Why it matters
A shopper who reaches checkout has already picked a product and decided to buy. When they leave, something inside checkout stopped them. The usual reasons are different at each step, so the first job is to find the step.
StartedContactAddressShippingPaymentPaid
In the example above, 1,240 shoppers started checkout and 612 paid. Payment lost 251 of them, more than the other three steps together. Below are the usual causes, step by step.
Contact −90
The first step loses the browsers.
- Shoppers who were only checking the total
- A forced account or login
- Email or phone typed wrong and rejected
What to try: Turn off required accounts, and look at how many saw “Email not valid”.
Address −52
Usually a format problem.
- Postal code rejected for the country
- Address lookup that doesn't find the street
- Too many required fields on mobile
What to try: Check the address format for the markets where the error shows up most.
Shipping −57
Where the real cost appears.
- Shipping costs higher than expected
- No rate for the shopper's area
- Delivery slower than they wanted
What to try: Add a rate for the zones shoppers keep typing, and show shipping cost before checkout.
Payment −251
The most expensive step on most stores.
- Card declined by the bank
- Their preferred way to pay isn't offered
- Security code or card number errors
What to try: Offer a second way to pay, like Shop Pay or PayPal, so a decline isn't the end.
How to find yours
- Find the step with the biggest drop, not the lowest conversion rate.
- Look at the errors shoppers saw on that step, ranked by how many left after them.
- Open a few shopper timelines to see the pattern in order.
- Fix one thing, then compare the same step a week later.
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See also: the checkout step funnel and checkout errors, ranked by cost.