From Abandoned Carts to Approved Sales

Why checkout is silently killing your ROAS and how a performance network layer can recover high-intent shoppers without blowing your margins.

Ascendia Prime: Redefining performance marketing through clarity, strategy and results.

You’ve done the hard part.You paid for the click, won the impression, got the user to browse, add to cart…

…and then 70% of them walk away.

Welcome to the quiet crisis of e-commerce:👉 low conversion and extreme cart abandonment.

At Ascendia Prime, we see this pattern across verticals and markets every single day. Agencies, brands and media buyers are getting more sophisticated at acquisition—but most still bleed profit at the checkout.

Let’s talk about why that’s happening, and how a performance network like Ascendia can help you plug the leaks instead of just pouring in more traffic.

The leakiest place in your funnel: checkout

Depending on the study you look at, average global cart abandonment sits comfortably above 70%, and pushes into 73–80% around Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

In plain English:

For every 10 people who say “I want this” and add to cart,only 2–3 actually pay you.

The reasons are depressingly consistent:

• Extra costs appear too lateShipping, taxes, fees – all revealed at the final step. Customers feel ambushed.

• Forced account creation“Create an account to continue” is a conversion-killer, especially on mobile and for first-time buyers.

• Long, clunky checkoutsToo many fields, unclear progress, no wallet/pay-later options, poor mobile UX.

• Lack of trustNo clear security signals, weak branding, vague return policy, outdated design – the user gets nervous with their card in hand.

  
  

You know this already. What’s changing is the context:

With rising CAC, every abandoned cart is more expensive than last year.

If your acquisition costs are going up and your checkout is still leaking at 70%+, you’re not “under-optimised” – you’re subsidising your competitors.

Stop treating abandonment as “normal”

Most brands and agencies accept high abandonment like bad weather: annoying, but inevitable.

So they react with the same two moves:

1. Buy more traffic“We’ll make up the loss on volume.” (You won’t, not for long.)

2. Throw a generic email at itA single “Hey, you left something behind” email with no segmentation, no incentive strategy and no testing.

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That’s not a strategy. That’s coping.

At Ascendia Prime, we encourage partners to treat abandonment as a high-intent, high-value audience that deserves its own growth plan.

Because here’s the good news:

The people who abandon are not random visitors – they’re your warmest prospects.

They found you.They engaged with your product.They liked it enough to put it in the basket.

You’ve already paid to earn that moment. Let’s not waste it.

Where a performance network changes the game

As a network, Ascendia sits in a unique position:

• We can see which funnels, checkout flows and recovery tactics are working across multiple brands and verticals.

• We work with partners who specialise in retargeting, remarketing, email, push, vouchers, and loyalty—the exact tools you need to bring abandoners back.

• And we operate on performance terms: you pay when the recovery happens, not for yet another impression.

  
  

Here’s how agencies and e-commerces use us to turn abandonment from a loss into a performance lever.

1. Build a recovery layer, not just a reminder email

Instead of one bland reminder, Ascendia can help you orchestrate a multi-channel recovery sequence through our partners:

• Dynamic retargeting that shows the exact product(s) they abandoned.

• On-brand voucher & loyalty partners that provide a small, targeted incentive (not margin-killing blanket discounts).

• Email and browser push players who specialise in short, persuasive sequences:– “You left this behind”– “Still thinking about it?”– “Last chance before your basket expires”

  
  

Because it’s performance-based, you’re not gambling extra budget—you’re only paying when the cart converts.

2. Turn checkout friction into a test plan

Through the network, we see patterns: which checkouts convert, which scare people off.

We work with you and/or your agency to:

• Identify obvious friction (forced account, too many fields, no PayPal/Apple Pay, unclear delivery times).

• Align partners with your changes – when you deploy a new checkout, we coordinate with your performance publishers so messaging, creatives and landers are consistent.

• Feed conversion data back into campaign selection – offers and flows that convert better get more exposure; leaky ones don’t.

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You keep control of your brand and UX; we make sure traffic flows to the best-performing experiences first.

3. Smart incentives, not a race to the bottom

The instinctive answer to abandonment is “add a coupon”.

Sometimes that’s right; often, it’s lazy.

With network data, we can help you:

• Segment incentives– First-time buyer vs returning customer– High-AOV cart vs low-AOV cart– Full-price collection vs clearance

• Cap discounts intelligentlyOffer just enough to push the fence-sitters over the line, not a universal 20–30% you didn’t need to give away.

• Use non-discount perksFree shipping thresholds, free samples, loyalty points, extended returns – sometimes these close the sale without touching the price.

  
  

Our goal is to lift conversion without destroying margin. As a performance network, our incentives are aligned with yours: more approved revenue, not just bigger headline discounts.

4. Make trust visible where it matters most

Remember: the final abandonment decision happens when the card comes out.

We encourage all Ascendia advertisers to make their trust stack obvious on checkout and key landers:

• Recognisable payment methods & security badges

• Clear return & refund policies

• Delivery times stated upfront

• Real reviews, ideally from trusted platforms

  
  

Why does a network care about this?

Because trust doesn’t just improve your conversion; it improves:

• Affiliate EPC (they earn more per click)

• Approval rates

• Long-term partner appetite to send you traffic

  
  

A high-trust checkout benefits everyone in the ecosystem.

So what’s the move for you?

If you’re an agency:

• Bring clients a new story:

  “We’re not just driving more traffic; we’re partnering with Ascendia to recover and convert the traffic you already paid for, on a pure performance basis.”

• Use us to access retargeting, recovery and loyalty partners without building those relationships one by one.

  
  

If you’re an e-commerce brand:

• Stop seeing abandonment as “just how it is”.

• Start seeing it as the warmest audience you have—one that a performance network can help you monetise far more efficiently.

  
  

Your next step with Ascendia Prime

Here’s a simple, low-risk way to start:

1. Take one key funnel – your top product line or a strong Q4 offer.

2. Share your current abandonment and conversion numbers with us (even rough).

3. Run a 60–90 day recovery test through Ascendia:

   • Selected retargeting + email + voucher/loyalty partners

   • Performance-only (no setup fees, no overrides, same commission structure you’re used to)

   • Clear reporting on recovered carts, incremental revenue and effective CPA

At the end of the test you’ll know, in black and white, whether a network-driven recovery layer moves the needle on revenue per visitor and overall CAC.

If it doesn’t, you have clarity.If it does, you’ve just plugged one of the biggest leaks in your growth machine.

Ascendia Prime exists to make your traffic work harder.

You’re already paying to bring people to the door.Let’s make sure they actually walk through the checkout.

👉 Ready to turn abandoned carts into approved revenue? Reach out to Ascendia Prime and let’s design a performance recovery plan tailored to your funnel. Book a courtesy call here