Checkout optimisation checklist: 12 practical fixes to reduce cart abandonment

The average cart abandonment rate sits at 70.22% across 50 studies tracked by the Baymard Institute and research shows that fixing checkout UX issues alone can increase conversions by up to 35.26%. That is a significant amount of recoverable revenue sitting in plain sight. The good news is that most of the causes are fixable. In most cases, the issue is not price or purchase intent, its checkout friction, the small unnecessary obstacles buried in the checkout process.

In 2024, nearly a quarter of all initiated online transactions in the UK were abandoned, contributing to an estimated £38 billion in lost revenue. That figure does not account for the downstream cost of failed payments, a separate but related problem. Access PaySuite's own research found that UK businesses lose an average of £159,500 per year to failed transactions, with 55.8% of those failures never recovered at all. 

The two problems compound each other. A customer who abandons once is unlikely to return. In the UK, approximately 1 in 4 of abandoned carts result in customers purchasing from a competitor.

1. Show all costs before checkout begins 

48% of shoppers abandon their carts due to unexpected additional costs like shipping, taxes, and fees. The fix is straightforward: surface the full cost earlier. Display a shipping cost estimator on the cart page, before customers even enter checkout. Showing taxes and fees upfront eliminates the sticker shock that causes nearly half of all abandonments.

Check: 

• Are delivery costs visible on the product page or cart, not just at payment? 
• Are taxes and any additional fees itemised before the customer enters their details? 
• If exact shipping requires an address, do you show an estimated range? 

2. Offer guest checkout 

Over a quarter of users (26%) abandon when forced to create an account. Requiring registration at the point of purchase introduces friction at exactly the wrong moment. 

Make "Checkout as Guest" a prominent option, just as visible as "Login" or "Create Account". You can always offer the chance to create an account after the purchase is complete, at that point they have already committed, and the offer is far more likely to be accepted. 

Check: 

• Is guest checkout available and clearly signposted? 
• Is account creation offered post-purchase rather than as a barrier to it? 

3. Reduce form fields to the minimum 

Research indicates that the perceived effort of a checkout is directly correlated to the number of visible form fields. A standard checkout should ideally consist of only six to eight fields. Address autocomplete tools can reduce the number of required keystrokes by up to 80%. Defaulting the billing address to match the shipping address and using a single "Full Name" field rather than separate first and last name boxes also helps. 

Check: 

• Have you audited your form for fields that are not strictly necessary? 
• Is address autocomplete enabled? 
• Does billing address default to shipping address with an option to change? 

4. Add a progress indicator 

Letting customers know where they are in the process reduces uncertainty. A simple progress bar or numbered steps, for example: Shipping > Payment > Review, gives shoppers confidence and a sense of control, increasing their willingness to complete the process. 

This is particularly important for multi-step checkouts, where customers can feel lost or unsure how much more is required of them. 

Check: 

• Is there a visible progress indicator on every step of the checkout? 
• Does it show how many steps remain, not just where the customer currently is? 

5. Offer the right payment methods 

Payment friction is a leading cause of checkout abandonment, with 13% of shoppers abandoning specifically because their preferred payment method is not available. Digital wallets are no longer optional, they are the dominant payment method in global ecommerce. In 2025, digital wallets accounted for 49–56% of global ecommerce transaction value. Businesses that offered Apple Pay saw an average 22.3% increase in conversion and a 22.5% boost in revenue, according to research. 

Beyond wallets, Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) is increasingly relevant. BNPL options improve conversion by reducing abandonment by 10% and increased revenue by 14%. 

Check: 

• Do you offer digital wallets (Apple Pay, Google Pay)? 
• Is BNPL available for higher-value purchases? 
• Are payment method logos visible before the customer reaches the payment step? 

6. Display trust signals prominently 

With nearly 20% of abandonments linked to a lack of trust, the visual communication of security is critical. Technical badges such as SSL and Visa/Mastercard logos reassure the user of data safety, while service badges reassure them of the brand's integrity. 

Check: 

• Is the padlock/HTTPS indicator visible throughout checkout? 
• Are recognised payment provider logos displayed on the payment page? 
• Are returns and refund policies clearly linked from the checkout page? 

7. Optimise for mobile 

Mobile now drives over 72% of ecommerce traffic but converts at less than half the desktop rate, making the mobile checkout experience the single largest conversion gap for most businesses. Mobile users have the highest shopping cart abandonment rates at 75.5%. 

Check: 

• Is your checkout fully responsive and tested on multiple devices? 
• Are tap targets (buttons, fields) large enough for thumb navigation? 
• Is autofill enabled for payment and address fields on mobile? 
• Does the keyboard type match the input field - numeric for card numbers, email for email addresses? 

8. Improve page load speed 

Page load speed directly affects abandonment rates. According to Google, 53% of mobile users abandon sites that take longer than three seconds to load. 

Check: 

• Does your checkout page load in under three seconds on mobile? 
• Have you compressed images and removed unnecessary scripts from the checkout flow? 
• Are Core Web Vitals scores acceptable for the checkout page specifically? 

9. Remove distractions from the checkout page 

The sole objective of a checkout page is to facilitate a transaction. Any element that does not serve this goal should be removed, including the main site navigation, search bars, promotional banners, and social media icons. 

Every link that takes a customer away from checkout is a potential exit. Strip the page back to what is needed to complete the purchase. 

Check: 

• Is the main navigation hidden or removed on the checkout page? 
• Are there any promotional banners or outbound links that could pull the customer away? 

10. Use real-time field validation 

Nothing breaks checkout momentum like submitting a form and receiving a generic error message. Real-time validation (flagging issues as the customer types rather than after they submit) keeps the experience moving. 

Check: 

• Does your checkout validate fields inline, as the customer fills them in? 
• Are error messages specific and helpful, for example, "Card number must be 16 digits" rather than "Invalid input"? 
• Is the submit button clearly labelled with the action "Pay now" or "Complete order" rather than just "Submit"?

11. Set up abandoned checkout recovery 

Even a well-optimised checkout will lose some customers. When timed correctly and personalised, abandoned cart emails can recover 10–30% of abandoned checkouts. Sending the first email within an hour is most effective. 

Check: 

• Do you have an automated abandoned checkout email sequence in place? 
• Does the first email go out within 60 minutes of abandonment? 
• Does the email link directly back to the abandoned cart, not just the homepage?

12. Monitor and address payment failures 

Checkout optimisation does not end at the point of submission. A payment that fails at the final step is functionally the same as an abandonment - the customer leaves without completing their purchase, and the revenue is lost. 

Access PaySuite's research found that the average UK business has a 3.4% transaction failure rate, with more than half of those failures never recovered. Monitoring decline reasons, optimising retry logic and ensuring your payment infrastructure handles failures gracefully are all part of a complete checkout strategy. 

Check: 

• Do you have visibility into your payment failure rate and the reasons behind declines? 
• Is there a clear, helpful message shown to customers when a payment fails? 
• Do you have retry logic in place for recoverable failures? 

If working through all 12 points feels like a significant undertaking, start with the three that typically have the highest immediate impact: showing costs upfront, enabling guest checkout, and expanding your payment method coverage. Between them, these three fixes address the majority of avoidable abandonment reasons. 

For a more complete picture of where your checkout is losing revenue, including payment failure rates and recovery gaps, Access PaySuite is offering a ‘Checkout Health Check’. Contact a member of our team to find out more.