A customer adds a product to cart, reaches checkout and leaves.
At that point, the problem is usually checkout friction: too many fields, unexpected costs, an unfamiliar payment method or a card decline.
Baymard's current research puts the average ecommerce cart-abandonment rate at about 70%. It also finds that 17% of US online shoppers have abandoned an order because the checkout felt too long or complicated.
At that point, the problem is usually checkout friction: too many fields, unexpected costs, an unfamiliar payment method or a card decline.
Baymard's current research puts the average ecommerce cart-abandonment rate at about 70%. It also finds that 17% of US online shoppers have abandoned an order because the checkout felt too long or complicated.
TL;DR
- Checkout optimization improves the steps between cart and successful payment by reducing form, pricing, trust, payment and technical friction.
- Start with guest checkout, fewer form fields, autofill and clear total costs before redesigning the entire checkout.
- For international ecommerce, local payment methods, wallets, currency presentation and card-payment success become additional conversion factors.
- Measure checkout completion, payment success and abandonment by market so you fix the friction that is actually costing revenue.
Diagnose checkout friction before redesigning the page
Not every abandoned cart is fixable. Some customers are browsing or comparing prices.
But checkout-specific abandonment often falls into four buckets:
| Friction | Typical symptom |
|---|---|
| Form friction | Buyer gives up while entering details |
| Price/trust friction | Buyer leaves after seeing the final total |
| Payment friction | Preferred method is missing or payment fails |
| Technical friction | Page, validation or mobile experience breaks |
1. Remove form friction
Offer guest checkout
Do not force a customer to create an account before paying.
Baymard reports that 18% of surveyed US adults abandoned an order because they did not want to create an account.
Make guest checkout prominent. Account creation can happen after the order is complete.
Reduce unnecessary fields
Remove fields that are not required to fulfil or process the order. Hide optional inputs until needed.
Support autofill and address lookup
Use browser-compatible field labels and allow customers to autofill names, addresses and payment information.
2. Remove price and trust friction
Show the real order total early
Shipping, taxes and other unavoidable charges should not first appear beside the Pay button.
Baymard's abandonment research identifies inability to see or calculate total order cost upfront as a reason shoppers leave.
Show:
- product total
- delivery cost
- applicable taxes
- discounts
- final payable amount
For international shoppers, also make the transaction currency unmistakable.
Put reassurance where hesitation happens
Near checkout, make it easy to find:
- returns/refund policy
- delivery estimate
- accepted payment methods
- secure-payment information
- customer-support route
3. Remove payment friction
Offer payment methods that fit the market
Cards may be enough in one market and incomplete in another.
For global ecommerce, this can include:
- international cards
- Apple Pay or Google Pay
- relevant local/alternate payment methods
Make currency clear
A buyer should understand what currency they are being charged in before authorising payment.
Do not confuse displaying a local currency at checkout with how the merchant eventually settles the funds. These are separate payment decisions.
Treat card declines as checkout friction
A well-designed form cannot recover a legitimate customer whose payment is declined.
International-card performance can depend on:
- issuer behaviour
- authentication
- fraud controls
- routing
- transaction data
Use useful failure messages
Do not stop at "Payment failed".
Give the customer a clear next action: check details, authenticate again, retry or use another payment method.
4. Remove technical friction
Design for mobile checkout first
Mobile customers have less space and less tolerance for unnecessary typing.
Use:
- large tap targets
- appropriate mobile keyboards
- short forms
- visible error states
- wallet checkout where supported
Test on real devices, not only a resized desktop browser.
Choose checkout flow by complexity
A single-page checkout can work for simple purchases.
A multi-step checkout can make a more complex purchase easier to understand when each step is clear and progress is visible.
An embedded checkout keeps payment entry within the merchant experience, while a hosted checkout sends the customer to a provider-hosted payment page.
Test errors, not just the happy path
Before launch, test:
- invalid cards
- expired cards
- authentication failures
- incorrect addresses
- slow connections
- double clicks
- refresh/back-button behaviour
What should you measure after checkout optimization?
Checkout completion rate
How many people who start checkout complete an order?
Payment success rate
How many attempted payments succeed?
Abandonment by step
Where in the checkout do buyers leave?
Performance by country and payment method
Does one market, issuer region or method underperform?
Mobile vs desktop completion
Is the mobile experience creating disproportionate losses?
Use A/B testing for meaningful changes such as guest-checkout prominence, field reduction or payment-method presentation.
Increase international checkout success with PayGlocal
For Indian businesses selling globally, some checkout problems sit inside the payment layer rather than the page design.
PayGlocal's international payment gateway currently combines:
- international cards
- Apple Pay and Google Pay
- local and alternate payment methods
- localised checkout
- intelligent routing
- 3DS optimisation
- real-time fraud scoring
- recurring payments
PayGlocal currently advertises up to 96% international payment success rate and supports collections from 180+ countries.
