Ecommerce has been a boon to consumers by providing them greater convenience when they shop. Merchants with versatile ecommerce software and excellent supply chain management have also benefited by the trend by being able to provide goods to a larger volume of customers, sometimes with less overhead and expense than brick-and-mortar-only operations. 

Yet many retailers have also experienced online cart abandonment, and it is an increasingly problematic matter. According to research from comScore and UPS, 88 percent of consumers abandoned  a cart in 2013, which is up from the 81 percent who did the same in 2012. 

In some cases, merchants were unlikely to gain a sale. Half of the study's respondents said they wanted to gauge the total cost with shipping so they could compare the price to another retailer. However, 54 percent stated that they abandoned their cart after discovering shipping made the order more expensive than expected, while 44 percent left their purchase behind after finding out it was not enough to qualify for free delivery. 

Because of this, a greater degree of transparency leading up to the point of sale might diminish how often cart abandonment occurs. Clear policies on when shoppers qualify for free shipping, or what the price will be ahead of time, might improve online sales success.