Even if you have thoroughly searched for the best payment gateway and are happy with your hosted checkout page, your ecommerce company continues to suffer from high shopping cart abandonment rates. 

It comes as little consolation to learn that this issue plagues retailers of all types and sizes and leads to billions of dollars of potential sales lost in the U.S. each year. 

The silver lining in this dark cloud is that you actually do have a powerful tool at your disposal that can reduce the impact of uncompleted purchases, and it comes in the form of data analytics.

Main causes of shopping cart abandonment

Retail behemoths like Amazon have accustomed consumers to virtually instantaneous delivery, rock-bottom prices and negligible shipping costs. 

These seamless buying experiences make it hard for smaller companies who do not possess the hefty resources and extensive reach necessary to provide these savings and services.

Therefore, it is safe to say that many buyers ditch their carts because of unexpectedly high product costs or shipping rates. Some also run the other way when they see that taxes have been added to their tab.

Another cause for abandonment stems from the nature of online shopping itself. People often multi-task, leaving a few tabs open simultaneously as they idly add items to several baskets. In many instances, these casual consumers have no real plans to complete the purchase.

Nevertheless, there are many shoppers who are very serious about obtaining the products they desire. These individuals diligently troll the internet to find the best price. Once they have found a bargain, they snap it up, often forsaking other shopping carts that may have been active.

When a website is overly complex, the average shopper can become overwhelmed and frustrated. With numerous other sites competing for their business, they will tend to gravitate to one that inspires trust, is clutter-free and is easy to navigate.

Security is another vital factor that either can seal a deal or lead to a permanent defection. 

When checkout is fast and efficient while simultaneously demonstrating an active commitment to data safety, customers will be more likely to consummate their purchase.

How analytics can harness your ecommerce data to reduce cart abandonment

With the power of data measurements such as those found with Google Analytics, you can track and analyze the behaviors of your shoppers. Use this data to get a better handle on why your cart abandonment rates are higher than you would like.

One primary area of concern occurs when shoppers click away from your website without making a purchase. With Google, go to your Google Analytics account, and click on conversions>ecommerce>shopping behavior. 

You will then be presented with a chart showing the percentage of visitors that left your site, including how many abandoned a shopping cart in the process. You can then determine whether most people are leaving due to difficulties at checkout and can even drill down into demographic data to learn exactly what groups of consumers are most affected.

It is important to learn even more about what happened specifically during checkout, and Google Analytics has you covered here as well. Just go to conversions>ecommerce>checkout behavior. 

The data will let you know exactly where shoppers who began the process dropped away before completing it. This information will enable you to make changes in areas such as product pricing, billing or shipping that could reduce these statistics.

Using segmentation to gain more intelligence

Although you now have a better idea of why shoppers left your website before completely checking out and making a purchase, you may still have a number of lingering questions. 

For instance, what device (desktop, tablet, mobile phone) did they use to click on your site; how did they find your site (social media, paid ads, email, etc.); why did they come to your site; and why did they leave prematurely? 

Google Analytics enables you to use segmentation to aid you in solving these mysteries.

Segmentation enables you to separate your customers into smaller, more defined groups. These include those who came to you from organic search, paid search, social media, mobile traffic, tablet and desktop traffic, referrals and site searches. You can also separate people according to the products or product categories that were of interest to them.

Other methods of analyzing data

Of course, Google Analytics is only one platform you can use to drill down into your data in order to reduce shopping cart abandonment. You can also employ A/B testing to examine which elements elicit a positive response from customers and which do not. 

Try tweaking elements such as your calls to action, checkout steps and even various special offers to find out what inspires shoppers to stay longer and ultimately convert browsing into a completed purchase.

Surveys are another great way to get to the bottom of the abandonment conundrum. You can gain valuable insights by employing these email strategies, especially if you incentivize people to respond by offering discounts or other exciting rewards.

Finally, you have probably heard a lot about the potential of artificial intelligence to revolutionize a wide spectrum of business functions. It is becoming a game-changer because of its ability to pick up on patterns and trends in real time that would be invisible to human observers. 

For instance, you could use it to look at your key performance indicators (KPIs), determining technical issues on your checkout page that are leading to dropped payments and cart abandonment.

As a business owner, you work tirelessly to provide your customers with excellent products from a brand they can trust. When potential buyers fail to complete their purchases, both you and they lose out on the chance to forge or continue with a positive, ongoing relationship. 

Fortunately, harnessing the power of data analytics gives you control over a wide swath of information about your customers, enabling you to optimize your website and product offerings to suit client preferences. 

While cart abandonment will never totally disappear from your business landscape, these metrics can reduce its negative impact while boosting customer satisfaction and conversions.