UK retailers lost £39.4bn during lockdown due to surge in abandoned baskets

May 6, 2021

UK retailers have lost out on over £39.4bn in potential sales in the past 12 month, after the value of online abandoned baskets more than doubles since 2018.

This revelation comes from Barclaycard Payments’ new research. Another finding of the report is that high delivery costs added at the last minute are responsible for 37% of abandoned purchases. Cyber window shopping accounted for 26% of abandoned baskets, while lengthy payment authentication processes were responsible for 24% of ditched baskets.

The report claims that 71% of retailers that know their online abandonment rate have improved their analytics software to better understand customer behaviour in a bid to reduce the drop outs.

There is a rising need for companies to improve their online operations, with Barclaycard stating 50% of its transactions come through e-commerce channels, up from 40% at the start of the pandemic.

In the report, Barclaycard states data analytics software should be used more effectively by retailers, with 69% able to identify the average abandonment rate on their website.

Through these better understandings, 49% of retailers have leveraged the data to reduce steps to checkout. Similarly, 48% now send automated emails to remind customers of abandoned items.

Marc Pettican, President of Barclaycard Payments, said, “To help convert sales, retailers can look to leverage a single, unified payments provider to reduce friction at the point of sale, while also offering shoppers a variety of ways to pay.

“With the SCA deadline on the horizon, easy-to-integrate technology, such as Barclaycard’s Transact product which works with existing payment gateways to reduce the number of steps at the checkout, is one way to help combat basket abandonment – and increase shopper satisfaction at the same time.”

The most commonly-abandoned items were homewares, with 34% of dropouts involving these items. Other popular items in ditched baskets are suits and dresses (31%), gadgets (29%), party outfits (23%) and holiday wardrobes (23%).