Chatbots: The Key to Stopping Shopping Cart Abandonment

Ready for a scary figure? According to a report by the Baymard Institute, shopping carts are abandoned at a rate of 69.57%! This means that nearly 70% of the time, online shoppers will add items to their cart, then exit the site before completing the transaction. Yikes!

Why Do People Abandon Shopping Carts?

Thinking of your own online shopping experiences, you can probably recall a few times you added items to your shopping cart, but didn’t ultimately make it to checkout. It’s something we’re all guilty of at some point, and there are a number of reasons the trend is so prevalent.

Fortunately, many of the issues can be solved by chatbots.

Not Ready to Buy

Many people use shopping carts more like shopping lists. According to the Baymard Institute report, 58.6% of shoppers admitted to abandoning shopping carts because they simply weren’t ready to make a purchase at that time.

Chatbots seal the deal by offering promo codes and discounts, recommending products that there might be a more immediate need for, and eliminating friction points in the purchase. Creating a sense of urgency with time-sensitive promotions is often all that’s needed to move people to checkout.

Complicated Checkout Process

21% of shoppers will abandon their carts if the checkout process is too long or complicated. They may be unclear about account status (have they signed up before, or do they need to create a new account?), return policies, shipping information, etc. Without having easy access to these answers, prospective buyers will simply move on to the next merchant.

Conversational AI chatbots answer questions as they arise, and even beforehand. They look up account information, provide shipping timelines and expected fees, and whatever else the buyer needs to know. Their aim is to make the buying process as simple as possible and eliminate unhappy surprises.

Payment Problems

Imagine selecting the products you want, creating a new username and password, filling out your billing and shipping information, and finally hitting the “Buy” button, only to find out your method of payment isn’t accepted. Frustrating, right? For the best chances of success, merchants should accept as many payment options as possible to keep shoppers moving toward the finish line.

While e-commerce chatbots can’t provide additional payment options, they can let users know which ones are accepted ahead of time. And if a payment type isn’t accepted or a card is declined, they can also suggest alternative payment methods.

How Chatbots Stop Shopping Cart Abandonment

An e-commerce chatbot is available 24/7 to answer common questions and guide users through the checkout process. Conversational chatbots provide an intuitive, mobile-friendly experience that makes it easier for shoppers to find exactly what they’re looking for and smoothly move to checkout. If there are any hiccups along the way, the chatbot can provide directions to get things back on track quickly.

And if carts have been abandoned during past online shopping trips, the chatbot can provide a gentle nudge. Automated chatbot abandoned cart reminders have 80% open rates, as opposed to 25% open rates for abandoned cart email reminders. If you want to boost sales and keep people moving to checkout, adding an e-commerce chatbot to the site is a no-brainer.

Ready to get started with conversational AI? See how a chatbot fits in your digital strategy.