Checkout Optimization and Cart Abandonment: Fixing the 70% Problem
Roughly 70 percent of online shopping carts get abandoned before checkout completes, according to research aggregated by the Baymard Institute across dozens of studies (Uber Eats Merchants, citing Baymard Institute). That means for every ten customers who add something to their cart, roughly seven leave without buying, which makes checkout one of the highest-leverage places to fix friction on your entire site.
This guide covers why carts actually get abandoned, how to reduce checkout friction, and how to recover some of those lost sales afterward. It builds on our broader guide to website conversion, which covers this alongside trust signals, email capture, and wishlist features.
Why Carts Get Abandoned
Unexpected costs at checkout, like shipping fees or taxes not shown earlier in the process, are consistently cited as the single biggest reason for abandonment. Being asked to create an account before completing a purchase and slow estimated delivery times both follow closely behind as major factors.
Notice that none of these reasons are about the product itself. A customer who’s already added an item to their cart has decided they want it. What pushes them away at checkout is friction and surprise, both of which are fixable through design and process decisions.
Reducing Checkout Friction
- Reinforce trust signals at checkout specifically. This is exactly the moment customers are thinking about payment security.
Test your own checkout process periodically as an actual customer would, since it’s easy to lose sight of friction points once you’re used to your own site’s workflow.
Guest Checkout and Form Length
Guest checkout should always be the default, visible option, not something a customer has to hunt for. You can still offer account creation as an optional step after the purchase completes, capturing the benefit without adding friction before checkout finishes.
Review your checkout form field by field and ask whether each one is genuinely necessary. Combining fields where possible, like a single full name field instead of separate first and last name fields, can meaningfully shorten the perceived effort of checking out.
Recovering Abandoned Carts
Not every abandoned cart is lost permanently. An abandoned cart email, sent within a few hours of the abandonment, can recover a meaningful share of these customers, especially when it includes a direct link back to their exact cart rather than requiring them to rebuild it manually.
This connects directly to your email marketing setup, since capturing an email address before checkout completes, even if the purchase isn’t finished, is what makes this recovery tactic possible in the first place.
Common Mistakes
- Hiding shipping costs until the final step. Unexpected costs are the single most cited reason for cart abandonment.
- Requiring account creation. Always offer guest checkout as the default, visible path.
- Long, unnecessary forms. Every extra field is an opportunity for a customer to lose patience and leave.
- No abandoned cart follow-up. A significant share of abandoned carts can be recovered with a well-timed email.
Frequently Asked Questions About Checkout Optimization
Research aggregated by the Baymard Institute puts the average cart abandonment rate at roughly 70 percent across dozens of studies, meaning most visitors who add an item to their cart don’t complete the purchase.
Unexpected costs at checkout, like shipping fees or taxes not shown earlier in the process, are consistently cited as the single biggest reason for abandonment, followed by being required to create an account and slow estimated delivery times.
No. Guest checkout should be the default, visible option. You can still offer account creation as an optional step after the purchase completes, capturing the benefit without adding friction before checkout finishes.
Yes, a meaningful share can be recovered with a well-timed abandoned cart email sent within a few hours, especially one that includes a direct link back to the customer’s exact cart rather than requiring them to rebuild it manually.
Ask only for information genuinely needed to complete the order, and combine fields where possible, such as a single full name field instead of separate first and last name fields, to shorten the perceived effort of checking out.
