Australia’s online cart abandonment ‘highest worldwide’

Internet Retailing

21st Jul 2016

Australian online stores had the highest cart abandonment rate globally last quarter, according to a report by SaleCycle.

Taken from a consolidation of statistics from more than 500 global retail, travel and fashion brands, the report reveals key cart abandonment and remarketing statistics from April, May and June 2016.

SaleCycle’s Remarketing Report for Q2 reveals an average abandonment rate for Australian online retailers at 76.4 per cent, higher even than the APAC average of 76 per cent, which stands out as the worst performing region globally for the second quarter in a row.

Australian online fashion stores performed particularly poorly and they lost the most consumers at the point of purchase, with a cart abandonment rate of 73.5 per cent in Q2 compared to just 69.8 per cent in APAC and just 68.8 per cent globally.

“Australia has the highest retail abandonment rate globally, and it performs particularly badly in the fashion sector compared to its international competitors. Considering all the blood, sweat and money retailers spend driving traffic to their sites, to have them disappear without purchasing in these high numbers is worrying,” said Chris Brinkworth, chief revenue officer for APAC, SaleCycle.

“Of particular concern is that our Remarketing Report for Q2 shows an upward trend in retail cart abandonment in Australia and Asia Pacific since the last quarter. There is a very long way to go to match the low abandonment rates of mature markets like Europe and North America, which have widely adopted remarketing tools that give them the ability to communicate quickly and efficiently with visitors who abandon online.”