What is cart abandonment rate?

Cart abandonment rate is the share of shoppers who put something in the cart but never complete the purchase. Example: 100 people add a product to the cart, 30 of them buy – 70 abandoned, so the rate is 70%. A high rate usually points to problems in checkout, not just weak ads.

Definition

Cart abandonment rate = (carts started − completed orders) / carts started × 100. Definitions vary slightly depending on whether you count from “add to cart” or from “checkout started”. Pick one definition and stick with it.

Why it matters

More traffic cannot fix a broken checkout. The abandonment rate helps you tell apart “not enough visitors” from “the shop itself loses buyers”. Look at it together with the individual steps of your checkout funnel.

PureMetrix on shops

Track product, cart, checkout and Purchase (server-side WooCommerce or Shopify pixel) so you can see at which step shoppers drop off. Guides: Shopify, reduce cart abandonment, ecommerce.

Common causes

Unexpected shipping costs.
Being forced to create an account.
Slow checkout on mobile.
Preferred payment method missing.

Carts recovered by reminder emails still count as abandoned at first in many definitions. Report recovered revenue separately if that is how your accounting looks at it.

How shops usually define abandonment

Most WooCommerce shops count a cart as abandoned when items sit in it without a completed order for a chosen time (often 30–60 minutes, sometimes a day). Carts recovered by reminder emails still count as abandoned at first in many definitions—your accounting may want recovered revenue shown separately.

What to check before blaming checkout

Compare abandonment by device, shipping country and coupon use. Awkward mobile payment, surprise customs fees and out-of-stock variants push the rate up even when your tracking works fine. Look at abandonment together with AOV so you focus on the carts that are worth the most, not on casual browsers.