79% of European consumers abandon online purchases

Almost 8 out of 10 consumers in Europe abandoned their online shopping cart at least once within the last six months. Within the last month, the percentage is still 39 percent. And almost a third of people never returned to complete the purchase, new research shows.

The research was done by B2C Europe, which wrote a mini-guide about lost sales online. The full service provider of fulfilment, distribution and return solutions interviewed more than 2,400 people from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Italy and Switzerland.

‘Shoppers find it easy to abandon their shopping cart’
It explains how consumers are now more than ever presented with a myriad of opportunities to buy goods online. “It’s because of this level of accessibility that shoppers find it easy to abandon and go elsewhere to purchase their items”, managing director Stuart Rivett says.

B2C Europe’s research has found that 79% of consumers abandoned their online purchase at least once within a six months period. “Not only that, every month, 39 percent of consumers abandon their shopping basket at least once and almost a third of people never returned to complete the purchase.”

Tips to decrease the abandonment rate
In order to decline this abandonment rate, online retailers should remove any delivery/returns related obstacles and make the buying process as transparent as possible, right from the beginning. Because B2C Europe’s research found that 43 percent of consumers leave their online shopping basket for logistical reasons such as delivery time or flexibility. And 40 percent leave their intended purchase because the costs of delivery was too high.

Transparency and flexibility
Rivett suggests online retailers display the delivery costs as early as possible during the shopping process. “This way they are no unwanted surprises for the customer at checkout.” Another thing retailers should really put some effort in, according to B2C Europe, is flexible delivery options. “With the rise of click-and-collect, express and track and trace among others, consumers expect to be given a number of different delivery options when they find themselves at the checkout. It is important to provide shoppers with as many of these solutions as possible, or they may go elsewhere”, Rivett warns.

Clear and easy returns solution
Another reason for online shoppers to leave their cart was a lack of information about returns. “Customers want to know that if their purchase isn’t right they can easily return it and get their money back. Having a clear returns policy will instill confidence for the consumer and they will be more likely to follow through with a purchase”, the managing director says. But it’s not only important to explain what consumers can do whenever they want to return an item, retailers should also enable customers to print returns labels or to drop off items at a local collection point.