate without measuring recovery rate
Abandonment rate alone is not actionable. The more useful metric is: what percentage of cart abandonment value are you recovering? Most stores recover 2-8% without optimization; 10-20% is achievable with the right infrastructure.
Mistake 3: Assuming your Klaviyo flow is solving the problem
Many merchants have an abandoned cart flow running and assume it's recovering most of their cart abandonment. In reality, if the flow is only triggered by ~14% of actual abandonment events, most of the problem remains unaddressed.
Next step
Check what percentage of your cart abandonment you're currently recovering: Klaviyo flow entries ÷ monthly cart additions. If it's below 20%, your recovery infrastructure has more impact available than any further checkout optimization.
→ Start free trial → Learn about Attribuly ReCapture → Book a demo
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