New figures published by SaleCycle suggest that there was a small but significant rise in the number of online shopping carts which were abandoned between July and September this year.

Just over 78 per cent of carts were given the cold shoulder by customers shopping online during this period, an increase of 1.5 per cent when compared with the three months prior to this.

Some sites are better than others at convincing consumers to go through with purchases rather than simply browsing and adding items to their basket before heading elsewhere. Analysts found that clothing outlets perform better than most others, with abandonment rates sitting at 68.1 per cent, well below the average for the market as a whole.

At the other end of the scale there are sites in sectors where carts are abandoned far more regularly. Travel sites can expect an average of 82.4 per cent of shoppers to leave before completing a transaction, while finance sites suffer the same fate in 83.2 per cent of cases.

Experts point out that this is because consumer habits vary depending on the type of product that is on offer. In the case where lots of research is required, such as when booking a holiday or securing insurance cover, abandonment is inevitably more common.

However, there are still those who argue that retailers can take steps to stop people from leaving without buying anything via safe shopping online. Various tactics are suggested, including follow-up communication via email with relevant offers.

Of course if consumers are not enjoying their experience of using a site, or find that the prices and shipping are not up to scratch, then they are just as likely to abandon their cart. This gives retailers plenty of available avenues to explore going forwards.