How to calculate cart abandonment rate (formula + example)
Cart abandonment rate = (1 − (completed purchases ÷ carts created)) × 100. If 1,000 shoppers added items to a cart and 300 checked out, that’s 1 − (300 ÷ 1,000) = 0.70 → a 70% abandonment rate. That happens to be right around the ecommerce average, so most stores land near there.
The formula, step by step
- Count carts created over a period (every shopper who added at least one item).
- Count completed purchases over the same period.
- Divide completed purchases by carts created.
- Subtract from 1, then multiply by 100 for a percentage.
Example: 450 purchases ÷ 1,800 carts = 0.25. 1 − 0.25 = 0.75 → 75% abandonment.
Cart abandonment vs checkout abandonment
They’re often confused:
- Cart abandonment — added to cart but didn’t complete purchase (the formula above).
- Checkout abandonment — started checkout but didn’t finish. A narrower, later-funnel metric.
Checkout abandonment is usually lower than cart abandonment, because reaching checkout signals stronger intent. If your checkout abandonment is high specifically, the problem is in the checkout itself — surprise costs, forced accounts, or limited payment options.
What’s a normal rate?
The average across ecommerce sits around 70%, but it varies by industry — see cart abandonment rate by industry and average cart abandonment rate for the benchmarks. A rate well above your industry norm signals fixable friction.
Skip the math — the free cart abandonment calculator works out your rate and shows the revenue you could recover.
Turning the number into money
The rate alone doesn’t pay you back — knowing why people leave does. The top causes are surprise shipping costs, forced account creation, a long checkout, and payment friction. See why customers abandon carts and how to reduce cart abandonment.
The bigger picture
Abandonment is one of several ways a store leaks revenue. Revyfix adds up every leak — abandonment, speed, conversion gaps, AI visibility — into one score and ranks the fixes by payback.