01Why people leave at checkout
Baymard Institute puts the average documented cart abandonment rate at 70.22%, based on 50 studies. 1 Some of that is just browsing. Among the reasons people gave for leaving during checkout, the biggest were: 1
- Extra costs too high (shipping, tax, fees): 40%
- Delivery too slow: 20%
- Didn't trust the site with card details: 19%
- Had to create an account: 18%
- Checkout too long or complicated: 17%
- Website errors or crashes: 17%
02Seven fixes, quickest first
- Show the full cost early. Put shipping and any fees on the product page or in the cart, not on the last step.
- Allow guest checkout. Offer an account after the order, not before it.
- Cut the form. Ask only for what you need to deliver and bill. Combine name fields, use address lookup and the right keyboard on phones.
- Show trust where the card goes. Clear payment logos, a secure-payment note and a visible returns policy next to the payment step.
- Offer the payment methods people expect. Cards plus the wallets your buyers use, such as Apple Pay, Google Pay or PayPal.
- Be honest about delivery. Give a date or range before payment, not after.
- Remove errors. Test the whole checkout on real phones, with typos, expired cards and slow connections, and fix every dead end.
03How to prove it worked
Track the checkout as a funnel: cart, details, delivery, payment, confirmation. Change one thing at a time and compare the drop-off at each step over the same number of weeks. Small shops won't have the traffic for strict A/B tests, so look for steady improvement rather than one dramatic day.
04Speed and accessibility count too
A checkout that freezes when someone taps “Pay” loses orders. So does a form that a screen-reader user can't complete. Keep interactions fast (see why sites are slow on phones) and labels clear (see the European Accessibility Act in plain English), especially if you sell to EU customers.
FAQQuestions people ask
What is a normal cart abandonment rate?
Baymard Institute's average across 50 studies is 70.22%. Some abandonment is just people browsing, but a large share is caused by fixable checkout problems.
Should I force customers to create an account?
No. Required account creation is one of the top reasons people abandon. Offer guest checkout and invite them to save their details after ordering.
What is the quickest checkout fix?
Show the full cost, including shipping and fees, before the last step. Unexpected costs are the biggest single reason people leave.
SRCSources
- Cart abandonment rate statisticsBaymard Institute
Every figure links to its original source. Checked on 18 October 2026.