Abandoned cart rate is the percentage of shopping carts that do not result in a completed order.

Use this formula:

Abandoned cart rate = (Abandoned carts ÷ Total carts created) × 100

You can also calculate it with completed purchases:

Abandoned cart rate = [(Total carts created − Completed purchases) ÷ Total carts created] × 100

Use the same for carts and purchases.

For example, if 500 shoppers add products to their carts and 125 complete a purchase:

  • Abandoned carts: 500 − 125 = 375
  • Abandoned cart rate: 375 ÷ 500 × 100
  • Abandoned cart rate: 75%

This calculation shows how many carts did not lead to a completed order.

Abandoned Cart Rate Formula at a Glance

Metric Formula What it measures
Abandoned cart rate (Carts created − Completed purchases) ÷ Carts created × 100 Cart users who did not purchase
Cart conversion rate Completed purchases ÷ Carts created × 100 Cart users who completed a purchase
Checkout abandonment rate (Checkout starts − Completed purchases) ÷ Checkout starts × 100 Shoppers who started checkout but did not finish
Cart recovery rate Recovered carts ÷ Abandoned carts × 100 Abandoned carts later recovered through email, SMS or other campaigns

What Counts as an Abandoned Cart?

An abandoned cart contains at least one product but does not lead to a completed order within the reporting period or defined attribution window.

To calculate the rate consistently, use:

  1. The same date range for carts and purchases.
  2. The same customer, session or event definition.
  3. The same sales channel, country, device or traffic segment.
  4. The same rules for excluding test orders, cancelled orders and duplicate events.

Do not divide abandoned carts by total website visitors. Visitors include people who never added a product to their cart.

Example Calculation

An online store records the following data for one month:

  • 1,200 carts created
  • 300 completed purchases
  • 900 abandoned carts

The calculation is:

(900 ÷ 1,200) × 100 = 75%

The store's abandoned cart rate is 75%.

The same figures produce a cart conversion rate of 25%:

(300 ÷ 1,200) × 100 = 25%

When the same carts and purchase definition are used, the abandoned cart rate and cart conversion rate total 100%.

Cart Abandonment Rate vs Checkout Abandonment Rate

These metrics use different points in the shopping journey.

Cart abandonment rate includes shoppers who added products to a cart but never started checkout. It can include people comparing products, saving items for later or browsing without a firm intention to buy.

Checkout abandonment rate only includes shoppers who began checkout but did not complete the order:

Checkout abandonment rate =
[(Checkout starts − Completed purchases) ÷ Checkout starts] × 100

If 400 shoppers start checkout and 300 complete their orders:

[(400 − 300) ÷ 400] × 100 = 25%

The checkout abandonment rate is 25%.

Use cart abandonment rate to assess the wider shopping journey. Use checkout abandonment rate to investigate payment, shipping, form and trust problems during checkout.

Why Do Platforms Show Different Abandoned Cart Rates?

Ecommerce platforms may use different denominators. Common options include:

  • Carts created
  • Sessions with an add_to_cart event
  • Sessions that started checkout
  • Logged-in customer carts
  • Orders attributed to a specific cart or session

For example, Shopify separates cart abandonment from checkout abandonment in its ecommerce reporting. Shopify also provides a version based on sessions with cart additions and sessions that started checkout.

Name the metric and document its denominator. A report should say "cart abandonment rate based on carts created" or "checkout abandonment rate based on checkout sessions," rather than reporting only "abandonment rate."

How to Calculate Abandoned Cart Rate in GA4

Google Analytics 4 supports ecommerce events such as:

  • add_to_cart
  • begin_checkout
  • purchase

Google recommends using ecommerce events to measure cart additions, checkout starts and completed purchases.

A basic GA4 calculation is:

Cart abandonment rate =
[(Users or sessions with add_to_cart − Users or sessions with purchase)
÷ Users or sessions with add_to_cart] × 100

For checkout abandonment:

Checkout abandonment rate =
[(Users or sessions with begin_checkout − Users or sessions with purchase)
÷ Users or sessions with begin_checkout] × 100

Use the same unit in both parts of each calculation. Do not compare users who added a product to sessions that completed a purchase.

GA4 results can be affected by:

  • Duplicate ecommerce events
  • Cross-device shopping
  • Consent restrictions
  • Customers returning later to purchase
  • Multiple carts or purchases within one session
  • Incorrect event implementation

For operational reporting, an ecommerce platform's cart and order records may be more reliable than analytics events alone. Use GA4 to analyse results by device, landing page, traffic source and checkout step.

How Should You Interpret the Result?

A high abandoned cart rate does not automatically mean that checkout is broken. Some shoppers add products while browsing, comparing prices or deciding what to buy later.

Baymard Institute reports that many shoppers abandon because they are not ready to purchase. Other reasons include unexpected costs, delivery concerns, trust issues, payment problems and checkout complexity.

Break the rate down by:

  • Device: desktop, mobile and tablet
  • Traffic source: paid search, organic search, email and social
  • Product category: low-cost, high-cost and subscription products
  • Customer type: new versus returning
  • Country or shipping region
  • Payment method
  • Checkout step

These segments help distinguish normal shopping behaviour from conversion problems that your team can address.

What Should You Do After Calculating Abandoned Cart Rate?

Use the result to guide further analysis:

  1. Compare the current rate with previous periods.
  2. Segment the rate by device and traffic source.
  3. Compare cart abandonment with checkout abandonment.
  4. Find the checkout step with the largest drop-off.
  5. Check whether shipping, tax or other fees appear late.
  6. Test guest checkout and additional payment methods.
  7. Review failed payments, form errors and site-speed problems.
  8. Measure recovered carts separately from overall abandonment.

Unexpected costs, compulsory account creation, limited payment options and complicated checkout processes are common abandonment drivers.

How Should You Report the Result?

Include three details with every abandoned cart rate:

  • The date range
  • The denominator, such as carts created or checkout sessions
  • The tracking method, such as ecommerce platform records or GA4 events

This context prevents cart abandonment from being confused with checkout abandonment, cart conversion or abandoned cart recovery.