70.19% – average documented online shopping cart abandonment rate
Based on the data we collected, we’ve calculated the average cart abandonment rate of 70.19%. This value is an average calculated based on 49 different studies containing statistics on e-commerce shopping cart abandonment.
79.53% SalesCycle 2023�(retrieved July 11, 2023)
68.70% Fresh Relevance�2022�(retrieved August 16, 2022)
79.30% Kibo Commerce�2021�(retrieved August 16, 2022)
59.22% Fresh Relevance�2021�(retrieved November 19, 2021)
81.08% SalesCycle�2021�(retrieved November 19, 2021)
57.60% Freshrelevance�2020�(retrieved December 21, 2020)
84.27% SaleCycle�2020�(retrieved December 21, 2020)
77.13% Barilliance�2019�(retrieved December 21, 2020)
56.82% Fresh Relevance�2018�(retrieved March 28, 2019)
75.60% SaleCycle�2018�(retrieved June 20, 2018)
81.40% AbandonAid�2017�(retrieved June 20, 2018)
76.90% SaleCycle�2017�(retrieved June 20, 2018)
78.00% Listrak�2016�(retrieved January 9, 2017)
75.50% Adobe�2016�(retrieved January 9, 2017)
68.80% Barilliance�2016�(retrieved January 9, 2017)
74.52% SaleCycle�2016�(retrieved September 21, 2016)
71.39% Barilliance�2015�(retrieved January 14, 2016)
68.95% IBM�2015�(retrieved December 7, 2015)
75.00% Listrak�2015�(retrieved May 8, 2015)
75.60% SaleCycle�2015�(retrieved May 8, 2015)
68.38% IBM�2014�(retrieved December 2, 2014)
72.00% Listrak�2014�(retrieved September 26, 2014)
69.20% Vibetrace�2013�(retrieved March 25, 2014)
62.30% Fireclick�2014�(retrieved March 12, 2014)
74.00% Barilliance�2013�(retrieved March 12, 2014)
67.41% IBM / Coremetrics�2013�(retrieved December 6, 2013)
78.00% AbandonAid�2013�(retrieved December 6, 2013)
60.32% Triggered Messaging�2013�(retrieved July 28, 2013)
75.00% Listrak�2013�(retrieved July 3, 2013)
67.00% Comscore�2012�(retrieved July 3, 2013)
74.23% SaleCycle�2013�(retrieved April 26, 2013)
80.30% Rejoiner�2012�(retrieved February 14, 2013)
61.85% IBM / Coremetrics�2012�(retrieved December 20, 2012)
74.76% Fireclick / DigitalRiver�2012�(retrieved November 2, 2012)
76.00% Listrak�2012�(retrieved July 17, 2012)
72.31% Fireclick / DigitalRiver�2011�(retrieved February 25, 2012)
62.31% IBM / Coremetrics�2011�(retrieved February 25, 2012)
72.00% SeeWhy�2011�(retrieved February 25, 2012)
71.00% SeeWhy�2010�(retrieved February 25, 2012)
55.00% Forrester Research�2010�(retrieved February 25, 2012)
63.68% IBM / Coremetrics 2010 (retrieved February 25, 2012)
69.38% Fireclick / DigitalRiver 2010 (retrieved February 25, 2012)
62.14% MarketLive 2009 (retrieved February 25, 2012)
71.00% Forrester Research 2009 (retrieved February 25, 2012)
63.19% IBM / Coremetrics 2009 (retrieved February 25, 2012)
68.00% SeeWhy 2009 (retrieved February 25, 2012)
62.01% IBM / Coremetrics 2008 (retrieved February 25, 2012)
61.36% IBM / Coremetrics 2007 (retrieved February 25, 2012)
59.80% MarketingSherpa 2006 (retrieved February 25, 2012)
Average: 70.19% abandonment rate
Last updated: July 11, 2023
We created this list because we needed some abandonment statistics ourselves for our E-Commerce Checkout Usability study and articles.
When searching for these statistics we found a myriad of articles citing the same sources, as well as large fluctuations in the actual abandonment rates. So to save you and ourselves that hassle we decided to gather all statistics in a single place.
We’ve also calculated an average so it’s easy to cite just one number instead of 49 different ones.
Know of any cart abandonment statistics not on this list? Then send an email to support@baymard.com.
Now in all fairness to the e-commerce industry, a large portion of cart abandonments are simply a natural consequence of how users browse e-commerce sites – many users will be doing window shopping, price comparison, saving items for later, exploring gift options, etc. These are largely unavoidable cart and checkout abandonments.
In fact, our latest quantitative study of reasons for abandonment found that 48% of US online shoppers have abandoned a cart within the last 3 months because “I was just browsing / not ready to buy”. Most of these will abandon even before they initiate the checkout flow. However, if we segment out this “just browsing” segment, and instead look at the remaining reasons for abandonments we get the following distribution:
Reasons for Abandonments During Cart & Checkout (2024 data):
Unlike the “just browsing” segment, a lot of these issues can be resolved. In fact, many of them can be fixed purely through design changes. Let’s take a look at just 1 of 140 examples in our new checkout research study:
In other words, over 1 out of 5 shoppers have abandoned a cart in the last quarter due to a “too long / complicated checkout process”, yet for most checkouts it’s possible to make a 20-60% reduction in the number of form elements shown to users during the default checkout flow. And again, this is just 1 of the 140 documented causes for checkout usability issues.
If we focus only on checkout usability issues which we – during the past 10 years of large-scale checkout testing at Baymard Institute – have documented to be solvable, the average large-sized e-commerce site can gain a 35.26% increase in conversion rate though better checkout design. And that is despite testing the checkout flows of large e-commerce sites in the US and EU, such as Walmart, Amazon, Wayfair, Crate & Barrel, ASOS, etc.
If we look at the combined e-commerce sales of $738 billion in the US and EU, the potential for a 35.26% increase in conversion rate translates to $260 billion worth of lost orders which are recoverable solely through a better checkout flow & design.
Now, achieving such gains won’t come easy. But even when we audit leading Fortune 500 companies, who’ve already run a couple of checkout optimization projects, we find that major gains are still possible. And the potential is big: our benchmark of the checkout flows of 60 leading e-commerce sites show the average site has 39 potential areas for checkout improvements.
Learn more about our full checkout research findings.