Consumers always seem to be in an on-again, off-again relationship with their online shopping carts. One minute consumers are piling all of their desires into a cart, and the next they’re abandoning it without any rhyme or reason—only to come back with the expectation that things will be just as they left them.
But this isn’t to say that consumers don’t have any love for their shopping carts. According to a survey conducted by Bronto Software and Magento, 55% of frequent shoppers, consumers who shop online daily or weekly, always use the shopping cart summary to make their final purchase decisions. Likewise, 40% of infrequent shoppers, consumers who shop online less than once a month, say they occasionally do the same. Some consumers also use the shopping cart to find now, buy later. Sixty-five percent of occasional shoppers, consumers who shop online every few weeks or at least monthly, and 52% of frequent shoppers say they occasionally use the shopping cart to save items to buy later, the survey finds. However, 42% of infrequent shoppers say they never do this. Additionally, 76% of infrequent shoppers say they never use the shopping cart to store items to view on a different device, as compared to 60% and 38% of occasional and frequent shoppers, respectively.
And communication seems to be a major problem for this dysfunctional relationship—shoppers can’t seem to agree on how they feel about being communicated with or notified. According to the survey, 59% of frequent shoppers and 51% of occasional shoppers agree that notifications about items in a shopping cart are helpful; however, 37% of infrequent shoppers say that these notifications are just annoying.
Perhaps one of the reasons why consumers are so split on their notification sentiments is because they don’t expect them. The survey cites that 53% of shoppers don’t expect to receive a reminder email after they abandon a shopping cart. Interestingly, out of the 46% who do expect to receive a reminder email, few expect it to include a promotion; only 8% expect to receive a reminder email offering free shipping and just 13% expect to receive a reminder email containing a coupon or discount code.
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