Cart abandonment is a common phenomenon in e-commerce, where shoppers add products to their cart but do not complete the purchase.

The abandonment rate is one of the main metrics monitored by marketing and eCommerce managers, as it is a KPI that allows evaluating the effectiveness of a store's checkout process.

Analyzing and understanding the reasons behind abandonment can help businesses implement effective strategies that increase conversions and improve customer satisfaction.

What is cart abandonment?

Cart abandonment occurs when a user adds products to their digital cart but leaves the eCommerce site before completing the payment process, resulting not only in lost revenue but also reducing the chances of acquiring new customers and building brand loyalty.

According to the Baymard Institute, based on 49 studies, the average cart abandonment rate is around 70%. This means that only 3 out of 10 customers who start an online purchase complete it.

Let's look at the most common causes of cart abandonment and the importance of optimizing the checkout process to reduce abandonment rates and increase conversions.

Impact of cart abandonment: revenue loss

Cart abandonment has a direct and measurable impact on the revenues of e-commerce businesses.

The Baymard Institute estimates that if eCommerce sites optimized their checkout processes with more user-friendly designs, they could achieve a 35.26% increase in conversion rates, representing an opportunity to recover approximately $260 billion in lost sales in the U.S. and EU over the past decade.

Moreover, this impact is not limited to immediate revenue loss. Each abandonment represents a potential disruption in the customer-brand relationship, which can reduce long-term loyalty and increase the costs of acquiring new customers.

In an increasingly competitive digital market, where Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) has become a key metric, minimizing the cart abandonment rate is essential for building strong relationships and ensuring a stable future revenue stream.

It is essential to monitor this KPI to identify areas for improvement in the purchase process. Let's delve into the possible causes of cart abandonment to understand what can be optimized.

Causes of cart abandonment

Several factors can lead users to abandon their cart before completing the purchase. Here are some of the most common causes:

• Unexpected costs such as shipping fees, taxes, or handling charges that were not communicated at the beginning of the purchase.

• A complicated or lengthy checkout process with many steps or requirements, which can frustrate the customer and lead to abandonment.

• Mandatory account creation before making a purchase, increasing friction and potentially leading to lost sales.

• Unclear return policies or out-of-stock items.

• Insufficient or non-adapted payment options for the customer.

• Credit card rejection due to payment processing issues, interrupting the payment experience and affecting the conversion rate.

It is necessary to identify the specific causes of abandonment at each stage of the purchase process and optimize the areas that need improvement.

Let's analyze how to address the causes directly related to the payment process: optimizing the checkout process, offering sufficient payment methods, and minimizing card rejections.

Optimize the checkout process

According to Baymard, the ideal checkout process should have between two and three steps, and the information requested should be as simple as possible. However, certain mandatory data, such as shipping address or account creation, often need to be requested from the customer.

Since some steps are unavoidable, it is important to optimize the payment step as much as possible, as a smooth experience at this point greatly improves the overall checkout process.

Here are our recommendations:

• Simplify the payment process to a single step. Otherwise, if the customer has to go through multiple screens to pay, there is a higher chance of abandonment.

• Clearly and orderly display all payment methods according to usage frequency.

• Maintain visual consistency between the payment screen and the rest of the online store. This reinforces customer trust.

• If possible, integrate card payments using an iframe within the eCommerce site to avoid redirecting to an external bank page, improving user experience.

Offer enough payment options

One of the main issues during checkout is offering too few payment methods. A recent study by DHL titled Why online shoppers really abandon their carts revealed that 17% of shoppers abandon their cart when the store doesn’t offer their preferred payment method.

To fix this, it's important to offer familiar and commonly used payment options in each country or region.

For example, in Spain, besides card payments, popular options include Bizum, financing solutions like SeQura, Pepper or Klarna, and PayPal.

In Germany, customers often use Sofort, Giropay, or SEPA Direct Debit.

In Brazil, Pix is widely adopted.

Lastly, digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay simplify the process by allowing users to pay without retrieving their physical card. Since the card is already saved on their phone, the process feels faster and more secure — increasing trust and conversions.

Reduce card declines

Card payments are the most widely used online payment method in Spain — close to 51% according to Statista. This means that errors during card processing can have a big impact on your conversion rate.

These declines may result from many issues: insufficient funds, issuer bank rejection, 3DS failure, expired card, processor downtime, and more.

To reduce these, it’s useful to implement a payment orchestration solution that routes card transactions through different processors automatically.

If your eCommerce is connected to several virtual terminals (POS), you can predefine which one should process each card — depending on the type, country, or issuer — without the customer noticing any change.

For example, if your store has low acceptance for French cards via one processor, you can automatically reroute them to another with better acceptance for that market.

You can also configure fallbacks, which are backup rules that automatically retry the payment through another processor if the first attempt fails. This can recover up to 17% of declined transactions.

How does Zru help you increase conversions?

To optimize your checkout, you need a partner that offers both powerful and easy-to-use solutions.

The goal is to increase your conversion rate by improving the customer experience — with transparency and security throughout the entire payment flow.

To support this, Zru offers:

1. Multiple payment methods

Zru acts as a payment aggregator, allowing you to manage all the methods your customers need from a single dashboard:

• Card processors and PSPs like Redsys, Cecabank, Stripe, Adyen, Braintree, dLocal, and more.

• Alternative methods such as PayPal, Google Pay, Apple Pay, Bizum, etc.

• Financing providers like SeQura, Pepper, Klarna, Sofort, etc.

• Payment initiation payment methods like Transferencia Online by Inespay, GoCardless, and others.

Adding new methods is simple, so you can experiment and adapt to what works best for your audience, your region, and your business.

2. Payment screens tailored to your eCommerce

It’s important that your checkout screen reflects your store’s branding. With Zru, you can apply your own colors and visuals to create a coherent experience.

You can also process card payments directly on your site via iframe — no need to redirect to a bank page — which makes the process smoother. The checkout pages are fully responsive and adapt to mobile, tablet, or desktop.

You can even create different versions of the checkout screen depending on the type of customer or purchase. For instance, show a financing option only when the cart value is above €50.

3. Payment orchestration

If you want to route card payments through different processors — whether to reduce failures or take advantage of better rates — Zru offers orchestration directly from your dashboard.

It only takes a few clicks to configure and everything runs in the background. The customer won’t see anything different.

When they enter their card details, the orchestration logic runs automatically, ensuring a smoother experience and helping you reduce cart abandonment and increase conversions.

If you want to explore how to optimize your payment process, we can help. Get in touch with our sales team for expert support.