What is cart abandonment? Rate, causes and fixes
Cart abandonment is when a shopper adds items to their online cart but leaves without completing the purchase. The cart abandonment rate is the share of carts created that never become orders.
How the rate is calculated
Cart abandonment rate = (1 − completed orders ÷ carts created) × 100.
Hypothetical example: 1,000 shoppers add something to their cart in a week and 300 of them buy. The abandonment rate is (1 − 300 ÷ 1,000) × 100 = 70%.
In Google Analytics 4 the inputs usually come from the recommended ecommerce events add_to_cart, begin_checkout and purchase. Measuring from begin_checkout instead of add_to_cart gives a separate, usually lower, checkout abandonment rate, so state which one you report.
How common it is
Baymard Institute averages 50 published studies to a documented cart abandonment rate of 70.22% (page updated in 2025). In other words, roughly seven in ten carts are not completed.
Much of that is unavoidable: in Baymard's survey of US online shoppers, 42% had abandoned a cart because they were "just browsing" or not ready to buy. Excluding that group, the most cited reasons were:
- Extra costs too high (shipping, tax, fees): 40%
- Delivery was too slow: 20%
- Didn't trust the site with card information: 19%
- The site wanted me to create an account: 18%
- Too long or complicated checkout: 17%
- Website errors or crashes: 17%
How stores reduce it
- Show the full cost, including shipping and taxes, before checkout.
- Offer guest checkout and keep the form short.
- Display trust signals and familiar payment methods.
- Send reminder emails to shoppers who left a cart, where they have agreed to receive them.
Baymard estimates that the average large ecommerce site could gain a 35.26% increase in conversion rate through better checkout design alone, which is why the checkout is usually the first part of the funnel to examine. Lower abandonment feeds straight into your conversion rate.
CIQRA sends automatic reminder emails for abandoned carts.