What’s Driving Cart Abandonment This Holiday Season?
50% of BFCM shoppers abandoned carts because taxes, fees or shipping charges made their final totals feel too high, per Wunderkind.
Economic pressures are shaping this holiday shopping season in tangible ways, especially since nearly 60% of consumers report coming into December with some sort of financial anxiety, according to a recent study by Wunderkind. This has led shoppers to become “cautious, calculating and increasingly strategic” with their wallets.
A central theme revealed by the study is that "every dollar must feel justified.” And one place where this is coming into play is the online shopping cart.
Cart abandonment has become a defining behavior of the 2025 holiday season, driven largely by rising fees, tariff-related costs and increasingly strategic consumer habits. Half of all shoppers (50%) abandoned carts during Black Friday/Cyber Monday because taxes, fees or shipping charges made their final totals feel too high — a clear sign that pricing add-ons are now one of the most decisive barriers to conversion. Another 45% walked away because discounts didn’t meet their expectations, underscoring growing skepticism toward inflated or unclear promotions.
Younger consumers are especially sensitive to inflated totals: 42% of Gen Z cited tariff-related price increases as a reason they ditched their carts. But people aren’t just abandoning out of frustration — they’re also using carts as a negotiation tactic. Just over one-third of Millennials (34%) intentionally abandoned carts to trigger better deals.
“This behavior reflects a deeper mistrust of promotional pricing,” says Jennifer Yeadon, Director of Content at Wunderkind. “While retailers often lean on steep markdowns to convey urgency, the consumer’s final decision hinges on the total cost, an area where many shoppers experienced unwelcome surprises.”
Yeadon notes that this has a clear implication for marketers: ‘Perceived value is now as important as actual value. When total costs feel inflated or unclear, even high-intent shoppers hesitate.”
For more consumer trends this holiday season, check out Wunderkind’s full December report here.