Cart Abandonment Rate by Industry
Whether it’s bounce rates, add-to-cart rates, or any other metric, average conversion rates of ecommerce brands vary from industry to industry. This means that knowing what targets to set for your business will depend on the sector you’re in. Here’s a look at what cart abandonment rate refers to in ecommerce, how to calculate this key metric, and a breakdown of the different cart abandonment rates by industry.
What is cart abandonment rate?
The cart abandonment rate is a metric used in ecommerce to measure the percentage of online shoppers who add items to their shopping cart but leave the website without completing the purchase.
How to calculate cart abandonment rate?
The cart abandonment rate is calculated by dividing the number of abandoned carts by the total number of shopping carts created and then multiplying by 100 to get a percentage.
Here’s an example. If 100 customers add items to their shopping carts, but only 30 complete the purchase, leaving the number of customers abandoning their carts at 70, the cart abandonment rate is calculated as such:
Cart abandonment rate = (70/100) x 100 = 70%
Why is the cart abandonment rate important?
This metric is crucial for ecommerce businesses as it helps identify potential issues in the purchasing process that might be causing customers to leave without buying. Understanding and reducing cart abandonment rates can lead to higher conversion rates and increased revenue.
Average cart abandonment rate
This then raises the question: What is the average cart abandonment rate?
Recent data studying cart abandonment rate by industry shows that, as of April 2024, the average cart abandonment rate across all industries is 72.97%.
However, using this figure to establish a benchmark can be unreliable because, as we’ll explore in a bit, online shoppers behave differently from product to product, depending on the sector. In other words, to effectively measure whether your online store’s cart abandonment rate is below or above average, you need to benchmark it against the specific average cart abandonment rate for your industry.
Cart abandonment rate by industry
|
Industry |
Cart abandonment rate |
|---|---|
|
1. Luxury & jewelry |
79.04% |
|
2. Home & furniture |
78.80% |
|
3. Fashion, accessories, and apparel |
76.03% |
|
4. Beauty & personal care |
72.80% |
|
5. Multi-brand retail |
68.79% |
|
6. Consumer goods |
64.89% |
|
7. Food & beverage |
57.41% |
|
8. Pet care & veterinary services |
55.87% |
As of April 2024, topping the list ranking cart abandonment rate by industry is the luxury and jewelry sector. At 79.04%, this means that just under four out of every five people arriving at an online store selling products related to luxury and jewelry leave the site without purchasing anything after having added items to their shopping carts.
This is one of the lowest cart abandonment rates the luxury and jewelry sector has seen over the past 12 months. Its lowest rate came in December 2023, at 74.29%. Meanwhile, its highest was in September 2023, at 83.25%.
According to the list analyzing cart abandonment rate by industry, the home and furniture sector follows in second place, with a rate of 78.8%—just 0.24 percentage points behind luxury and jewelry.
This is followed by the fashion, accessories, and apparel industry, with 76.03%, and the beauty and personal care industry, with 72.8%. In other words, around three out of every four shoppers arriving at online stores in these two industries do not complete their checkouts after adding items to their baskets.
Fifth on this list analyzing cart abandonment rate by industry is multi-brand retail, with 68.79%. Consumer goods follows, with a cart abandonment rate of 64.89%. This sector has experienced fluctuations in its cart abandonment rate over the past year. Its lowest rate of cart abandonment, registered in January 2024, was 54.42%. Just a month later, in February, it surged to 64.11%—a 9.69 percentage point difference.
According to this list studying cart abandonment rates by industry, the sectors with the lowest (and best) rates are food and beverage and pet care and veterinary services. 57.41% and 55.87% of all shoppers on these online stores abandon their carts, respectively. This is also the lowest cart abandonment rate the pet care and veterinary services industry has registered in at least 12 months.