Cart Abandonment Rate
Cart abandonment rate is the share of started checkouts that are never completed, calculated as one minus the number of finished purchases divided by the number of carts created over the same period, so a higher figure means more lost intent at the final step.
Across ecommerce the rate typically runs high, often around 65 to 80 percent, which sounds alarming until you remember that many shoppers add to cart to save items, compare prices, or check shipping. Because of that, the metric measures hesitation as much as failure, and the goal is to recover the orders that stalled for a fixable reason rather than to chase zero.
The common causes are well understood: unexpected shipping costs revealed late, forced account creation, a long or confusing form, missing payment methods, and simple doubt about whether the product or the store can be trusted. Each one is a separate fix, so it helps to read your checkout analytics step by step rather than treating the rate as a single number.
Trust signals reduce the doubt-driven share: visible reviews on the product page, clear return and shipping terms, a trust badge near the pay button, and security marks at the point of payment. These do not address pricing or friction, so pair them with honest shipping estimates shown early and a checkout that does not punish guests.