A survey conducted by PayPal and comScore revealed that unexpectedly high shipping fees are the number one reason consumers abandon online purchases. The study also found that many consumers abandon their purchases for payment-related reasons and due to online comparison shopping behavior. More than one in four indicated that they wanted to compare items at online and offline stores before making a purchase. However, more than one-third who abandon at checkout said they returned to the merchant's Web site at a later time to complete the transaction.

A summary of the survey's findings included:

• 43 percent of consumers didn't pay for items in their shopping carts because shipping charges were too high
• 36 percent of purchasers didn't pay for items because they felt the total cost of the purchase was more expensive than anticipated
• 27 percent of shoppers didn't pay for items because they wanted to comparison shop at other Web sites before making a purchase
• 16 percent of consumers didn't pay for items because they could not contact customer support to answer questions
• 14 percent of shoppers didn't pay for items because they forgot their usernames and passwords for their store accounts created with the merchants

The PayPal survey was conducted by comScore from March 25 to April 18, 2008. It surveyed online shoppers in the US who had recently abandoned the checkout flow on either a large or small merchant website. All respondents were asked about their most recent abandoned sessions.