Online shoppers buy less than half of everything they put in their carts, survey finds

"Wait a second… I already HAVE an extremely festive holiday sweater! What am I doing?!?" (iStock)

Americans bail on nearly half of their online purchases, according to a new study.

Ever added something to your online shopping cart and had second thoughts? New research into online buying processes found Americans only actually buy 58 percent of the items they add to their shopping cart.

Not only that, the average American says they will start to experience second thoughts about buying items in their shopping cart after just 22 seconds.

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The new study of 2,000 Americans uncovered that most Americans have dealt with “shopping cart second thoughts” when shopping online, and found just six in ten items added to carts actually get purchased.

The new survey, conducted by OnePoll on behalf of e-commerce fraud prevention company Forter, found that whether or not shoppers actually make a purchase may heavily depend on how long the process takes.

In fact, half of Americans agree they’re less likely to buy something online if the entire checkout process takes longer than half a minute.

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That impatience is real when it comes to each phase of the online shopping process, as it turns out.

The average American will only take nine seconds waiting for the next page to load in a checkout before starting to get annoyed and just ten seconds waiting for their credit card to be verified.

In fact, in an age of instant gratification, the average American says they’ll start to doubt their purchase if they have to click just four different buttons when checking out.

Clicking out of the checkout process halfway through is pretty common, too, and with the average American shopping 22 times on average throughout the holiday season, it could lead to a lot of abandoned carts.

One in four Americans, too, has dropped out of buying something when tasked with re-entering their shipping address. Not only that, but nearly one in three have clicked out of purchasing their item when having to re-enter their credit card info, and 63 percent have given up after just seeing the shipping cost.

“During the busy holiday season, it is imperative for merchants to provide a friction-free shopping experience if they want customers to purchase products on their site,” said Forter CEO Michael Reitblat. “Although requiring shoppers to re-enter information is often intended to protect them from fraud, creating too much friction could force them to leave permanently for competitors that offer a seamless checkout process.”

The average American ditches their online shopping cart entirely 11 times a year, according to the results, with 32 percent saying they abandon baskets on e-commerce sites more often than that.

When people encounter negative online shopping experiences, the online retailers also suffer, as 76 percent of Americans say they’re less likely to revisit a website they’ve had a bad shopping experience.

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But while this trend is certainly bad news for companies, it’s good news for consumers’ wallets. The average American estimates they save $342 a year thanks to "shopping cart second thoughts."

“Shoppers expect instant gratification,” continued Reitblat. “That’s why being able to confirm the trustworthiness of a customer automatically without making them jump through hoops is essential for e-commerce merchants looking to beat out the competition.”