Retailers Neglect Abandoned Shopping Carts

Genesys has revealed that only 15% of retailers follow up an abandoned online shopping cart – within 24 hours – with an email or phone call.

While only 5% followed up again in the subsequent 24 hours.

The study was commissioned by Genesys in the UK to understand how engaged online retailers are in assisting their potential customers.

During the study, around £140 of goods were put into the online shopping carts of 75 of the top UK retailers, but were subsequently abandoned before the check-out.

Further findings include:

• None proactively engaged with the customer during the online shopping session, despite customers being active on the website for the entire time before the abandonment.
• Just 7% of the companies had chat as an available option – and none of them used this option during the process.

“We were shocked at the number of retailers that didn’t follow up on the abandoned shopping carts, despite the customer being online the entire time as well as providing their contact details,” said Brendan Dykes, Director of Strategic Marketing at Genesys. “This wouldn’t happen in bricks and mortar stores, where assistants would be only too keen to follow up or cross-sell and up-sell. Retailers should not just follow up afterwards by email or phone, but should also look to make simple additions to the online customer experience such as adding webchat – this can make a real difference to the customer, and help them find what they want.”

For more information about Genesys, visit their website.