The top three reasons, cited by more than half of shoppers who abandon carts are: “shipping and handling charges higher than expected” (72%), “decided to do more online comparison shopping” (62%), and just “changed my mind” (60%).

Consumers also consistently express frustration with poor service. A survey of U.S. online shoppers in April 2009 by Opinion Research Corp. identified top 5 ouch points:

• not being to able speak to anyone to answer questions (25%)

• learning that items are back-ordered or out of stock after they are in the cart (11%)

• receiving an item that doesn’t look anything like it did on the internet (11%)

• web sites that malfunction as the payment is being processed (9%)

• not being able to find an item (8%)

Source: Opinion Research Corp.

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