Seven in ten carts get abandoned. Which ones can you win back?

Imagine seven out of ten customers in your shop filling a basket, then leaving it in the aisle and walking out. You'd want to know why.

That's roughly what happens online. Baymard Institute puts the average cart abandonment rate at 70.22%, based on 50 studies. But before you start panicking, you won't get all of them back. You were never going to.

First, the ones to let go

Baymard reports that 42% of US online shoppers abandoned a cart in the previous three months because they were just browsing or weren't ready to buy. People use baskets as wish lists, to compare prices or to see the delivery cost. No clever pop-up changes that.

So the aim is to win back those who wanted to buy and were put off. Baymard's data, again from US shoppers and excluding those just browsing, shows what stopped them.

UK shoppers won't match this exactly, but we'd expect the same issues to feature. Look down that list and you'll see something encouraging. Nearly all of them are things you can fix.

The fixes, in order of what's likely to matter

1. No nasty surprises at the end

Extra costs top the list, and the keyword is extra. Shoppers often accept a delivery charge. They don't like finding it on the final screen.

• Show delivery costs early, on the product page or in the basket.
• If you offer free delivery above a certain amount, say so and show how close they are.
• Look at your pricing. Could you build part of the delivery cost into the product price?

2. Be clear about delivery

Often it's not just speed that matters, but knowing when. "Order by 2pm for delivery tomorrow" beats "3–5 working days". It also needs to be true, and that comes down to how well your shop talks to your fulfilment partner.

We've done a lot of this kind of work at Just Creative People. GloCom Global's Shopify store for officially licensed Manchester City fast-charging products uses third-party fulfilment APIs and automatic order imports from ManCity.com. For Rebels with a Cause, a UK and EU eco-products shop, and Sweet Cheeks, a pick 'n' mix brand, we built WooCommerce stores with fulfilment set up from the start. When orders flow from checkout to doorstep automatically, you can make delivery promises and keep them.

3. Look trustworthy

Nearly one in five don't trust the site with their card details. That's a big number, and for a smaller brand, you're starting with less benefit of the doubt than a household name.

• Use payment options that people recognise.
• Show your real contact details and a clear returns policy.
• Display genuine reviews.
• Make sure the design looks cared for all the way to the last step. A shop that looks great until a clunky, off-brand checkout is sending the wrong signal.

4. Let people check out as guests

Don't force an account before someone's bought anything. Offer guest checkout, and invite them to save their details after the order.

5. Shorten the checkout

Test it yourself, on your phone, as if you've never seen it. Count the fields, and remove what you don't need. Use address lookup, and offer digital wallets where they make sense.

6. Fix what's broken

Website errors and crashes cost you real sales. Buy something from your own shop every month, with different devices and payment methods. Try a discount code. Enter a wrong card number to see what happens. These bugs are often discovered only when you go looking for them.

7. Speed things up

A study by Deloitte for Google found that a 0.1-second improvement in mobile speed, across key metrics and every step of the journey, was linked to an 8.4% increase in retail conversions. It's from 2020, it was commissioned by a company with an interest in the subject and it covers larger brands, so don't expect that exact result. But the general lesson holds: don't make people wait.

Then, and only then, send the emails

Abandoned cart emails are worth setting up. Shopify and WooCommerce both offer routes to doing this, and it's usually one of the simplest automations a shop can have. Keep it simple:

• First email, within a few hours: a friendly reminder with a link straight back to the basket.
• Second, about a day later: answer the likely worries, such as delivery, returns and reviews.
• Third, optional: a small incentive, if your margins allow.

Go easy on discounts, as regular customers soon learn to leave things in their basket and wait. And check that your emails meet marketing consent rules before sending them.

Do this after fixing the checkout. Otherwise, you're paying to send people back to the same problem.

Where AI can help

AI can draft and test email variations in your brand voice, write clearer product descriptions and improve product search and recommendations. An assistant can answer last-minute questions about sizes, delivery or returns at the moment someone's hesitating. Each of these still needs a person to check it, and they're no substitute for fixing delivery costs.

Find out where you're losing them

Your own numbers tell you where to start. In your analytics, look at the drop-off at each step: product page to basket, basket to checkout, checkout to purchase. Compare mobile with desktop, as a big difference usually points to a mobile problem.

Then pick the biggest drop, fix one thing and measure it. Do that a few times over, and you'll have won back more sales than any pop-up ever could.