Benchmark for cart abandonment rate
Cart abandonment rate shows the percentage of shoppers who add items to their cart but leave before completing the purchase. It is one of the most useful ecommerce metrics because it highlights where potential revenue is being lost between product interest and checkout completion.
The formula is:
Cart abandonment rate = abandoned carts / created carts x 100
If 1,000 shoppers add items to their cart and 700 leave without buying, the cart abandonment rate is 70%.
What is a good benchmark for cart abandonment rate?
A useful benchmark for cart abandonment rate is around 70%. Baymard Institute calculates the average documented online shopping cart abandonment rate at 70.22%, based on 50 different studies. This makes 70% a practical reference point for ecommerce teams, but it should not be treated as a fixed target for every store.
A cart abandonment rate below 70% may indicate a stronger checkout experience, more qualified traffic, or clearer purchase intent. A rate above 70% may suggest friction in pricing, delivery, payment, checkout design, or trust.
Why the benchmark varies
Cart abandonment benchmarks vary because ecommerce businesses do not all have the same audience, products, devices, traffic sources, or buying journey.
A customer buying groceries may complete the purchase quickly because the need is immediate and familiar. A customer buying luxury goods, furniture, electronics, or travel may take longer to compare options, check delivery terms, or think through the purchase.
Device also matters. Mobile cart abandonment is often higher than desktop because smaller screens, slower load times, form friction, and payment steps can make checkout harder. The benchmark should therefore be viewed by device, industry, and customer type rather than as one universal number.
Main reasons shoppers abandon carts
Some cart abandonment is natural. Many shoppers use carts to compare prices, save items for later, check delivery costs, or explore gift ideas. Baymard reports that 43% of US online shoppers who abandoned a cart did so because they were “just browsing” or not ready to buy.
When those browsing-only cases are set aside, the main reasons are often practical and fixable.
These reasons show why cart abandonment is not only a marketing problem. It is also a checkout, pricing, delivery, trust, and user experience problem.
How to read your own cart abandonment rate
A cart abandonment rate should be compared against the 70% benchmark, but also against your own historical performance.
If your rate is 68%, that may look better than the average. But if it was 58% six months ago, something may have changed in the checkout journey, delivery terms, traffic quality, or product mix.
If your rate is 78%, it may look high. But if you sell high-consideration products, higher abandonment may be expected. The more important question is whether avoidable abandonment can be reduced.
A good review should look at:
Cart abandonment rate by device
Cart abandonment rate by traffic source
Checkout completion rate
Delivery cost visibility
Payment method availability
Checkout errors
Cart value
Returning versus first-time customers
This gives a clearer picture than one average number.
What is a realistic target?
A 0% cart abandonment rate is not realistic. Some shoppers will always browse, compare, leave, or return later.
For many ecommerce teams, the goal should be to reduce avoidable abandonment. That means focusing on the issues that can be improved, such as showing total costs earlier, making delivery information clearer, simplifying forms, offering guest checkout, improving mobile checkout, and making payment options easier to use.
Baymard estimates that large ecommerce sites could improve conversion rates significantly through better checkout design, and points to $260 billion in recoverable orders in the US and EU through checkout improvements.
Using the benchmark in practice
The 70.22% benchmark is useful because it gives ecommerce teams a starting point. But the real value comes from using it to ask better questions.
If your cart abandonment rate is close to 70%, look for the biggest points of friction. If it is much higher, review the checkout experience, mobile performance, payment options, and delivery costs first. If it is much lower, review whether the measurement setup is correct and whether all cart sessions are being captured.
Cart abandonment should be tracked over time, not reviewed once. A small improvement in checkout completion can make a meaningful difference when applied across all cart sessions.
Improving cart abandonment rate
Improving cart abandonment rate usually requires a mix of checkout optimization and follow-up communication.
Useful actions include:
Show shipping, tax, and fees earlier
Allow guest checkout
Keep checkout forms short
Offer relevant payment methods
Make delivery time clear
Show return policy before checkout
Improve mobile checkout design
Send relevant abandoned cart emails
Use automation to stop reminders after purchase
Test timing, subject lines, and cart recovery content
The benchmark helps show whether there is a problem. The customer journey shows where to fix it.
Turning the benchmark into action
The average cart abandonment rate gives ecommerce teams a useful reference point, but it should not become the only goal. A store with a 70% abandonment rate may still have very different problems from another store with the same number.
The best approach is to compare your rate against the benchmark, segment it by device and customer type, and then review the checkout journey itself. Most improvements come from reducing friction, building trust, and making it easier for customers to complete the purchase they already started.
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