shopping cart abandonment

Definition

When potential customers add items to their online cart but leave without completing the purchase. It's the digital equivalent of filling a physical cart, then abandoning it in the cereal aisle and leaving the store.

Example Usage

Our shopping cart abandonment rate is 73%, which we've learned means people enjoy browsing our products but hate our shipping costs, checkout process, and basically everything after the 'add to cart' button.

Origin

Term emerged with e-commerce in the late 1990s as retailers gained ability to track incomplete transactions

Fun Fact

The average cart abandonment rate across industries is nearly 70%, with unexpected shipping costs being the top reason cited for abandoning purchases.

Source: E-commerce and conversion optimization terminology

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