How and why you need to measure your abandonment rates

Write me a tragedy in three words… abandoned shopping carts.


Is there anything worse than knowing that a customer got all the way to your checkout and then changed their mind and left the website? Abandoned carts are the greatest tragedy for any eCommerce business. And yet our recent insight report found that a massive 42% of retailers aren’t even measuring this metric. Knowing the extent of the issue is the first step to improving on it and winning back those sales!


A third of the surveyed participants that weren’t measuring cart abandonments said it was because they don’t know how. This blog is for you!


At Fetchify we talk a lot about helping businesses to improve checkout conversion rates (reducing abandonment rates) but today we’re going to take a step back and look at measuring those rates so you have your starting point to improve from.


What are conversion rates and abandonment rates?


So the first thing to understand about these metrics is that they are two sides of the same coin – conversions are the customers that started the checkout process and completed the transaction, abandonments are the people that started the checkout process but then left without making a purchase. We don’t just want to celebrate conversions, we want to tackle the abandonment rate – the money that is walking away from your checkout.


Everything about your online shop is carefully designed to entice the visitor, to persuade them to buy your products. How many potential customers are being won over by your website and your products, adding items to their basket, but then being put off by something in the checkout journey and leaving?


How do you measure your abandonment rate?


Depending on your eCommerce platform, your metrics and reports will take different forms, but have a look at your specific reporting and find these two important numbers.


  • The number of initiated transactions – that is the number of visitors who place items in their basket
  • The number of completed transactions


Then you need this simple equation to work out your abandonment rate:


1 – (number of completed transactions / number of initiated transactions) x100 = abandonment rate


Once you have that figure, you have a black and white incentive in front of you to streamline your checkout UX and win back those customers before they leave. A clear indicator of the ROI to be gained through conversion rate optimisation.


How does your store measure up?


The industry average across eCommerce is an abandonment rate of 68%. That’s 68 out of every 100 customers that start the checkout journey and then leave without finishing the transaction. How does your store measure up?


If your abandonment rate is lower than this average congratulations! But that doesn’t mean there isn’t still room for improvement. Every tweak that makes your checkout more user-friendly, will convince more potential customers to stick with you and cross the finish line of the transaction.


A high abandonment rate can indicate issues with your checkout process that are turning customers away. Perhaps your shipping costs are too high, your payment options don’t meet expectations, or your forms are too long and challenging. But now you know what your starting point is, you will be able to tell if any adjustments you make are improving the experience for your customers. They will tell you with their wallets.


The good news is, we can help


57% of the businesses we surveyed in our Checkout Insight Report claimed a higher than average conversion rate/lower than average abandonment rate. Of the adjustments they had made to improve their checkout, the three ranked most highly by our participants were:


  • Address Lookup to speed customers through form-filling
  • Abandoned cart discounts to entice customers back
  • Alternative payment options such as digital wallets to make payments easier and suit any preference.


If you are already a Fetchify customer, you are already ahead of the curve. Our Address Auto-Complete API, when added to your checkout means your customers can add their shipping and billing addresses with fewer keystrokes. That means less dwell time and less time to reconsider a purchase. Getting customers through your checkout quickly and efficiently is the key to great conversion and our Address Auto-Complete can reduce keystrokes by as much as 80%.


Sound good? You’re just a few simple steps from a better optimised checkout and even better conversion rates. Get in touch today.

About Fetchify


Fetchify’s address lookup and data validation platforms cover more than 250 countries, and increases customer conversion with the fastest, most accurate customer data capture. Fetchify’s flagship products – Address Auto Complete and Postcode Lookup – reduce friction at the checkout, and also significantly increase the number of successful deliveries. Founded in 2008, Fetchify processes millions of data transactions every day for clients ranging from startups to established high-street names, and offers a full suite of data validation tools, including phone, email and bank, too.

The High Cost of Lost Parcels – And How Better Address Data Validation Can Save Your Ecommerce Revenue

June 30, 2025
An article in Ecommerce News recently put a number to something every online retailer dreads: lost parcels. In Q4 2024 alone, European ecommerce retailers lost €500 million in revenue due to 3.72 million undelivered parcels. That’s roughly €145 per parcel in direct and indirect logistics costs. And while the official rate of “lost” parcels is just 0.06%, the reality – accounting for misdelivery, theft, and reporting gaps – is likely closer to 0.7%. That’s 1 in every 143 parcels. The Hidden Costs of a 'Lost' Delivery For enterprise-scale ecommerce operations, the implications scale fast: Lost product and packaging costs Repeat fulfilment and reverse logistics Customer service team time and refunds Increased churn and checkout abandonment Damage to brand reputation and online reviews So Why Are Parcels Going Missing? Many issues originate in the last mile of the delivery process. The root cause is often poor data quality: Incomplete or inaccurate delivery addresses captured at checkout Manual amendments to address fields by warehouse or courier staff Ambiguous delivery locations (e.g., "front porch") Lack of precise geolocation data for drop-off Inadequate or unverifiable proof of delivery Some losses are unavoidable, but most stem from gaps in ecommerce data validation and fulfilment process transparency. What Retailers Can Control with Smart Logistics Data While you can’t eliminate theft or accidents, you can reduce missed deliveries and failed first attempts through better data validation and delivery insights: Real-Time Address Validation at Checkout Fetchify’s ecommerce address validation tools connect directly with official data sources including Royal Mail PAF and the Multiple Residence dataset. This ensures accurate delivery details for apartment blocks, HMOs, student housing, and more. Unlike generic autocomplete tools, this is verified delivery point data. Rooftop-Accurate Geocoding for Pinpoint Delivery Fetchify’s Rooftop Geocodes assign precise latitude and longitude to verified addresses – helping carriers reach the exact doorstep, not just the postcode centroid. Proof of Delivery with Location and Time Stamping Our data solutions integrate seamlessly with POD technologies, supporting timestamped, geo-tagged delivery images. Customers can also submit geo-located photos during disputes, enabling faster, fairer resolutions. Map-Based Address Confirmation for Shoppers By embedding a zoomed-in map in the checkout process, ecommerce brands allow customers to visually confirm their delivery location. This prevents ambiguous or misentered addresses from the start. Audit Trails and Address Change Tracking Fetchify tracks address field edits and changes across the fulfilment chain, helping to pinpoint where a delivery went wrong and maintain data accountability. Marginal Gains. Major Ecommerce Impact. Smart logistics and address data validation might only reduce parcel loss by fractions of a percent – but the impact is huge: A 0.1% improvement = thousands of saved parcels = millions in recovered revenue Fewer failed deliveries = less pressure on customer support teams Accurate addresses = better first-time delivery success and lower last-mile costs Conclusion: Delivery Accuracy is a Data Challenge Lost parcels aren’t just a logistics challenge. They’re a symptom of poor data validation in ecommerce. From checkout to doorstep, the journey must be powered by precise, verified data. Fetchify helps online retailers solve this problem with address validation, geolocation, and enhanced fulfilment transparency. If you want to stop asking “Whose front door is this?” – start with smarter ecommerce data. Want to improve delivery success and reduce failed parcels? Contact Fetchify to book your free address data health check.
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