A painful statistic: 7 out of 10 customers abandon their cart before paying

You’ve put work into your site, invested in acquisition, and optimized your funnel… yet, at the moment of payment, your customers vanish.
This isn’t an isolated case: according to the Baymard Institute, the average cart abandonment rate reaches 70.19% (average across 49 studies). Simply put: only 3 out of 10 visitors actually complete their purchase.

If you apply this to your sales, just imagine: for every €100,000 in potential orders, nearly €70,000 slips away. And in many cases, these losses are preventable.

Why do your customers leave at the last minute?

Studies are unanimous: the reasons are rarely due to chance.
Here are the main causes, along with their impact on abandonment:

1. A checkout process that is too long or complex
   
   • 22% of consumers leave when faced with a process that is too cumbersome.
   • The Average checkout on an e-commerce site involves 11.3 fields to fill out, even though most sites could get by with a total of 8 fields to simplify the experience.
2. Unexpected costs
   
   • 47% of abandonments occur when the buyer discovers shipping fees, taxes, or extra charges late in the process.
   • Immediate effect: frustration and loss of trust.
3. Mandatory account creation
   
   • 26% of users abandon their purchase if they are forced to create an account to pay.
   • Yet, guest checkout remains a simple and effective solution.
4. Lack of relevant payment methods
   
   • 13% of customers abandon their cart if there are not enough payment methods available.
   • The absence of methods adapted to the target market (digital wallets, installment payments, instant transfers, etc.) can drive buyers away. For example: a German customer who cannot find Sofort, or a French customer who does not see PayPal.
5. Security concerns
   
   • 25% of customers abandon their carts due to a lack of trust in the site's security.
   • An unconvincing design, missing trust badges, or no SSL indicators… and the transaction is abandoned.

The business impact: an avoidable drain

These friction points are more than just minor inconveniences: they take a heavy toll on your revenue.
Baymard estimates that checkout optimization could improve conversion by 35% on average.

💡 Example :

• A site with 10,000 orders per month and an average order value of €80 generates €800,000.
• By reducing abandonment and recovering even just 35% of those lost sales, you could generate 3,500 additional orders every month, which is €280,000 in additional revenue. Annually, this equates to over €3.3 million in extra revenue without increasing your acquisition spend.

How Purse eliminates friction and boosts your conversions

At Purse, we believe that every step of the checkout process should be a conversion accelerator, not a barrier.
Here is how we do it:

1. Journey personalization
   
   • Dynamic display of the most relevant payment methods based on country, profile, or device.
   • Tailored messaging to overcome barriers (early display of fees, BNPL options, targeted promotions).
2. Smart orchestration
   
   • Connection to multiple PSPs and payment methods, with automatic routing to the best option based on customer profile, cart, and context.
   • Reduction of payment failures through redundancy and smart failover. Did you know that nearly 9% of transactions are declined due to technical errors? The orchestrator redirects the payment to another PSP in the event of a decline to maximize your success rate.
3. Continuous optimization
   
   • Analyze transactional data to detect friction points and make real-time adjustments.
   • A/B testing on forms and user journeys to maximize conversion.
4. Enhanced security
   
   1. Seamless 3D Secure integration (including outsourced and agnostic 3DS) to ensure security without compromising the user experience.
   2. Highlighting trust indicators to reassure your customers.

Conclusion

The numbers are clear: cart abandonment is not inevitable.
By reducing unnecessary steps, offering the right payment methods, and implementing smart security, you can turn your checkout page into a growth engine.

🔍 Want to see how Purse can optimize your e-commerce site's performance?
👉 Contact us for a free demo and discover your hidden potential.

Sources

• Baymard Institute – Cart Abandonment Rate Statistics 2025 – 2025 – baymard.com
• Shopify – Cart abandonment statistics – October 23, 2024 – shopify.com‍
• Drip – Cart Abandonment Statistics – October 25, 2023 – drip.com