The psychology of online shopping cart abandonment: a scrutiny of the current research framework and building an improved model of the online shopper journey

Banwari Mittal ()
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Banwari Mittal: Northern Kentucky University

Electronic Commerce Research, 2025, vol. 25, issue 2, No 5, 777-803

Abstract: Abstract About two-thirds of all online shopping carts get abandoned, costing e-tailers substantial lost sales. Over the last two decades, consumer researchers have investigated the consumer psychology behind this consumer act. However, the guiding research framework for this entire body of research is conceptually flawed. To remedy this flaw, the present paper formulates a new construal of online shopping cart abandonment (OSCA), differentiating its three forms anchored in the three specific stages of the customer’s journey: exploration, pre-choice, and post-choice. The drivers of OSCA are then also pinned down to the stage-specific OSCA forms. The proposed framework suggests the need to reframe all of the past research hypotheses, for which purpose 15 propositions are advanced. Because the three stage-specific OSCA forms have their own individual drivers and, correspondingly, their own remedial managerial actions, future research findings informed by the proposed framework will be theoretically more valid and therefore more valuable as action guide for e-tailers.

Keywords: Online shopping; Cart abandonment; Customer satisfaction; Customer journey; Consumer decision making; Perceived risk (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1007/s10660-022-09667-0

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