Someone chose a product, picked a size, added it to the cart and then left. That is a shopper who had already decided they wanted the thing. Almost every reason they did not finish is something the store did, which means almost every reason is fixable.
This is not about recovering every cart. Some abandonment is normal — people compare, people use the cart as a wishlist, people get interrupted. It is about the ones you are losing for no good reason.
First, know what you are measuring
Before changing anything, separate two different events. A shopper who adds to the cart and leaves is browsing. A shopper who starts the checkout, enters an address and then leaves had their wallet out. The second group is where the money is, and they usually leave for a specific, identifiable reason.
Set up ecommerce tracking so you can see where people drop out, then work from the biggest drop rather than from a list of best practices.
Cause 1: costs that appear at the last step
This is the big one, and it is not only shipping. It is anything the shopper did not know about until the final screen — delivery, taxes, handling, a surcharge for the payment method.
- Show delivery cost before checkout, on the product page or in the cart. A shipping estimator in the cart removes most of this problem.
- If you have a free shipping threshold, tell people how close they are — "add $12 more for free delivery" — while they can still act on it.
- Be clear about tax, especially if your prices exclude it. A total that jumps at the last moment reads as a trick even when it is not.
- Do not add surcharges at the end. If a payment method costs you more, build it into the price rather than surprising someone who has already typed their address.
Cause 2: forcing people to create an account
A first-time shopper does not want a relationship, they want the item. Offer guest checkout, prominently, and invite them to create an account after the order is placed — at which point you already have their details and the friction costs you nothing.
Cause 3: a checkout that asks too much
Every field is a chance to leave. Go through your checkout and remove anything you do not actually need to fulfil the order:
- Company name, unless you sell to businesses.
- A second address line as a required field.
- Date of birth, unless the product legally requires it.
- "How did you hear about us?" — ask in the confirmation email instead.
- A separate billing address section shown by default rather than behind a tick box.
Then make what remains easier: address autocomplete, the correct keyboard for numeric fields on mobile, card details that format themselves, and inline validation that flags an error next to the field rather than at the top of the page after submitting.
Cause 4: the shopper does not trust the checkout yet
A small store is an unknown quantity, and a shopper deciding whether to type their card number is looking for reassurance. Give it to them on the page where the doubt occurs:
- The padlock and a visible HTTPS address — and no mixed-content warnings.
- Recognisable payment logos.
- A link to the returns policy from inside the checkout, not buried in the footer.
- A contact method that looks answerable: a phone number, a real address, a business name.
- Delivery expectations stated plainly: dispatched in two working days, arrives in three to five.
Cause 5: not offering the payment method they use
Some shoppers will not type a card number into a store they have not used before, but will happily pay through a wallet they already trust. Offering one or two well-known express payment options typically recovers a meaningful share of those shoppers, and it also removes the entire address-typing step on mobile.
Cause 6: the checkout is painful on a phone
Most browsing is on mobile, and most checkouts were tested on a desktop. Do your own checkout on a phone, on mobile data, with one hand:
- Are the tap targets big enough?
- Does the keyboard cover the field you are typing into?
- Does the page reload and lose what you entered?
- Can you see the total without scrolling?
- How long does the payment step take on a slow connection?
Cause 7: the page is simply slow
A checkout that takes several seconds between steps loses people who were ready to pay. This is usually the same oversized-image problem as the rest of the site — our guide to checking and improving website speed covers the fixes.
Recovery emails, used properly
An abandoned-cart email works, but only where you have a lawful basis to send it and the shopper gave you their address knowingly. Rules differ by where your customer lives, so set this up correctly once rather than assuming.
- Send one, maybe two. A sequence of five reads as harassment and earns spam complaints that damage every other email you send.
- Make the first one helpful rather than pushy — the items, a link straight back to the cart, and an offer to answer a question.
- Do not lead with a discount. Train shoppers that abandoning a cart produces a coupon and they will abandon every cart.
- Make it easy to stop receiving them.
What to fix first
If you only do three things, do these:
- Show the delivery cost before the final step.
- Turn on guest checkout.
- Complete your own checkout on a phone and remove whatever annoyed you.
Then change one thing at a time and give it long enough to tell you anything. A small store does not get enough orders in a week to judge a change in a week.
If you would like someone to go through your checkout and tell you what is costing you orders, that is part of our ecommerce web design work — contact us.
