In SQL, cart abandonment rate for the whole period is ROUND(100.0 * (SUM(add_to_carts) - SUM(orders)) / SUM(add_to_carts), 2) over the monthly table. On the sample data it returns 72.36.
Cart abandonment rate = (Carts created − Orders) ÷ Carts created × 100
What you need
Cart abandonment rate is the percentage of shopping carts that never become an order: carts created minus completed orders, divided by carts created, times 100. You need these columns, here from the sample file monthly.csv:
- add_to_carts: sessions with an add-to-cart
- orders: orders
CREATE TABLE monthly (
month TEXT, -- 'YYYY-MM'
add_to_carts INTEGER,
orders INTEGER
);Step by step
- Load monthly.csv into a table called monthly. The table only needs the month column and the columns below.
- Run the first query to get one row per month.
- Run the whole-period query. It adds up each column first and divides once; averaging the monthly results gives a different, usually wrong, answer.
The queries
SELECT
month,
ROUND(100.0 * (add_to_carts - orders) / NULLIF(add_to_carts, 0), 2) AS cart_abandonment_rate
FROM monthly
ORDER BY month;SELECT ROUND(100.0 * (SUM(add_to_carts) - SUM(orders)) / NULLIF(SUM(add_to_carts), 0), 2) AS cart_abandonment_rate
FROM monthly;What you should get
Run against the sample data, the code above returns these values (in percent):
| Month | add_to_carts | orders | cart_abandonment_rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-01 | 2,480 | 702 | 71.69% |
| 2026-02 | 2,700 | 748 | 72.30% |
| 2026-03 | 2,950 | 812 | 72.47% |
| 2026-04 | 2,690 | 771 | 71.34% |
| 2026-05 | 3,150 | 846 | 73.14% |
| 2026-06 | 3,380 | 917 | 72.87% |
| Whole period | 17,350 | 4,796 | 72.36% |
(17,350 − 4,796) ÷ 17,350 × 100 = 72.36%
Notes for SQL
- Integer columns divide as integers in PostgreSQL, SQLite and SQL Server, so 3 / 4 gives 0. Multiplying by 1.0 (or 100.0) first makes the division decimal.
- NULLIF(x, 0) turns a zero denominator into NULL, so the query returns NULL for that row instead of failing with a division-by-zero error.
- Tested on SQLite and DuckDB. SUM, NULLIF and ROUND work the same in PostgreSQL, MySQL and BigQuery; SQL Server uses TOP instead of LIMIT where a query has one.
Where cart abandonment rate misleads
- Use sessions with a cart, not add-to-cart clicks, as the denominator.
- An order from a cart created in an earlier session still counts as a recovered cart. Over a month this evens out; over a day it does not.
- Cart abandonment and checkout abandonment are different stages. Do not compare one brand's cart figure with another's checkout figure.
The full explanation, with a calculator, is on the Cart abandonment rate page.
Same metric, other tools
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- How to find out what changed in your sales data — 2 min read
About the data on this page
The figures come from a small made-up dataset, printed above in full so you can check every number by hand. Download it as monthly.csv. The results are computed from those rows when the page is built, and the Excel formulas, SQL and Python on these pages are run against the same rows before publishing, so the code and the answers agree.
To get these numbers from your own data without writing formulas, try AnalyzeIt: ask in plain words and it shows the working behind every figure.
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