Let’s face it, cart abandonment is an unavoidable reality for any ecommerce business. In 2024 alone, 70.19% of online carts were abandoned. But a missed sale doesn’t have to be a total loss.
That is, if you can figure out why customers didn’t purchase. The secret? Abandoned cart surveys.
Instead of assuming customers are dropping off because of shipping costs or price sensitivity, ask them what held them back. This type of ecommerce survey is super valuable for brands looking to reduce drop-off and understand intent.
How do I find out why customers abandon their carts?
Online shoppers abandon their carts for any number of reasons. And unless you’re a mind-reader, it’s impossible to know what that reason is for each individual customer.
For instance, a customer shopping on their phone may have gotten a phone call that disrupted their checkout experience, and they simply forgot to complete it. Or, someone browsing on their laptop may have been ready to purchase until they saw a $20 shipping fee.
The point is that you don’t know why customers abandon their carts unless you ask them. That’s where cart abandonment surveys come into play.
A cart abandonment survey is a valuable tool that tells you why a customer who showed high intent to purchase decided not to. If you can understand the problem, you can solve it and capture the sales that were previously lost.
Understanding checkout drop-off behaviour gives you insights that you can act on to improve your overall customer experience and drive sales. For example:
- Get direct feedback – Ask customers open-ended questions like “Why didn’t you complete your purchase today?” or get more granular with multiple-choice questions about pricing, shipping, or product features. Then use their feedback to offer personalized remedies like discount codes, free shipping, or alternative product recommendations.
- Fix UX issues – When it’s a technical or experience-based issue that holds customers back, you can win them back by solving that roadblock. For instance, if the checkout experience is confusing, you can implement one-click checkout options like Shop Pay, Google Pay, or Apple Pay.
- Improve conversion rates – One of the biggest reasons shoppers abandon their carts is unexpected fees at checkout. If you ask customers about this, you can bake these fees into the product prices and eliminate unwanted surprises to improve your conversion rates.
When to ask for feedback?
You might be thinking that if a customer abandons their cart, you’ve lost them forever. In reality, you have a high chance of recovering those lost sales if you know why you lost them in the first place.
But when and how do you actually run an abandoned cart survey? Let’s break it down.
You have two options for the format of your survey:
- On-site forms or pop-ups: Use exit-intent surveys that trigger when a customer shows signs they’re about to abandon their cart, such as moving their cursor towards the close or exit tab.
- Follow-up messages with a survey link: You’ll want to capture feedback in the moments right after a shopper abandons their cart. With Klaviyo, you can send an email or SMS that both encourages customers to complete their purchase and asks them why they didn’t through a dedicated survey link.
Data from Klaviyo shows that abandoned cart emails have a 50% open rate and between 3% – 8% of those turn into a sale. You can further increase this conversion rate if you segment users based on the reasons they abandoned their carts.
For instance:
- Add browsers into a nurture follow-up sequence with social proof and product benefits
- Offer a discount to price-sensitive shoppers to remove their hesitation
- Provide alternative product recommendations to customers who had an issue with a product
The questions to ask in a cart abandonment survey
Cart abandonment surveys can reveal critical friction points across the entire customer journey, from unexpected shipping costs and slow delivery times to confusing checkout processes or missing product details.
Smart survey strategies typically ask about:
- Purchase intent (Were they planning to buy today or just browsing?)
- Pricing surprises (Hidden fees, higher-than-expected prices, or missing payment options)
- Shipping concerns (Cost, delivery time, clarity at checkout)
- Product fit (Were different options or more information needed?)
- Experience issues (Glitches, slow load times, mobile difficulties)
- Trust signals (Social proof like reviews, UGC, or influencer endorsements)
- Return policy clarity (Was the return process clear and reassuring?)
- Account creation friction (Would guest checkout have helped?)
- Open-ended feedback (Catch anything you didn’t think to ask)
Asking the right questions not only helps you recover sales—it gives you a roadmap for improving your overall experience. Want a full breakdown of smart questions to ask? Check out our complete guide to abandoned cart survey questions here.
How to collect and use cart abandonment feedback
KnoCommerce makes it easy to ask customers the right questions at the right time. You can trigger surveys when a customer abandons their cart, helping you understand why they didn’t complete their purchase.
Here’s how to set it up for better cart abandonment data collection:
- Create a new survey in KnoCommerce
- Choose the Simple or Advanced Abandoned Cart Survey template and decide where to display it—on your website as an exit-intent campaign or as a dedicated survey link
- Customize the questions based on your specific customers, products, and store
- Sync your survey data to Klaviyo to create custom segments and send targeted follow-up emails and SMS messages
- Enable Actions to send discount codes or helpful links to product information
Once you’ve collected the data, it’s time to analyze and act on it. KnoCommerce lets you segment and tag your responses:
- Tag survey responses based on shopper answers. For example, create custom tags like “price sensitive”, “shipping concern”, or “needs more product information”.
- Automatically segment customers into groups depending on what held them back from purchasing.
- Send targeted follow-ups with specific Actions. For example, use KnoCommerce templates to automatically send links to your shipping policies page, or create a one-time use discount code for those who said the product was too expensive.
- Use these segments in your email/SMS platform (like Klaviyo) to personalize messages and recover lost sales more effectively.
How can I use survey data to reduce abandonment?
Collecting customer feedback is only half of the process. Putting these insights into action is where you make it count.
Once you’ve segmented and categorized your responses, it’s easy to spot trends and areas for improvement. For example:
- If customers need more social proof – send customer testimonials or user-generated content via email.
- If the price is too high – offer a discount to reduce hesitation,
- If your checkout process was confusing or frustrating – work with your web development team to improve your UX.
- And the list goes on…
When you know why your customers are dropping off, you know how to fix it. The key is turning your cart abandonment data into revenue.
Start asking the right questions with KnoCommerce
An abandoned cart isn’t the end of the road. You just have to ask the right questions, understand how to capture the money left on the table, and turn it into actions.
Want even more examples to get you started? Check out our Post-Purchase Survey Question Bank for 200+ questions, broken down by vertical, audience, purpose, and more.