Isn’t it so very frustrating when, after all your efforts, your customer shops at your site only to abandon the shopping cart? You can prevent this from happening. All you have to do is to be ready to make changes. The rest is easy – read on.
1. Send First Reminder
First, display a message when shopper abandons the cart. Follow up with a polite email within 24 hours, displaying shopping cart contents along with aneasy-click CTA. This makes it easy for shoppers to complete their purchase.
2. Send Second Reminder
Three days later, send another message with the shopping cart details. This time, include a discount or incentive. Also suggest cross sell and upsell products. If you include the discount in the first message, it might distract from the main CTA.
3. Send Final Reminder
Wait another day or two and let the shopper know that your offer and shopping cart contents will expire soon. Shoppers spend time to load their carts and such a warning might jolt them into action soon. Be sure to check your conversions after each message.
4. Test Your Message
Test and optimize your abandon cart message. Does the message perform better at a particular hour of the day? Should you wait a few hours or send the reminder message right away? Does it work better with a discount? How should you tone the message?
5. Find Out Why
Analyze your pricing against your competition’s pricing. Write to the shopper for feedback and offer a freebie as reward. Collect feedback from your regular customers – do they have any frustrations or issues with your store? What’s the overall satisfaction level?
6. Do Internal Shopping
Get your internal teams to shop on your site and obtain feedback. Is the checkout process too long? Do the pages load quickly enough? Are forms too long and are they friendly? Do everything the shopper has to do and you’ll gain invaluable insights.
7. Explore Other Sites
You need to know how your shopping process compares to the best out there. So go ahead and shop on some top stores in your niche. Note and compare every little detail with your own store and make a list of the changes you need to make.
8. Cart Visibility
No one likes having to backtrack and navigate just to locate their cart again. Make it possible for customers to access their cart from any page. Place a shopping cart icon at the top right corner which displays item count and the total amount, so that shoppers don’t have to visit the cart often.
9. Payment Options
Check your competition’s payment options and modify your own. You may have to integrate other payment channels. Allow multiple credit cards, e-wallets, rewards cards from major store chains. Consider check payments and cash-on-delivery too.
10. Special Offers
Highlight special offers such as coupon code items, inventory clearance and sale items. Another thing – when a shopper searches for a product, a similar item on sale should be displayed as well, as enticement.
11. Surprise Charges
Avoid surprise charges during checkout. Provide a calculator with a message about sales tax percentages, so that shoppers can calculate their own sales tax. This way, it won’t be a surprise factor and your cart won’t be abandoned.
12. Slim The Process
A lengthy checkout process is the cause for 10% of all abandonments. Customers don’t want to be barraged with questions, more forms and unnecessary products while shopping. If it’s necessary to provide additional options, at least offer an Express Checkout option for quick shopping.
13. Registration
You want them to register so you can track them with the data, but people are not happy to register everywhere. Just let the shopper complete the purchase. Display a message saying they can register now or later.
14. Images
Product imagery makes a huge impact – so leverage this. Provide multiple image views and image zooming. Ensure images are in rich color and crystal clear. Let shoppers view products in multiple colors and styles as well.
15. Shipping
If free shipping is not viable, at least offer free shipping when a certain amount is reached. Write out your shipping policy and link it to your shopping cart. Place a shipping message at the top of the shopping cart so your shopper knows if it’s free or restricted.
Last modified: June 25, 2025