How To Kick Shopping Cart Abandonment to the Curb

Ecommerce Trends

January 8, 2026

9 minute read

Written By: Doug Bonderud

How To Kick Shopping Cart Abandonment to the Curb

Customer attention is difficult to grab and harder to keep, so it’s no surprise that many brands fall at the final hurdle.

According to Statista, the global online shopping cart abandonment rate is more than 70%.

With less than 30% of carts turning into sales, it begs the question: How can you kick shopping cart abandonment to the curb?

Discover the most common causes, which generations ditch the order most often, and five ways your brand can reduce abandonment rates.

What Makes Shoppers Leave the Cart Behind?

Arriving at checkout with a full shopping cart doesn’t happen by accident.

Marketers have crafted campaigns that attract consumers, ecommerce teams have built product pages that highlight key benefits, and shoppers have taken the time to evaluate your offering against others in the market.

So after all that effort, why do they leave the cart behind so often? Here are six of the top reasons for digital ditching.

1. The Price Is Too High

Price remains the top source of shopping cart abandonment. Salsify’s upcoming “2026 Consumer Research” report found that 46% of shoppers will abandon their cart due to high prices.

While this figure is down 2% from the previous year, increasingly budget-conscious shoppers are keen to search for the best value, especially in such a volatile market.

2. No or Low Customer Ratings, or Negative Reviews

If product detail pages (PDPs) have no product ratings, low product ratings, or negative reviews, 42% of buyers say they’re more likely to abandon carts.

Why? Because they trust other customers more than they trust companies. According to PWC, while 90% of business leaders think that customers highly trust their brands, only 30% of consumers actually do.

Pages without ratings make purchases seem more risky, while those with low ratings or negative reviews suggest that PDP claims don’t live up to reality. In both cases, it’s bad for business.

3. Inconsistent Product Information

Inconsistent information is also a cause of cart abandonment, with 38% of consumers saying it impacts their decision-making. This plays into the trust issue mentioned above; if buyers find mismatched prices or product features across different websites, they’re unlikely to consider your brand reliable.

4. Incomplete or Poorly Written Content

Even when content is consistent, it needs to be complete and well-written. This means double-checking spelling and grammar, ensuring sentences don’t trail off into nothing, and checking all product content — including price, shipping details, dimensions, and features — for accuracy. Ignoring this is a dealbreaker for 34% of consumers.

5. No or Low-Quality Product Images or Videos

According to the upcoming report, 33% of shoppers will go elsewhere if there are no images on PDPs, or if these pages contain low-quality images or videos. Consumers consider these visuals the most important PDP element, so you can’t afford to get this wrong.

6. Out-of-Stock Products

While stockouts aren’t always in your control, 29% of customers will walk away from carts if products aren’t available.

This figure has remained unchanged from last year, and it’s easy to understand why. If buyers reach the last step in the purchasing journey only to be told they’ll have to wait days for a restock, chances are they’ll go elsewhere.

Generation Gap: Who’s Putting the Cart Away?

While issues with price, ratings, and content all impact cart abandonment, brands also need to consider generational preferences.

Of the 46% of shoppers who will abandon a cart if prices are too high, there’s a significant disparity across generations. Boomers top the list, with 58% willing to walk away, followed by 50% of Gen Xers, 39% of millennials, and 38% of Gen Zers.

When it comes to inconsistent information across different websites, meanwhile, the data flips. Only 28% of boomers say this makes a difference in their shopping cart decisions, while 36% of Gen Xers, 43% of millennials, and 45% of Gen Zers won’t stick around.

These findings make sense when you consider that boomers grew up in the age of affordability and want prices to reflect this reality. The rise of online content, meanwhile, is far more recent, making them less likely to compare data across different sites.

Gen Zers and millennials, meanwhile, are chronically online. Digital shorefronts are commonplace, and they’re accustomed to searching multiple sites for the best deals. If they discover that your products have different descriptions and prices on different websites, don’t expect an order.

5 Ways Brands Can Reduce Abandonment Rates

To reduce shopping cart abandonment rates, start with these five strategies.

1. Streamline Your Content Syndication

Content syndication is the practice of republishing your content across third-party websites and social media platforms to boost your reach and impact.

Syndication is only effective, however, if your content remains consistent. This can be challenging in evolving digital markets where changes to product availability, pricing (both up for increased material costs and down for sales), and the introduction of newer models or bundled deals can lead to pages that don’t match up, in turn setting the stage for cart abandonment.

To streamline your content syndication, start by assigning responsibility. Identify a team leader along with staff members who will take on the job of creating consistent content impressions. AI tools can also be used to double-check that key messaging is accurately duplicated, even when content formats or lengths change.

2. Provide Transparent Pricing

While pricing is often beyond your control, you can reduce the risk of cart abandonment by providing transparency. Don’t just show higher prices — instead, offer insight about why prices have increased.

Done well, this can help boost brand trust, which in turn reduces abandonment. Consider that 87% of shoppers will pay more for products from brands they trust, despite price sensitivity.

3. Spend More Time on Your PDPs

Product detail pages are your chance to stand out from the crowd with great content, including compelling images, detailed descriptions, and customer reviews.

These pages are often the final thing shoppers see before checking out. Take the time to verify data, clean up small mistakes, and ensure content reads naturally to avoid common abandonment issues.

4. Always Ask for Feedback

Modern consumers lean brand agnostic and put more stock in quality product experiences, so enticing customers to leave ratings or reviews is a necessary step in attracting new consumers.

Even when it comes to trusted brands, products that have no reviews or poor ratings are a hard sell for shoppers.

It’s always worth following up post-purchase and asking for feedback. If it’s great, publish it ASAP. If it’s not, address the issue directly and then report the results.

5. Shore Up Your Supply Chain

Stockouts can lead to sliding sales. In many cases, shortages happen without warning, leaving companies with little time to react.

Solve this problem by stocking up before expected busy periods, such as during the holidays or when seasons change. In addition, it’s worth adopting a multistream supply chain that provides alternatives if primary suppliers encounter operational or logistical issues.

Crossing the Finish Line

Consumers have more choice than ever when it comes to pricing and product availability, and are much more sensitive to the experiences of other users than the promises of product marketers.

Shopping cart abandonment is common, but using these strategies puts you in a great position to push more of those digital carts across the finish line.

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Tag(s): Ecommerce Trends

Written by: Doug Bonderud

Doug Bonderud (he/him) is an award-winning writer with expertise in ecommerce, customer experience, and the human condition. His ability to create readable, relatable articles is second to none.