The average shopping cart abandonment rate is 59.8 percent, according to a September 2006 MarketingSherpa report. That means more than half of customers who placed items in their virtual buggies had at least some intention to pay up in the checkout line. But, for whatever reason, they changed their minds mid-stream.
"If only 10 percent of the shopping carts were left behind, the loss to business would be substantial. At 60 percent, the loss must be astronomical," says Eugene Fram, the J. Warren McClure research professor of marketing in Rochester Institute of Technology's E. Philip Saunders College of Business. Thus, it's no surprise that shopping cart optimization remains a major focus for internet retailers.
Source: CRM Daily, http://www.crm-daily.com