Cart Abandonment Rate

What is cart abandonment rate?

Cart abandonment rate is the share of shopping carts where a shopper added items but did not complete the purchase. It is calculated as 1 − (completed purchases / carts created) and expressed as a percentage. Across ecommerce the documented average sits around 70% according to Baymard Institute’s aggregated research, so a high rate is normal – it is the trend and the underlying causes you need to watch.

Why does cart abandonment rate matter?

The cart is the last step before payment, so every abandoned cart is a shopper who was close to buying. Tracking the rate lets you quantify how much revenue leaks in the handoff from cart to checkout, and test concrete fixes against it. Together with your conversion rate, it shows whether the problem lies in traffic quality or in the purchase flow itself. The most common causes are unexpected extra costs (shipping, fees, tax) shown late in the flow, forced account creation, and a long or complicated checkout.

Common use cases

• Measuring checkout changes. Compare the rate before and after adding express payment or removing unnecessary fields.
• Prioritizing shipping and fees. Show delivery and fee costs early to reduce drop-off at the payment step.
• Triggering recovery. Use the rate to justify exit-intent popups and recovery emails.
• Segmenting by device. Mobile carts are typically abandoned more often than desktop – split the rate to find the weakest point.

Shopify perspective

Shopify distinguishes between “abandoned carts” and “abandoned checkouts”. The native recovery tools only kick in once a shopper reaches checkout and enters contact details – you find these under Orders > Abandoned checkouts in the admin. From there you can automate recovery emails via Shopify Email or Shopify Flow. True cart abandonment (before checkout) usually requires a third-party app to track and follow up on.