Definition
Cart abandonment rate is the share of shoppers who added at least one item to a cart and did not place an order in the same period. It is calculated as one minus orders divided by carts created, expressed as a percentage. On most stores the figure is high by nature, because adding to a cart is often a way of saving an item for later rather than a decision to buy.
Formula
Cart abandonment rate = (1 - Orders ÷ Carts created) × 100
- Carts created
- Sessions in which at least one add to cart happened, counted once per session so a shopper filling a basket is not counted several times
- Orders
- Completed orders from those same sessions in the same period, which is why long consideration cycles push the rate up even on healthy stores
A month of carts, followed to the receipt
- Sessions with an add to cart
- 4,800
- Sessions that opened the checkout
- 1,920
- Orders placed
- 1,010
- Cart abandonment rate
- (1 - 1,010 ÷ 4,800) × 100 = 79 percent
- Shoppers lost between cart and checkout
- 2,880
- Shoppers lost inside checkout
- 910
Illustrative figures. Three quarters of the loss in this example happens before the checkout ever opens, which means the cart page, the shipping estimate and the delivery promise are where the work is, not the payment step.
Why it matters
Cart abandonment rate matters less as a headline number and more as the top of a two-part diagnosis. The gap between carts and opened checkouts is a different problem from the gap between opened checkouts and paid orders, and splitting them tells a store which one to fix. The first gap is usually about cost and certainty: shipping revealed late, a delivery date that does not suit, taxes or duties appearing at the end, or a cart that gives no reason to continue. The second is usually mechanical. The rate is also what makes recovery email and SMS worth building, since every abandoned cart is a shopper who identified a product and left a trail to follow.
Where it goes wrong
- Comparing the figure with a published average, when the number is decided by category, price band and how many people use the cart as a wish list rather than by the quality of the store
- Measuring in one period only: a considered purchase researched over ten days shows as abandonment in a weekly view and as a completed order in a monthly one
- Counting bot and scraper carts, which inflate the denominator on stores with open product pages and no filtering on the analytics side
- Fixing the checkout when the loss is at the cart: the split between the two stages is checked first, or the work lands on the step that was already performing
- Reading recovery email revenue as fully incremental: a share of those shoppers would have come back on their own, so the flow is judged against a holdout rather than against its own reported total
Questions about cart abandonment rate
What is the difference between cart abandonment and checkout abandonment?
Cart abandonment starts counting when an item enters the cart. Checkout abandonment starts counting only when the shopper opens the checkout and begins entering details. The second group is much closer to buying, so its drop-off points at concrete obstacles like a rejected payment method or an unexpected shipping charge, while the first includes a great deal of ordinary browsing.
How many abandoned cart emails should a store send?
Enough to cover the two reasons people leave, which are distraction and hesitation, without becoming noise. A short series spaced over a couple of days, with the first message soon after the visit and the last one carrying the strongest reason to return, is the common shape. Test the timing on your own list rather than copying an interval, and suppress anyone who has since ordered.
Can cart abandonment rate be lowered without discounting?
Yes, and discounting is usually the last option because it trains shoppers to abandon deliberately. Showing shipping cost and delivery date on the product page, keeping the cart visible with a clear next step, offering the payment methods your customers actually use and removing surprises at the final step all reduce the drop without touching price.