What Is a Good Cart Abandonment Rate? Industry Benchmarks 2025

"What's a good cart abandonment rate?" is one of the most common questions I get. And honestly, it's the wrong question.

A better question: "Am I losing more people than I should be, and where?"

But I get it, you want a number to compare yourself to. So let's talk numbers, and then let's talk about what actually matters.

The Short Answer

The all-industry average is 70.19% (Baymard Institute, 2025). Seven out of ten people who add something to cart don't buy.

If you're around 70%, you're normal. If you're at 75-80%, you probably have fixable problems. If you're at 60-65%, you're doing well. Below 60% and you're outperforming most of e-commerce.

But that 70% number has barely moved in a decade. We've had better checkout designs, faster sites, one-click payments, and abandonment stays stubbornly the same. Why?

Because a lot of "abandonment" isn't really abandonment. It's shopping behavior. People using carts as wishlists. People checking if shipping to Alaska is reasonable. People showing their spouse "what do you think of this one?"

The interesting question isn't "how do I get to 50%?" It's "how much of my 70% was actually preventable?"

Benchmarks by Industry (And Why They're Different)

Your industry matters more than the overall average. Here's the breakdown:

Travel & Hospitality: 81.7% , Nobody books a flight without checking three other sites. Complex decisions, high prices, comparison shopping is the norm.

Luxury Goods: 79.2% , A $3,000 handbag isn't an impulse purchase. People need to think about it. Sometimes for months.

Fashion & Apparel: 73.4% , "Will it fit?" drives a lot of abandonment. Size uncertainty is a massive factor.

Electronics: 74.1% , Spec comparison is a competitive sport. Plus everyone waits for the next sale.

Home & Furniture: 70.3% , "We should talk about this" purchases. Partner approval required.

Health & Beauty: 67.3% , Lower prices, more impulse-friendly, stronger brand loyalty.

Food & Grocery: 62.8% , You need dinner. You're buying dinner. Not much comparison shopping for eggs.

The pattern is obvious: expensive stuff and uncertain stuff (will it fit? will I like it?) gets abandoned more. Cheaper stuff and necessities get abandoned less.

A 75% abandonment rate is excellent if you're selling luxury watches. It's concerning if you're selling snacks.

The Mobile Gap (This Is Where the Money Is)

Mobile: 77.8%

Desktop: 67.1%

That 10-point gap? That's where a lot of your opportunity lives.

Mobile is harder to checkout on. Small screens, annoying typing, distractions (text message comes in, train reaches your stop). But also: people browse on mobile and buy on desktop later. That inflates mobile abandonment numbers.

If your mobile abandonment is 15%+ higher than desktop, though, you probably have mobile-specific friction. Add Apple Pay and Google Pay if you haven't. Test your checkout on your actual phone, on a slow connection. You'll find problems.

Traffic Source Tells a Story

Where people come from affects how they behave:

Direct traffic: 62-65% , These people typed in your URL or bookmarked you. They know you. Lowest abandonment.

Email: 64-68% , Your subscribers, familiar with your brand. Pretty committed.

Organic search: 68-72% , Research mode. Comparing options. Average abandonment.

Paid search: 70-74% , Mixed bag. Some have intent, some are price shopping.

Social media: 75-82% , "Oh that's cool" attention span. Highest abandonment.

If your paid social traffic has 85% abandonment and organic has 65%, that's not a checkout problem, that's a traffic quality problem. You're bringing in people who were never going to buy.

Cart Abandonment vs Checkout Abandonment (Different Things)

This distinction matters more than most people realize.

Cart abandonment = added to cart, didn't buy. Includes the wishlisters, the price-checkers, the "just looking" crowd.

Checkout abandonment = started checkout, didn't finish. These people entered their email. They had intent. Then something stopped them.

Typical cart abandonment: 65-80% Typical checkout abandonment: 25-45%

If your checkout abandonment is over 40%, you have a problem worth finding. Something is broken in your checkout, slow page, confusing form, surprise fee, whatever. Find it and fix it.

If your cart abandonment is 75% but checkout abandonment is 30%, your checkout is fine. The issue is earlier in the funnel.

Company Size Matters Too

Here's a truth nobody wants to hear: if you're a small brand nobody's heard of, your abandonment will be higher than Amazon's. That's just how trust works.

Enterprise ($50M+): 65-68% , People trust big brands. Checkouts are optimized. Multiple payment options.

Mid-market ($5M-$50M): 68-72% , Building recognition. Getting there.

Small business ($1M-$5M): 70-75% , Still building trust. Often missing payment options.

Startup (<$1M): 72-80% , Unknown brand, minimal optimization, people are cautious.

Don't beat yourself up comparing your new store to Nike. Compare to stores your size.

When to Actually Worry

Some abandonment signals real problems. Here's what should get your attention:

Checkout abandonment over 40% , People who entered their email and still bailed? Something's wrong.

Mobile-desktop gap over 15% , Your mobile experience needs work.

Sudden spike , If abandonment jumps 10 points overnight, something broke. Check for errors, new fees, site speed issues.

Recovery email open rates under 30% , Either your emails are bad or you're burning your list. Both are fixable.

What "Good" Actually Looks Like

If you're at 75-80%, realistic target is 70-72% over 3-6 months. Focus on the basics: surprise costs, guest checkout, mobile experience.

If you're at 70-75%, aim for 65-68%. Streamline checkout, add trust signals, build out recovery emails.

If you're at 65-70%, getting to 60-63% takes real work. A/B testing, personalization, cart reservation for limited inventory.

Below 60%? You're outperforming. Focus on not breaking what works and making incremental improvements.

Below 55% is extremely rare. At some point, you're fighting natural shopping behavior. The juice isn't worth the squeeze.

The Seasonality Factor

Your numbers will swing:

Q4 (Holiday season): Expect 2-5% higher abandonment. More gift shopping, more comparison shopping, more "is this the right thing for Uncle Dave?"

Black Friday/Cyber Monday: Can spike 10-15% higher. Deal hunters add things to multiple carts, inventory sells out mid-checkout, chaos reigns.

January-March: Usually dips. Gift card spending, New Year's resolution buying, less comparison shopping.

What Actually Matters

After years of looking at abandonment data, here's what I've concluded:

Checkout abandonment is what you should obsess over. These are people who wanted to buy. Find out why they didn't.

Your trend matters more than the number. Are you improving quarter over quarter? That's more important than hitting some benchmark.

Not all abandonment is bad. The person who added something to cart to check shipping costs? They got the information they needed. That's not a failure.

Device and source breakdowns reveal the real story. The overall number hides where the actual problems are.

Stop asking "what's a good rate?" Start asking "where am I losing people I shouldn't be?" That's the question that leads to answers.