Excessive Shipping Costs – Top Reason for Shopping Cart Abandonment

I love Guinness.

However, ever since an Irish friend has recommended me to try Beamish, I’ve been asking about it in every grocery (and liquor) store around. Unfortunately, to no avail…

Finally, I’ve decided to look for it online. Luckily, I was able to find an online store — located within just 50 miles from me — that carried it. “Wow! How terrific!” I thought.

I added a four-pack to my shopping cart, and proceeded to checkout. Having reached the “Enter Zip for estimated shipping” field, I’ve entered mine, and oh my… Here’s what I’ve seen:

Did you know that 7 to 9 out of 10 online shopping carts get abandoned? Yes, between 70% and 88% of online customers leave the shopping cart without completing their purchase! And guess what the main reason is…

Per Forrester, the top reason for online shopping cart abandonment is excessive shipping costs with 44% of consumers dropping out under the shock of that “shipping and handling” field [more here]. ComScore echos these findings, revealing that as much as 55% of online customers abandon their shopping carts when shipping costs made “the total purchase cost more than expected” [more here]. My above case exemplifies it better than anything. Four pints of beer that cost $10 shouldn’t cost 246% of their price to ship — especially when I am only one-hour drive away from the store’s physical location.

If you run an online store, re-think your approach today. Whenever possible, offer free shipping (over a certain amount, of course) to (a) encourage greater spending, and (b) take the “shipping cost” stress out of the equation.