People shop online, but they don’t buy   |  November 17, 2008  

Well, some do. The rest abandon their shopping carts

By Peter Wolchak

A recent survey from online payment processor PayPal concludes that one third of shoppers who go so far as to place goods into an online shopping cart simply change their minds before making the actual payment. A further 50 per cent don’t buy because they only used the payment process to learn about shipping costs and delivery dates, and were not really committed to the purchase.

While there is some good news for online retailers in the report—for example, about a third of those customers return to the site later to make the purchase, and almost 10 per cent will truck out to the retailer’s store to buy the item—this rate of shopping cart abandonment is worrisome for merchants.


So PayPal next asked which factors stopped customers from spending their money. Reasons cited as most important include:

> shipping charges were too high	43%
> total cost was more than expected	36%
> didn’t want to wait for delivery	11%
> did not wish to register or create an account	10%
> forgot username or password for the site	14%
> concerns about online payment security	16%
> preferred payment option was not available	22%
> could not contact customer support	16%
> too many steps were required	8%

Not surprisingly, then, the survey respondents have the following advice for online retailers who want to actually sell more product:
1) lower the shipping fees or offer free shipping
2) offer better prices or discounts
3) show the associated costs (like shipping) before checkout
4) ensure it is clear when items are not in stock

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