Why we ditch items from our online baskets

Online shoppers abandon more than £100 worth of goods in baskets every month on average, a survey has found.

Significant delivery costs, the desire to “window shop” rather than make a purchase and lengthy authentication processes were key drivers of payment dropouts, Barclaycard Payments said.

Getting distracted by other online shopping and forgetting what baskets contain were other key reasons.

Perhaps with work to finish before the end of the day, people were most likely to abandon a purchase at 4pm.

Typically, people have just under seven items in their basket when shopping online, the survey found.

Homeware, smart clothing, gadgets, party outfits and holiday wardrobes were among the items frequently ditched over the past year, with online shoppers leaving £105.60 of goods on average behind each month.

Fashion shoppers were the most fickle, with seven in 10 abandoning purchases.

People shopping for white goods were the most focused, with just 6% building “fantasy baskets” without making a purchase.

Laptops were frequently abandoned items, the research also found.

Marc Pettican, president of Barclaycard Payments, said that as e-commerce has boomed during the pandemic “so too has the number of purchases abandoned at the checkout”.

He added: “An increase in choice, slow checkout processes, and websites which are difficult to navigate have all contributed to shoppers deserting items at the last minute.

“A lot of this is down to frustrations when faced with various checkout hurdles, such as cumbersome payment authentication processes which can require a number of steps to complete.

“Retailers can alleviate this by making their payment processes as stress-free as possible, which will help combat basket abandonment, boost sales and increase shopper satisfaction at the same time.”