The Top Three Reasons People Abandon Online Transactions

Online transactions have exploded in the past year, and despite the impetus of the pandemic, we believe the convenience and preference for digital is here to stay. Businesses need to shift away from reacting to digital as an independent channel and start proactively managing their digital customers throughout the transaction. 

Experian’s recent Global Insights Report found that one in three consumers are only willing to wait 30 seconds or less before abandoning an online transaction. Thirty seconds is a lot of time to make consumers wait to complete a transaction. Aside from potentially lost revenue to your business, it can breed consumer doubts of security and convenience which may erode brand reputation over time. 

Consumer expectations of their digital experience has changed in the past year. What might have been acceptable even just a few months ago may no longer be the relevant. In fact, according to our recent report, 60% of consumers have higher expectations of their digital experience now than before Covid-19. They expect convenience, such as automated form fills, and flexibility to move across channels, such as moving from web to mobile device, without losing their place.

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In our study, consumers cited security and privacy as the top two dimensions of their experience, over factors of convenience. However, consumers were also clear that too much security detracted from the experience and led to greater abandonment. This juxtaposition creates a challenge for many businesses – they need to balance the need for security without the right level of controls that can be adjusted for the transaction. The key is to find the right balance – offering a secure transaction with requiring less information from the consumer. This requires businesses to demand more from their data and analytics. 

Transaction value plays a role 

While the above reasons for abandonment can play a role no matter what the transaction, there are different levels of patience and resistance that are more permittable based on the transaction type. The variance in the type, nature and goal of each transaction will impact the time and level of transaction abandonment. With a simple e-commerce transaction, a customer may have pre-saved settings and will expect a seamless experience repeatedly. With a more involved transaction, such as a new financial transaction, a customer must input complex information they may not have readily available or may not have access to in an easily convertible digital format. A great deal of complex information, for a situation like a home loan application, a customer will wait longer, and will recognize the completion of the process relies on a more complex model.

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Brand loyalty isn’t a given

Brand loyalty can also make a difference. Whether or not this has a quantitative effect on the timeline of a completed transaction depends on how determined a customer is to access a certain brand. This doesn’t mean that certain products and services can perform at an optimal level with a disruptive or overly-complicated customer journey, but depending on a consumer’s dedication, for example with limited-edition goods or limited time offers in e-commerce transactions, a longer wait time won’t be a discouragement. 

Connecting to customers has never been easier

Businesses are increasingly looking to improve the customer journey to address transaction abandonment. Combining big data, advanced analytics and decisioning delivered through cloud-based infrastructure allows deeper insights into where customers are experience friction. These solutions also allow for hyper personalization, which businesses are increasingly using to identify where exactly consumers are abandoning.

As technology advances and behaviors continue to shift, the customer’s willingness to wait may continue to decrease. However, smart organizations can solve for this by pivoting and gaining a better understanding of the customer. Better decisioning management capabilities and better data are key areas businesses will need to invest in to overcome the potential loss of revenue when a consumer abandons a transaction. 

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