Most online shoppers who add something to their basket never buy it. The Baymard Institute puts the average documented cart abandonment rate at 70.22%, based on 50 separate studies. Some of that is people browsing or comparing prices, and no website can fix that. A large share is caused by the checkout itself, and that part you can fix.
This guide covers the changes that usually make the biggest difference on Shopify and WooCommerce stores, in the order we would tackle them, and how to measure whether they worked.
Why shoppers leave at checkout
Baymard also asks shoppers why they abandoned an order during checkout. Leaving aside people who were "just browsing", the most common reasons were:
- Extra costs such as shipping, tax or fees were too high: 40%
- Delivery was too slow: 20%
- They did not trust the site with their card details: 19%
- The site wanted them to create an account: 18%
- The checkout was too long or complicated: 17%
- The site had errors or crashed: 17%
- The returns policy was not good enough: 13%
- They could not see the total cost up front: 12%
The survey is of US shoppers, but the pattern matches what we see on UK stores. Nearly every item on the list is something you can change.
1. Show the full price early
Surprise costs are the biggest single reason people leave. Fix it before the checkout starts:
- Show delivery costs, or a free delivery threshold, on product pages and in the basket.
- Add a delivery estimator to the basket so shoppers do not have to enter an address to see the total.
- Show VAT-inclusive prices to consumers, as UK shoppers expect, and do not add unexpected fees at the last step.
2. Let people check out as a guest
Forcing account creation turns a purchase into a sign-up form. Make guest checkout the obvious default and offer to create an account on the confirmation page, when the order is done and you already have their details. Both Shopify and WooCommerce support guest checkout; it is a setting, not a rebuild.
3. Shorten the checkout
Every field is a chance to leave. Go through your checkout and remove anything you do not need to fulfil the order:
- Use one name field where you can, and make phone numbers optional unless your courier needs them.
- Use postcode address lookup so UK shoppers do not type a full address.
- Set the billing address to match delivery by default.
- Use the right mobile keyboard for each field, such as numbers for card details.
- Show clear, specific error messages next to the field, and never clear the form when there is an error.
4. Offer the payment methods people already use
Express wallets such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal and Shop Pay let returning shoppers pay without typing card or address details at all, which matters most on mobile. Buy now, pay later options such as Klarna or Clearpay can help with higher-value orders. Put express options at the top of the checkout rather than at the end.
5. Build trust where it counts
Almost one in five shoppers left because they did not trust the site with their card. Trust comes from lots of small signals:
- A clean, professional design with no broken images, odd fonts or placeholder text
- A clear returns policy linked from product pages and the checkout. Online buyers in the UK generally have a legal right to cancel within 14 days, so say plainly how returns work.
- Real reviews on product pages
- Visible contact details: a phone number, an email address and a UK business address if you have one
- Recognisable payment logos at the payment step
Delivery speed also matters. If you offer next-day delivery, say so on the product page, not only at checkout.
6. Make the store fast, especially on mobile
Speed affects every step of the journey, not only the checkout. In the Deloitte and Google "Milliseconds Make Millions" study, a 0.1-second improvement in mobile site speed was linked to an 8.4% rise in retail conversions.
The usual culprits are oversized images, too many apps or plugins, and third-party scripts such as chat widgets and trackers. Remove apps you do not use, compress and resize images, and delay anything that is not needed for the first view. Our guide to website performance covers the technical side.
This is the approach we took with The Perfume Shop, a luxury fragrance retailer. We moved the store to Shopify with a custom design, focused on speed and improved product filtering and navigation. The result was 25% more mobile conversions and 35% faster page loads.
7. Help people find the right product
Conversion problems often start before the basket. If shoppers cannot find what they want, they never add it. Look at:
- Filters that match how customers shop, such as size, price, brand and occasion
- Search that handles typos and returns useful results for common queries
- Product pages with clear photos, delivery information, stock status and a visible add-to-basket button on mobile
How to measure what works
Before changing anything, set up the tracking to see where people drop out:
- Google Analytics 4: build a funnel exploration from product view to add to basket, begin checkout and purchase. The step with the biggest drop is where to start.
- Microsoft Clarity: a free tool for heatmaps and session recordings. Watching ten recordings of people abandoning checkout often shows the problem faster than any report.
- Segment by device: mobile and desktop usually behave very differently, and most problems show up on mobile first.
A/B testing needs a lot of traffic to give a reliable answer, and many smaller stores do not have enough. If that is you, fix the obvious problems in the list above first, change one thing at a time and compare a few weeks before and after, allowing for seasonal changes. Load recording and analytics tools only after visitors consent, as UK cookie rules require.
Where to start
If you only do three things this month, make them these: show delivery costs before checkout, turn on guest checkout and express payments, and check how fast your store loads on a mid-range phone. They are low-cost changes that tackle the most common reasons shoppers leave.
We design and build Shopify and WooCommerce stores for UK businesses and help existing stores convert better. If you are choosing a platform, read our Shopify vs WooCommerce guide. To talk about your store, see our e-commerce development services or send us your store's URL below.
