Imagine browsing an online store, adding products to your cart, but leaving without ever clicking “Buy.” Or picture walking into a shop only to find empty shelves where a popular item should be. These scenarios are all too common in retail and consumer goods. Abandoned shopping carts and stockouts (out-of-stock situations) might seem like separate issues, but they often share a root cause: disconnected systems behind the scenes. For retailers and brands especially in India’s booming e-commerce market, these problems quietly erode revenue and customer trust.
Cart abandonment is a major challenge in e-commerce. On average, roughly 7 out of 10 online shopping carts are left behind by shoppers before checkout. In fact, online retailers worldwide lose an estimated $260 billion in sales each year due to abandoned carts. India sees similarly high abandonment rates, often around 60–70% of shoppers.
For online retailers, every abandoned cart isn’t just a lost sale it also means wasted marketing spend and a higher customer acquisition cost (CAC). Businesses pay to attract shoppers to their site through ads and promotions, only to see many of them leave without buying.
Why do so many shoppers walk away after showing intent to buy? Top culprits include surprise fees at checkout, mandatory account creation, and long or confusing checkout processes, all issues within a retailer’s control to fix by ensuring transparent pricing and a quick, simple checkout experience.
Stockouts products being unavailable when customers want to buy – are the bane of retail. The moment a shopper hears “Sorry, that’s out of stock,” the sale is at risk. Studies show stockouts result in roughly 4% in lost sales for retailers on average. Even industry giants are not immune: Walmart once lost nearly $3 billion in potential sales in a single year due to empty shelves. Many industries face similar stockouts and excess inventory challenges, especially when operations rely on disconnected systems.
When a popular product isn’t available, many customers won’t wait around. They’ll either leave without buying anything or go purchase the item from a competitor. One study found that faced with a stockout, 43% of shoppers bought the product from a competitor and 25% abandoned the purchase entirely.
Customer reactions to stockouts. A large share of shoppers will switch to a competitor when their desired item is unavailable, while another portion gives up on the purchase entirely.
Stockouts also create operational headaches and chip away at customer trust. Retailers may need to scramble to fill backorders or expedite shipments, adding extra costs. And frequent stockouts hurt a brand’s reliability. In the age of social media, one angry post about an item that’s never in stock can reach thousands and damage the brand’s image.
What links the issues of abandoned carts and stockouts? In many cases, the underlying cause is disconnected systems and data silos within the business. When different parts of a retail operation don’t share information, the customer experience suffers in ways that aren’t immediately obvious.
For example, a marketing team might run a big promotion on a product without realizing the item is already running low. The website keeps accepting orders, but later some customers are told their item is unavailable. Money was spent advertising a product that couldn’t be fulfilled – essentially throwing the ad budget down the drain and customers were left unhappy, all because critical information was trapped in systems that didn’t talk to each other.
Over half of merchants struggle with limited data sharing across departments, potentially missing out on a 5% revenue boost. Disconnected systems also mean missed chances to recover sales. If your online store isn’t integrated with your email or CRM, you might not even know which customers abandoned their carts – so no follow-up is sent. Two-thirds of e-commerce sites in India have no process to reach out to customers who left filled carts behind.
Other hidden costs of siloed systems include inconsistent data and wasted effort. Have you ever seen a product show as “in stock” online, but when you try to buy it you’re told it’s unavailable? Such glitches occur when inventory data isn’t synchronized across systems. Many retailers also rely on legacy software that can’t update information in real time, making these problems worse. The result is a disjointed experience – and lost sales for the business.
The good news is that these issues can be fixed. Forward-thinking retailers are adopting integrated systems so that all departments work from the same real-time information. By breaking down data silos, a company ensures its marketing, sales, and supply chain teams share a single, up-to-date view of inventory and customer activity. By linking the inventory system with the online store, customers only see items that are truly in stock, reducing the chance of promoting products that aren’t available.
Modern cloud-based ERP platforms unify operations by connecting inventory, orders, finance, and customer data. With a unified system, managers have instant visibility into stock levels and sales across all channels. AI-driven forecasting tools can predict demand spikes so that popular products don’t run out. Ultimately, the goal is to eliminate surprises for customers: no sudden stockouts, no hidden fees at checkout, no mismatched information between channels. Achieving that requires systems to be in sync and teams to collaborate. Retailers that embrace this approach create a smooth shopping experience that keeps customers coming back. Many industries are moving toward AI-driven ERP systems to bring all business functions together.
In conclusion, abandoned carts and stockouts don’t have to be “just the way things are” in retail. They are often symptoms of internal disconnects. By investing in the right tools to connect systems, retailers can reclaim lost revenue and strengthen customer loyalty. At SaasWorx, we have seen firsthand how unifying systems can transform retail. When inventory, e-commerce, and marketing platforms work in harmony, shoppers enjoy a seamless experience. Fixing these internal gaps isn’t just an IT upgrade – it’s a strategic move to safeguard revenue and stay competitive.
