Definition
Abandonment is the discontinuance of a marketed product. It is also called product deletion or product elimination.
Abandonment may occur at any time from shortly after launch (a new product failure) to many years later.
This term is also used to describe when customers shop online, but fail to complete a purchase. [1]
Abandonment rate is a term associated with the use of virtual shopping carts. Although shoppers in brick-and-mortar stores rarely abandon their carts, abandonment of virtual shopping carts is quite common. Marketers can count how many of the shopping carts used in a specified time period result in completed sales versus how many are abandoned. This helps marketers understand website user behavior. [1]
The shopping cart abandonment rate is the ratio of the number of abandoned shopping carts to the number of initiated transactions. [1]
E-commerce shopping cart abandonment rates are tracked regularly by the Baymard Institute. [2]
Construction
As an example, an online comics retailer found that of the 25,000 customers who loaded items into their electronic baskets, only 5,000 actually purchased:
- Purchases not completed = Purchases initiated less purchases completed = 25,000 – 5,000 = 20,000.
- Abandonment rate = Not completed / Customer initiation = 20,000 / 25,000 = 80% abandonment rate.
References
- ^ American Marketing Association, AMA Dictionary.
- ^ Baymard Institute, 27 Cart Abandonment Rate Statistics.