Electronic shopping cart abandonment: What do we know and where should we be heading?

Abstract

This paper aims to systematically review the literature on electronic shopping cart abandonment (ESCA). It analyzes the development of ESCA literature in terms of publication trends, publication outlets, number of citations, methodologies, and theoretical underpinnings. Furthermore, based on the literature synthesis, this review proposes a conceptual framework integrating the widely used antecedents, mediators, and moderators that influence ESCA. The antecedents include customer attributes and website-related factors while research and comparison mediate the relationship between these antecedents and ESCA. Using lexicometric analysis, this SLR identified key themes studied in ESCA literature over time, including customer decision-making criteria, motives and characteristics, online shopping environment, and website attributes. Further, this SLR suggests future research directions to advance ESCA literature from theoretical, contextual, and methodological perspectives. This SLR also suggests strategies for e-retailers and marketers to overcome ESCA. Overall, this review is a silver line in ESCA literature.