Virtual Shopping Cart Abandonment: A Study of Motives and Demographics

Abstract

A potential buyer visits on a web store searches there for the expected product and puts them into a virtual shopping cart, but leaves the virtual cart without buying, this withdrawal behavior (leaving without buying) exhibited by the visitor at the flag end of the sales funnel stage is called as cart abandonment. The consumer takes either full or partial tour of the web site but does not become the actual buyer. It is a term used to describe the instances of incomplete transactions in the online shopping environment. It is interesting to note that similar episode also takes place invariably in the conventional brick and mortar retail setup, due to many reasons including as simple as huge checkout lines, blocking few payment counters. It is simply the result of very limited payment settlement options. Besides, in the online or e-retailing there are number of reasons which might be potentially compelling the site visitor not to buy in the final stage. This paper attempts to understand the impact of such potential reasons for cart abandonment, and it attempts to establish the influence of such reasons in the context specific to buyer and online shopping environment. The product categories selected were those, popularly purchased through online mode, in the typical Indian context.