Push It Cross the Finish Line—Designing Online Interfaces to Induce Choice Closure at the Postdecision Prepurchase Stage

Practice- and Policy-oriented Abstract Shopping cart abandonment, where people leave items in their carts without completing the purchase, has been a persistent issue in e-commerce for many years. One reason shoppers abandon their carts is because they don’t feel their decision to buy is final. Our study focuses on interface interventions that can help make decisions feel final. By drawing upon theories about why people feel uneasy with their choices, we examine how these interface interventions can ease negative feelings and help people commit to their decisions and complete their purchase. We conducted a series of controlled experiments to test interface interventions that provide users with direct support (i.e., coupons) and social support (i.e., social endorsements) for their choices. Our findings show that these interventions help reduce negative feelings and make decisions feel more final (i.e., a sense of choice closure), ultimately leading to greater customer satisfaction with their decisions.