Out of ten customers who add a product to their shopping basket, only three end up buying it. The other seven were already convinced enough to click on "Add to basket" and still abandon the shopping basket between the shopping basket and order confirmation. If you want to reduce shopping basket abandonment, you have perhaps the most rewarding lever in the entire shop in your hand: you don't need new traffic, you just need to lose less of the traffic you already have.
According to the Baymard Institute, the long-term average shopping basket abandonment rate is around 70 per cent, and in Europe it is slightly higher. This sounds like a law of nature, but it is largely home-made. The majority of abandonments have tangible, fixable reasons, and every percentage point less falls directly into your turnover.
Let's take a look at the six levers that make the biggest difference in a Shopware shop. Not theory, but things you can tackle this week.
1. Show shipping costs early, not at checkout
The most common reason for abandonment by far is the nasty surprise in the last step. At Baymard, 48 per cent of abandoners cite unexpected additional costs such as shipping, fees or taxes as the reason. The logic behind this is simple: if you have set a price and are suddenly asked to pay more at the checkout, you feel deceived and leave.
There is a psychological effect behind this. The price on the product page becomes an anchor value. Every euro that is added later does not feel like a fair shipping fee, but rather like a surcharge that no one expected. Most people accept three euros for shipping, which was visible from the start, without grumbling. The same three euros that only appear in the last step will cost you the order.
The fix is just as simple. Show shipping costs and delivery time as early as possible. On the product page, in the mini shopping basket, at the latest in the shopping basket itself. Shopware has everything you need for this: a shipping costs calculator in the shopping basket and the option to display shipping costs information directly on the product page.
2. allow guest orders
No one wants to invent a password for an espresso machine and wait for a confirmation email. This is precisely the second most common reason for cancelling an order: around a quarter of users abandon an order if they first have to create an account to place it.
In Shopware, guest ordering is already included in the standard version. You can activate it under Settings, Shop, Login and Registration by deactivating the forced account creation. Offer account creation anyway, but as an offer, not as a requirement. The most elegant way: Let the order go through as a guest and at the end, after the purchase, offer to create an account from the data already entered with one click. This way, you won't lose anyone at the hurdle and still gain registered customers.
3. Offer the payment methods your customers expect
If you can't find your preferred payment method at the checkout, you'll probably buy elsewhere. In Germany, expectations are clearly divided. According to the EHI study "Online Payment 2024", PayPal is in the lead with 27.7 per cent of online sales, closely followed by purchase on account with 26.7 per cent. You should offer both, as well as Apple Pay and Google Pay for quick mobile purchases.
Purchasing on account is more than just a payment method, it is a signal of trust: the goods arrive first, payment is made later. This significantly lowers the inhibition threshold, especially for larger shopping baskets and first-time buyers who are not yet familiar with your shop. Modern providers assume the default risk so that you can combine the security of prepayment with the convenience of an invoice.
Payment via PayPal Express directly in the shopping basket is a particularly effective lever. Instead of clicking through the address form, shipping selection and payment step, customers jump to confirmation with two taps. Address and payment come from the PayPal account. This eliminates half the friction that otherwise causes a checkout to fail before it even occurs.
4. Build the checkout for the smartphone, don't just customise it
If you only pull one lever, pull this one. Around 80 per cent of shopping baskets are cancelled on smartphones, "only" around 66 per cent on desktops. The screen is smaller, typing is more annoying and patience is shorter. A checkout that looks clean on a desktop can still be tough on a mobile phone, and that's where the lion's share of your cancellations occur.
What it comes down to: large typing areas, an address field with auto-complete, keyboards that match the field (number field for the postcode) and number buttons such as Apple Pay that save typing altogether. Also make sure that the payment button always remains in the visible area and does not disappear behind the displayed keyboard. Test your own checkout on your smartphone and make a purchase. After thirty seconds, you will notice where the problem is, and no heat map can replace this one self-experiment.
5. Make trust visible
Some cancellations happen quietly, out of uncertainty. Is the shop reputable? Will I get my money if I send it back? These questions are best answered where they arise: in the checkout.
In concrete terms, this means: a Trusted Shops seal visible next to the payment button, a clear one-liner on the return policy ("30 days return, we pay shipping") instead of a linked paragraph, product reviews directly on the goods. Even small things pay off: a visible lock symbol for the secure connection, a telephone number or a reference to customer service, a realistic delivery time instead of a vague "soon". No wall of text, but calm, credible information in the right places. Shopware can be customised for this via experience worlds and blocks without you having to rebuild the checkout.
6. Abort friendly return
You can't prevent some cancellations. Someone is interrupted while paying, closes the tab, forgets. That's where the shopping basket reminder comes in: a friendly email a few hours later informing them that the shopping basket is still there.
In Shopware, you can implement this using the Flow Builder, which is included in the commercial editions (Rise, Evolve, Beyond) and doesn't require an external tool. You define a trigger, such as shopping basket filled and no purchase completed, and send a reminder after a reasonable time interval. The tone is important: helpful rather than urgent. A single well-worded email often works better than three with a discount code that sound like desperation.