7 out of 10 shopping carts are abandoned globally and most of them are done due to added hidden charges during the final checkout. While cart abandonments can hit revenues severely, understanding the causes and working on them strategically can help you recover 10% of it.
In this blog, we’ll take a closer look at why so many shoppers abandon their carts, what items get left behind the most, and what businesses can do about it.
Let’s dive into the statistics and insights behind cart abandonments
Average shopping cart abandonment rate
70.19% of all online shopping carts are abandoned by shoppers in 2024. That’s a slight 0.28% increase from the previous year but a huge 3.11% increase from the past decade.
2012 was the peak of shopping cart abandonment rates when nearly 72% of all shopping carts were abandoned. The next two years saw a decline in the rate, reaching 68.07% in 2014. Shopping cart abandonment rates have been increasing steadily since

Majority of shoppers cite additional shipping costs and taxes added during checkout as their main reason to abandon shopping carts. Let’s discuss this further in the section below.
Top reasons for abandoning online shopping carts

48% of shopping carts are abandoned due to excess shipping fees and taxes added during final checkout. The second most common reason to abandon carts is mandatory account creation (26%).
Something as simple as providing free shipping may reduce the cart abandonment rate by multiple folds. More on it in the next section. Before that, take a look at the 10 biggest cart abandonment reasons voted by online shoppers.
Reason to Abandon Online Shopping Cart | Share of people |
Additional charges at final checkout (shipping, tax) | 48% |
Mandatory account creation before checkout | 26% |
Lack of trust on the site with credit card information | 25% |
Slow delivery speed | 23% |
Long or complicated checkout process | 22% |
I couldn’t see / calculate total order cost up-front | 21% |
Unsatisfactory returns policy | 18% |
Website crashed during checkout | 17% |
Not enough payment methods | 13% |
The credit card was declined | 9% |
Average shopping cart abandonment rate by industry

As of June 2024, the luxury and jewelry industry has the highest shopping cart abandonment rate with 81.68%. The Home and furniture industry follows on the second spot with a cart abandonment rate of 78.65%.
Here is a table showing the shopping cart abandonment rate across industries:
Industry | Shopping Cart Abandonment Rate |
Luxury and Jewelry | 81.68% |
Home and Furniture | 78.65% |
Fashion, accessories and Apparel | 76.48% |
beauty and Personal Care | 72.04% |
Multi Brand Retail | 68.07% |
Consumer Goods | 65.41% |
Food and Beverage | 58.23% |
Pet care and Veterinary services | 53.19% |
The longer customers take to make a decision, the more likely they are to abandon their cart.
Sectors with higher price points and longer purchase processes, such as home furnishings (78.65%) and jewelry (81.68%), tend to see the highest average cart abandonment rates. Telecommunications (79.16%) also fall into the higher end of this range, according to SaleCycle.
On the other hand, categories like groceries (50.03%) and pharmaceuticals (57.31%) are regularly restocked and experience lower cart abandonment rates compared to other industries.
Cart abandonment rate by region
The Asia Pacific region has the highest cart abandonment rate among all regions with 80.91%. Europe, the Middle East and African regions have a cart abandonment rate of 73.02%. American people are the least likely to abandon their carts with an average cart abandonment rate of 71.81%.
Cart abandonment rate by devices
People abandon their shopping carts the most when shopping from mobile phones but least when on tablets. 75.5% shopping carts get abandoned on mobile phones, that is 5.31% higher than the global average.
People are least likely to abandon their carts when shopping from tablets with 68.55%.

People abandon 69.04% of their shopping carts when on Desktops.
Device | Abandon Cart Rate |
Mobile Phones | 75.50% |
Desktops | 69.04% |
Tablets | 68.55% |
Ecommerce stores lose $18 billion in sales revenue annually because of cart abandonment
eCommerce businesses lose a potential revenue of $18 billion due to abandoned carts in a year. That is roughly equal to 0.3% of the total eCommerce revenue. The projected value of merchandise that gets abandoned in online carts every year is around $4 trillion.

Abandon cart emails can help recover 10% of the lost revenue
Businesses can recover about 10% of the lost revenue by sending abandoned cart emails. Statistics show that 45% of all cart abandonment emails are opened, 21% of all cart abandonment emails are clicked through after opening and 50% of those clicks lead to a recovered purchase back on-site.
5.08 steps is the average length of a checkout process across eCommerce sites
Long checkouts lead to 22% abandoned carts, Even the figure 5.08 is way too much. You should ideally have 3 steps to avoid making your customers feel like they are filling forms instead of shopping.
Guest checkouts are a great way to reduce cart abandonments. But if you need customer data, ask only for the most essential information. One more rule is to not ask for any information twice!
Shoppers coming from social media abandon their carts the most
When people visit online stores from social media, they often leave their shopping carts without buying anything 91% of the time. This is probably because social media users are usually just browsing and learning about products, not yet ready to make a purchase.
On the other hand, when people come from search engines, only 76% of them abandon their carts. Direct visitors—those who type a website’s address directly into their browser—leave carts 79% of the time. Emails do slightly better, with an abandonment rate of 84%.
18% of shoppers abandon their cart due to an unsatisfactory return policy
18 percent of shoppers abandon their carts due to dissatisfaction with the return policy. These highlight a key pattern, so when customers move toward checkout, their expectations must be met, or they’ll abandon their purchase.
This holds true for factors like shipping costs, delivery time, and, notably, the return policy. Customers expect a hassle-free return process to feel confident in their purchase, ensuring that their money is protected if they’re not satisfied.
Shopping cart abandonment rate demographics
The age group most likely to leave items in their online shopping carts without purchasing is 25-34 years old, with a 21% abandonment rate. They are followed closely by the 35-44 age group at 20% and the 45-54 age group at 13%.
The top three categories of items that are abandoned most frequently are clothing, with 40% left in carts, followed by tech products at 18% and homeware at 16%.

Practices to reduce Abandoned carts
The best way to reduce abandoned shopping carts is to look at the abandonment data and give your customers what they want.
Free Shipping: If we go by the above data, we understand that 48% of shoppers abandon their shopping carts due to high shipping costs. The very remedy for this issue can be free shipping.
If your business cannot provide free shipping on all items, you can always set a minimum buying value to qualify for free shipping. Statistics show that 80% of customers are willing to meet the minimum purchase threshold for free shipping.
- Be upfront with your prices: Make sure to tell customers about any extra costs like shipping, handling, and taxes before they check out. It’s best to show this info on the product page. Since these costs can change based on where the customer lives, update the price right after they enter their address.
If you can’t give an exact shipping cost, give a range before they pay. This way, customers won’t be surprised by charges they didn’t expect.
- A guest checkout can go a long way: Let the customers skip creating an account if they want. This makes buying things quicker because it removes extra steps. A mandatory account creation to checkout is cited as the second most common reason to abandon carts.
With guest checkout, Shoppers don’t have to save their credit card info, and their email will only be used to update them on deliveries.
Although you will miss out on some customer data, the sales will go up! That’s the small price you have to pay for conversions.
Here are a few more things you can do to reduce abandoned shopping cart rate:
- Put an exit pop up with an offer in place so whenever a user is exiting your checkout page, give them a discount that they can’t resist.
- Give users more payment options, including BNPL!
- Allow shoppers to move items from cart to wishlist, instead of directly deleting them.
- Have a well framed return policy, preferably with a free return option. Customers feel safe buying anything when there’s a free return shipping.