Data: Cart abandonment cost UK retailers £38bn in 2024

Basket abandonment cost UK retailers billions of pounds in potential online sales last year, according to a new report from Retail Economics and GFS.

Retailers lost £38bn in 2024, pushing the figure up 11% year-on-year from £34.4bn, with 24% of all purchases abandoned.

Poor delivery options was a major driver behind the issue, with 66% of frequent online shoppers abandoning purchases at least once per month due to unsatisfactory delivery choices.

Only 24% of retailers had full confidence in their ability to manage multiple carrier partners and provide a consistent delivery experience, according to the companies, with the figures falling to 18% for small and medium sized retailers.

Inflexible delivery options, including high costs, slow speeds and lack of tracking, formed the top reasons why shoppers ditched their baskets, with 65% of Gen Z citing poor delivery choices as a key reason behind their decision to abandon a purchase.

Retail Economics CEO Richard Lim said: “Retailers cannot afford to overlook the impact of poor delivery experiences.

“Consumers now expect seamless, flexible, and cost-effective delivery options as standard. Businesses that fail to adapt risk losing billions in potential sales, while those that invest in multi-carrier strategies and delivery innovation will gain a clear competitive advantage.”

He added: “The stakes are high, and action is needed now to prevent further losses.”

The businesses called for retailers to make urgent investment into their delivery innovation, highlighting the need for them to expand and diversify carrier networks, leverage predictive logistics and AI, enhance customer experience, and use multi-carrier service providers.

It comes after it was reported that online spending was up in January, fuelled partly by the use of buy now pay later (BNPL) schemes.

Online spend hit £8.4bn for the month, according to software firm Adobe Analytics, representing a 2.9% rise on the £8.1bn spent the same time last year.

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