3D for e-commerce3 min read
What a product page can do to reduce cart abandonment
Baymard puts average cart abandonment at 70 percent, most of it from shipping costs and checkout. The causes a 3D model on the product page can affect.
By CharpstAR · 25 Sept 2023 · Updated 30 Sept 2026
Cart abandonment has about a dozen documented causes. A 3D model on the product page affects one of them, and not the largest. We build 3D and AR for retailers, and we still think the model is worth having, mainly for what it does to returns.
What the Baymard data shows
The Baymard Institute maintains a list of 50 separate cart abandonment studies, in its 2026 edition last updated in September 2025. The average documented abandonment rate across them is 70.22 percent, and because it aggregates many studies it doesn't depend on one company's sample.
The same page breaks down why people abandon, from Baymard's latest survey of US online shoppers. Leaving aside the 42 percent who said they were just browsing, the stated reasons are:
| Reason for abandonment | Share | Can a product page fix it? |
|---|---|---|
| Extra costs too high: shipping, tax, fees | 40 percent | No. This is a pricing and shipping-policy problem |
| Delivery was too slow | 20 percent | No |
| Did not trust the site with card details | 19 percent | Partly, through overall site quality |
| Site required account creation | 18 percent | No. This is a checkout decision |
| Checkout too long or complicated | 17 percent | No |
| Website errors or crashes | 17 percent | No. A heavy model can make it worse |
| Unsatisfactory returns policy | 13 percent | No |
| Could not see total cost upfront | 12 percent | No |
| Card declined | 10 percent | No |
| Not enough payment methods | 9 percent | No |
Most of the causes on that list sit in the checkout or in your commercial terms, and 3D on the product page doesn't change them. If abandonment is your biggest problem, show the total cost early, allow guest checkout and shorten the form.
Shoppers who never add to cart
Baymard's list covers the reasons shoppers give for abandoning a cart they had already filled. It leaves out the shopper who put nothing in the cart because they couldn't tell whether the sofa would fit or what the fabric looked like. That hesitation shows up as a low add-to-cart rate, and a 3D model works on that part of the funnel. Sweef's modular sofa configurator, for example, lets a shopper settle the layout and place it in the room before anything goes in the cart.
That difference matters when you decide what to buy 3D for, because its effect is on uncertainty before the cart and on returns after the purchase.
The cost of returns
The National Retail Federation, with Appriss Retail, put US retail returns at 743 billion dollars in 2023, 14.5 percent of sales, with the online rate at 17.6 percent and worth 247 billion.
The order to do the work in
If the goal is lower abandonment, do the work in this order.
- Show shipping cost and total price before the cart instead of at the final step. Extra costs are the largest cause on the list.
- Allow guest checkout. Eighteen percent of abandoners cite forced account creation.
- Cut the checkout to the minimum number of fields.
- Fix errors and page speed, and keep your 3D assets small. Google recommends models under 10 MB for Scene Viewer.
- Then improve the product page with real dimensions, accurate material descriptions, a 3D model and an AR button.
Step five is the work we do (solutions). It comes last because the first four steps have a larger effect on abandonment.
What a 3D model does for the product page
With a 3D model, fewer people leave the product page unsure and fewer buy and then send the product back. Both show up in your own add-to-cart and return rates, and neither is counted as cart abandonment.
Sources
- Baymard Institute, cart abandonment rate statistics and reasons, 2026 edition.
- National Retail Federation and Appriss Retail, 2023 Consumer Returns in the Retail Industry.
- Google, Scene Viewer model size recommendations.
