Lost just before purchase: 6 ways to reduce abandoned carts in your Shopify store

You pay for advertising, convince customers with your product, and get visitors all the way to the shopping cart. Then nothing happens. No order.

This is particularly frustrating because you've already invested a lot of work and money into this contact.

Not every filled shopping cart signifies a firm intent to purchase. Some visitors compare prices or save products for later. Nevertheless, you should check whether your store unnecessarily complicates the checkout process.

Especially for Shopify stores with monthly revenues up to 50,000 Euros, this review is worthwhile: Before you acquire more visitors, you should understand why ready-to-buy customers abandon their carts.

1. Differentiate between cart and checkout

A visitor adds a product to the cart but doesn't start an order. Another enters their address and abandons at payment.

These are different problems.

In the first case, unanswered product questions, distractions, or lack of purchase intent might play a role. In the second case, you should check shipping costs, delivery options, and payments, among other things.

Therefore, look at the transitions:

• How many visitors add products to their cart?

• How many of them start the checkout process?

• How many complete the order?

Also, compare smartphone and desktop usage, as well as your main traffic sources. If visitors from a specific campaign are primarily abandoning, the advertising promise might not match the actual order.

A single conversion rate for the entire store doesn't tell you where the problem lies.

2. Display shipping costs and delivery times early enough

A product costs 49 Euros. Only in the checkout does the customer learn that an additional 8.90 Euros for shipping will be added. At the same time, it remains unclear when the order will arrive.

This forces them to re-evaluate their purchase decision just before completion.

Therefore, display relevant shipping information on the product page and in the shopping cart. If costs depend on the delivery country, make this dependency clear.

Delivery times should also be specific and realistic. "Fast shipping" doesn't answer whether the gift will arrive by Friday.

A free shipping threshold can be useful, but it should align with your average order value and margins. If you push customers to make a significantly larger purchase, it can also complicate the checkout process.

3. Keep the shopping cart clear

In the shopping cart, customers should be able to quickly review their selection: product, variant, quantity, and price.

Changes must be easy to make. If someone selected the wrong size, they should be able to correct it without having to navigate through the store again.

Check particularly on smartphones:

• Is the checkout button immediately visible?

• Can quantities be changed easily?

• Do pop-ups or chat windows obscure important functions?

• Do too many additional offers distract from completing the purchase?

A suitable complementary product can be helpful. A whole series of additional decisions, however, can slow things down.

The next step should become easier the closer your customer gets to making a purchase.

4. Test payments and shipping with real order scenarios

Don't rely on everything working just because the homepage looks good.

Test typical combinations of product, shipping address, discount code, and payment method. Also, check orders from your most important delivery countries.

Potential stumbling blocks include missing shipping rates, non-combinable discounts, or payment errors. Some problems only affect specific shopping carts and therefore go unnoticed for a long time.

Shopify offers settings for checkout and order processing, as well as options for test orders. Which adjustment makes sense depends on your specific setup. The basics are described in the Shopify documentation on checkout.

Do you see many initiated checkouts but too few completions? Book your free online conversion analysis and discuss with us where a closer examination would be worthwhile.

5. Resolve open questions before giving away a discount

If a customer hesitates due to an unclear delivery time, a discount code won't answer their question.

The same applies to uncertainty about fit, compatibility, or returns. Such information should be easily accessible and clearly formulated.

Even automatic reminders should not reflexively start with a price reduction. A helpful reminder of the product selection or an answer to common purchase obstacles can be a more appropriate first step.

If you use a discount, check its additional revenue. You want to gain more profitable orders, not unnecessarily give away margin to customers who would have purchased anyway.

6. Evaluate improvements based on sufficient data

Two additional orders after a change are gratifying, but they don't yet prove a lasting effect.

Smaller shops, in particular, have fluctuating visitor numbers and few daily completions. Therefore, compare sufficiently long periods and consider promotions, advertising changes, and seasonal influences.

In addition to completed checkouts, also monitor average order value and revenue. A change that brings more completions but only works through high discounts must pay off overall.

Where does your Shopify store lose ready-to-buy customers?

As a Shopify agency in Vienna, at 5pm, we consider the entire journey from the first visit to the order.

In our free online conversion analysis, we discuss your shop, noticeable abandonment points, and possible next steps. You don't need to bring a finished action plan for this.

Book your free online conversion analysis now

So that the work done before the shopping cart more often leads to a completed order.