What a good point! Avinash Kaushik recently posted in his blog, Occam's Razor, about the importance and the possible impact of abandonment rates.

Think about this: have you ever seen somebody load up their cart with groceries at the supermarket, wheel up to the checkout lane, wait in line, make it up to the cashier... and just walk away? Just leave their cart full of groceries sitting there in the checkout lane and walk out the door?

I sure haven't! But that is almost exactly what happens with online shopping cart abandonment. In the online world it is a little more complicated, but putting an item in a shopping cart still indicates a serious interest in purchasing that item.

Kaushik points out that "depending on the cost of items you sell on your website each percent point of abandonment could represent tens of thousands to millions of dollars per month in revenue."

And it's true!

When people abandon their shopping cart that is money left on the table. That makes optimizing your checkout procedure (or lead capture process, download process, or any other online process) for reduced abandonment an immensely rewarding practice!

The Free Google Analytics Webinar we host has an entire section dedicated to tips on how to reduce shopping cart abandonment (We call it the 'Pure Profit' section, because that's what you'll earn more of when you reduce your abandonment rates). If you are interested in receiving some tips in addition to those Kaushik outlines in his article, stop on by and sign up for our free webinar today!