What Is Cart Abandonment Rate? Formula, Causes, and What to Measure Instead

Short answer: cart abandonment rate is one minus the ratio of completed orders to carts created. If 1,000 shoppers add something to a cart and 280 buy, the rate is 72%. Most carts are abandoned in every store, because many shoppers use the cart to compare, save, or check the total. The useful work is separating that normal behavior from abandonment caused by a problem you can fix.

Table of Contents

1. The Formula
2. Cart and Checkout Abandonment
3. Why a High Rate Is Normal
4. Fixable Causes
5. What to Measure Instead
6. Key Takeaways

The Formula

Cart abandonment rate = (1 − completed purchases ÷ carts created) × 100

Decide whether you count by session or by shopper. A shopper who adds to cart on Monday and buys on Wednesday is an abandonment by session and a purchase by shopper. Session-based figures are always higher.

Cart and Checkout Abandonment

Checkout abandonment is the more actionable figure. Someone who began entering an address intended to buy.

Why a High Rate Is Normal

Published surveys of shoppers commonly put average cart abandonment at around seven in ten. Your own number depends on your category, price, and traffic. Many abandoned carts were never going to be orders:

• Using the cart as a wishlist.
• Adding to see the shipping cost or total.
• Comparing with another store.
• Saving for payday or a sale.
• Shopping on a phone, intending to buy on a laptop.

No checkout redesign converts these. Treating the headline rate as a problem to be driven to zero leads to pressure tactics that damage trust.

Fixable Causes

What to Measure Instead

A single abandonment rate does not say what to do. Break it into steps.

1. Build a funnel: add to cart → cart viewed → checkout started → address → payment → order (funnels).
2. Split by device. A step that is fine on desktop and poor on mobile is a usability fault (mobile checkout).
3. Split by payment method at the last step.
4. Find the largest drop.
5. Watch sessions that stopped there (using recordings).

deepsync("track", "checkout_started", { value: 2499, currency: "INR" });
deepsync("track", "payment_failed", { method: "upi" });

Then separate what you see into two groups:

• Behavior that looks like a choice. The shopper views the cart calmly and leaves. Nothing went wrong. A reminder email may help; a redesign will not.
• Behavior that looks like a struggle. Errors, repeated taps, re-typed fields, going back and forth. This is the fixable part.

Recovery emails and messages bring back some of the first group. They should follow, not replace, fixing the second.

Also track absolute orders and revenue per visitor. Abandonment rate can rise while orders rise, for example when a campaign brings many casual browsers who add to cart (rates and traffic mix).

Key Takeaways

• Cart abandonment is one minus orders over carts.
• A high rate is normal; much of it is browsing.
• Checkout and payment abandonment are the actionable figures.
• Measure by step, device, and payment method, then watch the sessions.

Conclusion

Do not try to rescue every cart. Find the shoppers who wanted to buy and were stopped, and remove what stopped them.

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