Abandoned cart
An abandoned cart is a visit where the visitor reached the checkout step—they added a product to their cart or opened an order form and started filling it—then left without sending the order. It measures the gap between interest and action, and reveals a flaw in price, shipping, or the form itself.
Also calledDeserted cartCart abandonmentIncomplete ordersStarted but not submitted
The formula
Abandoned cart rate = ((Carts created − Orders sent) ÷ Carts created) × 100
- Carts created: visits that actually started checkout, by adding a product or starting to fill an order form.
- Orders sent: orders that completed and reached your store dashboard.
- The gap is the count of abandoned carts—the number you can try to recover some of.
Worked example
A week on a landing page in Egypt
- 1Visits that started the order form: 800.
- 2Orders actually sent: 240.
- 3Abandoned carts: 800 − 240 = 560.
- 4Abandonment rate: 560 ÷ 800 = 0.70 → 70%.
- 5Average order value: 950 EGP.
- 6Illustrative assumption, no guarantee of result—if you recovered 5% of abandoned: 560 × 0.05 = 28 orders → 28 × 950 = 26,600 EGP.
Takeaway: The important number isn't the abandonment rate itself, but the count of recoverable abandoned carts: 560 people who partly filled their data and are closer to buying than any new visitor.
What it means in practice
First thing to check is the form itself. Every extra field costs you some submissions, especially on mobile. For COD a name, phone, city, and address are enough. Email, notes, and number confirmation fields lengthen the path without adding anything to delivery.
Second reason is price shock. A visitor reads a price in the ad then finds shipping fees or a different price in the form and leaves at once. Write the final price including shipping, or state shipping fees clearly on the page before the visitor starts typing.
Save the phone number as soon as it's entered, if your system allows, and turn the abandoned cart into a possible call. A store that doesn't log incomplete attempts throws away its closest-to-buying slice and replaces it with new visits that cost more to advertise.
Common mistakes
- Measuring abandonment rate across all page visitors instead of those who actually started checkout, giving a scary number that means nothing.
- Treating every abandoned cart as a lost sale when some visitors were just browsing with no buying intent in the first place.
- Answering the problem with an instant discount instead of fixing the cause: a long form, surprise shipping fees, or a slow page on mobile.
- Following up abandoned carts with repeated, annoying messages and burning out a customer who was close to finishing.
Questions and answers
What's the difference between an abandoned cart and an unconfirmed order?
An abandoned cart never reached your store dashboard because the visitor left before submitting the form. An unconfirmed order arrived complete but the buyer didn't approve in the call. The first is a page and form problem, the second is an ad and confirmation-call problem.
How do I lower abandonment rate in practice?
Trim the form to name, phone, city, and address. State final price and shipping fees before the form, speed up the page on mobile, and make the submit button visible without long scrolling. Every friction point you remove lifts order submissions from the same visits.
Should I follow up abandoned carts by phone or message?
In COD markets, text or WhatsApp reaches faster than email, and calls have higher response but cost more time. Start with one short message reminding them of the product and final price, and save calls for carts with higher value.
Does a high abandonment rate mean my page is bad?
Not necessarily. Broad-targeting ad traffic brings many curious visitors who raise the rate with no page flaw. Split the rate by traffic source: if it's high from one source only, the problem is targeting, not the page.