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The good news is that potential customers are no longer abandoning online shopping carts because of technology issues. The bad news is that complex order processes continue to cause them to drop off.

Between half and 90% of orders placed in a shopping cart are abandoned before “checkout,” according to a study conducted by Kefta Inc., a San Francisco-based technology and service provider. These are not idle browsers: Two-thirds of the individuals who filled out a point-of-abandonment survey indicated they were serious about making a purchase.

Fewer than 10% said site usability led them to ditch their purchase, a turnaround from past studies. Instead, many cited personal reasons, such as needing to do more research, needing to talk to a sales rep, being uncomfortable buying online or being cost-shy. “What I call the soft reasons,” said Philippe Suchet, CEO of Kefta.

There are also several industries, such as financial services or telecoms, which require detailed information in order to generate a product best suited for the shopper. “For a number of those products, you have a large number of steps,” said Suchet.

He continued, “The questions go beyond your name and contact information. The complexity of a calling plan, the offline and online length of the sales process, and the fact that often these are not impulse purchases. These lead to a pretty high number of consumers to abandon before completion.”

Suchet recommends looking at the point of abandonment and determining the key factor that led to it. “Maybe [the marketer] should sweeten the deal,” he suggests. “Maybe I should offer them a chance to speak with my sales rep. May be I can follow up at a relevant time – a week or two later when they will be in a better position to buy.”

Kefta based its results on more than 3,000 completed surveys, which were served to customers at the point of abandonment across a wide swath off Web sites.