Cart abandonment rate tells you what percentage of shoppers add products to their cart but then leave your site without buying. If someone loads up their cart and bounces, that's an abandoned cart. A high abandonment rate signals there's something wrong with your checkout experience.
Here's a real scenario: you run an online store. 100 people add items to their cart, but only 30 actually complete the purchase. That means 70 people abandoned their carts — giving you a 70% cart abandonment rate. That's a massive leak in your sales funnel and represents serious lost revenue.
Understanding why this happens is critical. Common culprits include slow website speed, complicated payment processes, unexpected shipping charges, or requiring too much personal information. Sometimes people are just window shopping with no immediate intent to buy. According to Baymard Institute, the average cart abandonment rate across industries is around 70%, so reducing yours even slightly can have a huge impact on revenue.