Online cart abandonment is costing the UK billions in lost revenue each year and yet few businesses are actively monitoring or taking the necessary steps to claw back this lost income. While getting to the root cause of why a customer drops off at a particular point can be difficult - noting that some buyers simply cannot be influenced - having some understanding of general psychological motivations can go some way towards helping your contact centre business secure an improved online hit rate.

Why do buyers abandon their shopping carts?

There are many points where buyers become disengaged with a website; they can easily lose interest, get confused or experience technical difficulties, all triggers which can lead to giving up on a purchase. In a recent report by Forrester (2010) 88% of online shoppers were shown to have abandoned shopping carts, with the top five reasons for cart abandonment differing between shipping costs, buyers not being ready to purchase, browsing for price comparisons, high prices and saving items for later.

Social demographics are shown to play their part. Highly educated and wealthy individuals are proven to be more likely to shop around and search out voucher codes - which means for your online business that browsers are valuable, high earning, and likely to demand a particular level of customer experience from you.

For every abandoned transaction…

While there are certain design and usability modifications that you can make to your site to discourage users from discarding their online interaction with your business, there are some consumers whose behaviour you cannot influence or alter. Instead you should aim to provide an informative, helpful and engaging user journey for all in the hope of meeting customers’ expectations of you and your site - and raising your brand profile. Consider that for every abandoned transaction you can be assured that the customer had a need and was interested in a product that you were able to offer. How quickly you are able to use this information effectively could make all the difference in turning a lost customer around.

Download our full free report on steps to improving online conversion for contact centre success here.