Checkout optimization checklist

Work through this when traffic and add to cart rates look healthy but orders do not follow. Checkout is the shortest part of the journey and the most expensive place to lose someone, because every visitor who reaches it has already been paid for. The list runs from the cart, through the form itself, into payment and trust, and finishes with how to test a change without fooling yourself.

Before the checkout starts

Show delivery cost and delivery date on the product page and in the basket.Why: Unexpected shipping cost at the payment step is the most common single reason a basket is abandoned.How: Display an estimate based on the shopper location in the basket summary, and state the delivery window in days rather than a vague promise.
Let shoppers change quantity and remove items without leaving the basket.Why: Sending someone back to the product page to swap a size very often ends the session entirely.How: Use in place quantity controls and a remove link that update the totals without a full page reload.
Offer express payment buttons at the top of the basket.Why: A returning shopper with a stored wallet can complete the order without typing anything at all.How: Enable the wallet options your customers actually use, place them above the standard checkout button, and label the divider between them clearly.
Keep the basket contents when someone signs in mid session.Why: Losing the basket at the sign in step destroys the order, and shoppers rarely rebuild it from scratch.How: Merge the guest basket into the account basket on sign in, and test the behaviour on mobile where sign in often opens a new view.

The form itself

Offer guest checkout as the visible default path.Why: Forcing account creation before payment adds a step that a large share of shoppers will simply refuse.How: Make the guest option the default, and offer account creation from the order confirmation page once the payment has gone through.
Ask only for the fields you use to fulfil or to make contact.Why: Every extra field is another chance to hesitate, mistype or decide the whole thing is too much effort.How: Audit the form field by field, remove company and second address lines unless the courier needs them, and label optional fields as optional.
Use address lookup and the correct mobile keyboard for each field.Why: Typing a full address on a phone is the slowest and most error prone part of any checkout.How: Add postcode based address lookup, set numeric input modes for card and postcode fields, and enable autofill attributes on every input.
Show validation errors beside the field as soon as it loses focus.Why: Errors that only appear after submitting force the shopper to hunt for what went wrong.How: Validate on blur, explain the problem in words rather than a code, and keep every entered value in place after a failed submission.
Keep an order summary with items, shipping and tax visible throughout.Why: Shoppers want to confirm what they are paying for without stepping backwards and losing their place.How: Show the summary alongside the form on desktop and as a collapsible panel at the top on mobile, updating as options change.

Payment and trust

Offer the payment methods your customers already use in each market.Why: A missing local payment method reads as an unfinished store to shoppers in that country.How: Review the payment mix by country in the gateway reports, add the methods that keep appearing, and test each one end to end.
Place the returns promise next to the payment button.Why: The moment before paying is when a shopper thinks hardest about what happens if the product is wrong.How: Add a short line stating the return window and who pays return postage, linked to the full policy without leaving the page.
Stop the discount code field from dominating the page.Why: A prominent empty code box sends shoppers off to search for a code they may never come back from.How: Collapse the field behind a small link, and apply codes from email links automatically so the box is never needed.
Handle payment failures with a message that says what to try next.Why: A generic decline message ends the order instead of prompting a second attempt with another method.How: Show the reason where the gateway provides it, keep the basket intact, and suggest an alternative payment method on the same screen.

Testing and measurement

Complete a real purchase on a phone every month.Why: Apps, theme updates and payment settings change checkout without anyone announcing that they have.How: Buy a low value item on mobile data, note every point where you hesitate, then refund the order and write up what you found.
Measure drop off between basket, checkout start and payment separately.Why: A single abandonment figure hides which step is actually losing the orders you have paid for.How: Set up funnel steps in analytics for each stage, review them weekly, and treat the largest fall as the next thing to fix.
Change one thing at a time and wait for enough orders to judge it.Why: Two simultaneous changes make it impossible to say which of them moved the number.How: Run one variant until the order count is clearly beyond day to day noise, record the result, then move on to the next change.
Watch session recordings of checkouts that ended without an order.Why: Recordings show the exact field where people stall, which no funnel report will ever reveal.How: Filter recordings to sessions that reached checkout without an order, watch a handful each month, and list the friction you see.

Questions

No. Offer account creation after the order is placed rather than before it. You still capture the email address, and you do not lose the sale to a forced signup step.

On the product page and again in the basket. The cost itself abandons far fewer baskets than the surprise of discovering it for the first time at the payment step.

Fewer steps help, but clarity matters more than the count. A three step checkout with a clear progress indicator can beat one long page that hides the final total.

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Checkout optimization checklist

Before the checkout starts

The form itself

Payment and trust

Testing and measurement

Questions

Does guest checkout hurt repeat purchase rates?

Where should I show shipping costs?

How many checkout steps are acceptable?

Related

Your plan is free.