Global cart abandonment has increased 1.3% but why?

Chart of the day: Global cart abandonment rates have increased 1.3% (up on the previous quarter) to 76.9%.

The latest installment of The Remarketing Report (Q2 2017) by SaleCycle has found that in this quarter the average conversion rate is 3.29%.

Cart abandonment has increased, more people than ever are abandoning their purchases online - the question is, why?

Firstly, it's a modest increase of 1.3%, but there is unlikely to be a single major factor and more a combination of things at work.

Marketers may not be taking full advantage of retargeting, cart abandonment emails and other methods used to bring customers back and encourage purchase completion?

Most likely, marketers are not taking full advantage of the opportunities out there. Perhaps platforms which provide these services are more complicated than expected, expensive, or marketing managers may not have the skills within their teams to set up and manage these activities.

In previous research conducted by Smart Insights and Technology for Marketing (TFM), it was found that 37% of respondents rated themselves as skilled or highly skilled in Email Marketing and Marketing Automation and 33% saw these as skills they wanted to improve on. 77% also believe a planned approach was best to help improve their digital marketing. Perhaps a lack of digital planning and strategy means cart abandonment methods are not being integrated into marketing activities.

Marketers may not be taking advantage of

The figure above shows cart abandonment by industry. Travel and finance are usually high, travel being high due to the financial commitment usually involved and a number of research customers usually do before purchasing. Non-profit is also high due to the level of commitment sometimes needed, especially with monthly direct debits for donations.

• Source: The Remarketing Report by SaleCycle 
• Sample: Average cart abandonment rates from 500 leading brands.
• Recommended resource: Ad Retargeting Guide