The customer browsed your e-shop, added the product to the cart, clicked Continue - and disappeared. No purchase, no explanation, no return.
You are not alone. On average, up to 70 percent of customers who add a product to their cart don't complete the purchase. For most e-commerce stores, that means they lose more sales than they actually make. The good news is that most abandoned carts have specific causes - and they can be fixed.
Here are the seven most common reasons why customers leave before completing their purchase, and what you can do about it.
1. Compulsory registration before purchase
This is one of the most common and easiest to fix problems. A customer wants to buy one product - and you ask them to create an account, confirm their email and set a password. For many people, this is not a motivation, but a barrier. They simply walk away.
How to fix it: In WooCommerce, enable the option to purchase without registration. You can find it in WooCommerce → Settings → Accounts & Privacy → check „Allow customers to shop without an account“. You can offer registration as an option after the purchase is complete - when the customer has already paid and is satisfied, the willingness to register is much higher.
2. Unexpected shipping costs
A customer sees a product for €25, adds it to the cart, gets to the checkout and finds out that shipping costs €4.50. Suddenly the total is €29.50 - and that's an amount he hadn't counted on. Result: he leaves the basket.
Transparency in transport prices is key. Customers don't refuse to pay for shipping - they refuse unexpected surprises at the last step.
How to fix it: View the approximate shipping price directly on the product page or in the shopping cart before checkout. In WooCommerce, there is a built-in shipping calculator for this in the cart - turn it on in WooCommerce → Settings → Shipping. If you offer free shipping from a certain amount, communicate this visibly - for example, a bar in the cart „You're still €8 short of free shipping“ significantly increases the average order value.
3. Lengthy or complicated checkout
Every extra box at the checkout is another opportunity for the customer to walk away. If you're asking for information you don't need - such as a fax, a second line of address required, or a company ID from each customer - you're unnecessarily prolonging the process.
A simple principle applies: the fewer steps and fields, the higher the conversion rate.
How to fix it: Reduce the checkout to the minimum required fields. Hide the optional fields or mark them clearly. Consider using a one-step checkout instead of a multi-step checkout. If you have business customers who need to fill in an ID number and company details, a plugin like Swiftyper will help, as it will automatically fill in these details according to the ID number - the customer just enters the number and the rest will fill itself in.
4. Lack of trust and safety signals
A customer who doesn't know you needs to know they can trust you. If your e-shop doesn't have visible reviews, safety certificates, or clear information about returns, doubts increase right at the checkout - when they have to enter payment details.
How to fix it: Add visible credibility elements to the checkout page: an SSL certificate (browser lock), payment method logos, a brief mention of a 30-day money-back guarantee, and a link to customer reviews. Just one line of text below the order button - „Purchase is secure. 30-day money back guarantee.“ - and customer confidence will soar.
5. Limited payment options
The customer wants to pay by transfer with a QR code, you only offer a payment card. Or vice versa. Every customer has a preferred payment method, and if they can't find it, the likelihood of cart abandonment goes up dramatically.
On the Slovak market, the most important are: payment by card (via Stripe or GoPay), bank transfer with QR code PayBySquare, and payment on delivery for customers who still do not fully trust e-shops.
How to fix it: Make sure you offer at least these three options. QR payment in PayBySquare format is added to WooCommerce for free using the MakeMeHappy QR Code plugin - the customer receives the QR code directly on the order confirmation page and pays by scanning it in the banking app without manually entering the details.
6. Slow loading of the checkout page
Every second you wait for a page to load increases the likelihood that a customer will leave. At the checkout, this is doubly true - the customer is in decision mode and any delay breaks their resolve to complete the purchase.
Studies repeatedly show that a page that loads one second slower has a noticeably lower conversion rate. This is even more pronounced on mobile devices.
How to fix it: Check the speed of your e-shop with Google PageSpeed Insights. The most common causes of slow loading are unoptimized images, too many active plugins and slow hosting. For WooCommerce e-shops, we recommend hosting with PHP 8.x, a caching plugin (e.g. LiteSpeed Cache or W3 Total Cache), and images in WebP format. If you have a large product catalog and slow searches, consider the FastSearch SQLite plugin, which will make product searches significantly faster.
7. Customer is not yet ready to buy
This is a reason that you can't completely eliminate - but you can work with it. Some customers will add a product to their cart simply because they want to remember it, compare prices, or are still deciding. It's not a technical problem, it's a buying behavior.
How to fix it: Implementing email remarketing on abandoned carts is a standard solution - WooCommerce has this feature built-in or available via plugins. The customer will receive an automated email reminding them what they left in their cart, or possibly with a small discount as an incentive to complete the purchase. Timing is key - an email sent an hour after cart abandonment works significantly better than an email sent after 24 hours. Another option is retargeting via Google Ads or Meta Ads, where you show the customer an ad with the exact product they were viewing.
Where to start?
If you want an immediate effect, start with these three changes - they can be implemented today and don't require any technical expertise:
Enable purchase without registration. Add a prominent mention of the money-back guarantee at checkout. Make sure you display the shipping price before checkout.
Each of these changes individually can reduce cart abandonment rates by several percent. Together, they provide a foundation on which you can continue to build.
An abandoned cart is not a lost sale - it's a customer who was interested. Your e-commerce store's job is to remove anything that's preventing him from finishing what he started.