Why shoppers abandon checkout, and what to fix first

Find where they leave

Checkout is a sequence: basket, contact details, delivery, payment, confirmation. Your analytics can count how many shoppers reach each step.

There is nearly always one step where the number falls sharply. Start there. Redesigning the whole checkout on instinct often fixes the steps that were already working.

Costs that appear late

A shopper sees a price, decides, and then meets delivery charges, tax or fees on the final screen. The total is no longer the number they agreed to, and many stop.

Show the delivery cost as early as you can, on the product page or in the basket. If delivery is free above a certain amount, say so before checkout, not during it.

Forced accounts

Asking for a password before a first purchase puts a task in front of someone who is trying to give you money.

Let people buy as guests. Offer to save their details as an account after the order is placed, when it costs them one click and they have a reason to want it.

Too many fields

• Ask only for what you need to deliver the order.
• Let the browser and the phone fill in what they already know.
• Show errors beside the field, as they happen, in plain words.
• Never clear a form because one field was wrong.

Every field is a small reason to stop. A phone number that is optional should say so.

Payment and trust

• Offer the methods people in your market expect: local cards, wallets, and cash on delivery where it is common.
• Show the returns policy and delivery time where the decision is made.
• Keep the checkout looking like the rest of the store. A sudden change of style reads as a warning.

A shopper who cannot pay the way they normally pay does not usually look for an alternative. They leave.

Design for the phone first

A large share of shopping happens on phones, often with one hand and a moving connection. Buttons need to be big enough to tap, the right keyboard should appear for numbers and email addresses, and the page should hold together when the signal drops for a moment.

After they leave

Some shoppers leave because they were interrupted, not because anything went wrong. A saved basket that is still there when they return, and a single reminder where you have permission to send one, bring a share of them back.

These are the last step, though. Reminders recover people who meant to buy. They do not fix a checkout that drove people away.