Glossary
Cart abandonment
Checkouts started that never became orders.
What it is
Cart abandonment is the share of shoppers who begin checkout and do not complete it. Measured properly it uses checkout-started events rather than add-to-cart, which mixes browsing behaviour into the number.
Why it costs you money
It is the most quoted and least examined metric in ecommerce. Some abandonment is people who were never going to buy; the rest is friction you can remove, and the split decides whether it is worth spending on.
How to check it yourself
Divide completed orders by checkouts started for the same period and segment. Our abandonment calculator does the arithmetic and marks the part that is an upper bound rather than lost revenue.
Where this matters