Why do shoppers abandon shopping cart? Perceived waiting time, risk, and transaction inconvenience
| Pages | 188-197 |
| Published date | 29 May 2009 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/10610420910957816 |
| Date | 29 May 2009 |
| Author | Rajasree K. Rajamma,Audhesh K. Paswan,Muhammad M. Hossain |
| Subject Matter | Marketing |
Why do shoppers abandon shopping cart?
Perceived waiting time, risk, and transaction
inconvenience
Rajasree K. Rajamma
Department of Marketing, Charles F. Dolan School of Business, Fairfield University, Fairfield, Connecticut, USA
Audhesh K. Paswan
Department of Marketing and Logistics, College of Business Administration, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, USA, and
Muhammad M. Hossain
Department of ITDS, College of Business Administration, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, USA
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this study is to explore the factors leading to the consumer’s propensity to abandon the shopping cart at the transaction
completion stage.
Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected using a self-administered survey distributed through the internet. The sample consisted of
consumers who shopped online at least once during the preceding one-year period.
Findings – The results indicate that perceived transaction inconvenience is the major predictor of shopping cart abandonment. The other predictors are
perceived risk and perceived waiting time. Positiverelationship was found between perceived transaction inconvenience, perceived risk and propensity
to abandon the shopping cart. It was also found that propensity to abandon the shopping cart is negatively associated with the perception of waiting
time.
Practical implications – The paper provides transaction completion stage specific guidance to the managers operating in an online environment to
prevent shopping cart abandonment at the transaction completion stage. Specifically, the findings suggest that marketers must pay attention to the
perception of risk and transaction inconvenience; otherwise they risk losing consumers during the final stage of transaction.
Originality/value – The paper examines the unexplored area of consumer behavior at the final stages of transaction culmination and, hence, is an
initial step toward filling that gap.
Keywords Internet shopping, Electronic commerce, Consumer behaviour
Paper type Research paper
An executive summary for managers and executive
readers can be found at the end of this article.
Marketers spend enormous amount of time, effort, energy,
and resources to market and sell their products and services to
their consumers. They engage in activities such as
segmentation, targeting, positioning, and use the four Ps to
ensure that the consumers select their product and service
from a shelf full of competing products. Once the consumer
selects a product and puts it in his/her shopping cart, he/she
takes it to the checkout point. However, in some cases, for
various reasons (e.g. long lines, cumbersome and tedious
checkout process, etc.) consumers may abandon the cart. All
the time, effort, energy, and resources spent till then goes to
waste. While marketing literature is replete with investigations
focusing on virtually every aspect of consumer and shopping
behavior, little academic research focus has been directed
toward understanding why consumers abandon a shopping
cart towards the end, after they have selected the product.
This is the impetus for our investigation and we hope that our
findings would help fill this crucial knowledge gap.
This phenomenon is especially pertinent in the context of
e-commerce. Studies estimate that approxi mately 60-75
percent of the shopping carts are abandoned before
purchase is made (Goldwyn, 2002; Eisenberg, 2003; Oliver
and Shor, 2003; Gold, 2007). In addition, trade data suggests
that each incidence of shopping cart abandonment represents
approximately $175 in lost sales to the online retailer
(Mullins, 2000). The total online retailing industry loss,
thus, would amount to more than $6.5 billion per year
(McGlaughlin, 2001). Thus, online shopping behavior
provides an ideal context for this investigation. It is
important for managers (e.g. product, marketing, and
retailing) operating in an online environment as well as
researchers to understand the factors leading to shopping cart
abandonment by consumers, so that they can avoid future
financial losses as well as customer erosion.
Shopping cart abandonment as examined in this paper
comes right after the consumer has decided to purchase the
products, but before the purchase is completed. A lack of
understanding regarding this stage in the existing literature
points to the need for this research. Several studies have
focused on the antecedents to the decision whether to shop
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1061-0421.htm
Journal of Product & Brand Management
18/3 (2009) 188–197
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited [ISSN 1061-0421]
[DOI 10.1108/10610420910957816]
188
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