Ecommerce checkout best practices and cart recovery
Your checkout is the most important and most fragile part of an online store. Every bit of friction here directly costs sales, and a clean, reassuring checkout is worth more than almost any other optimisation. This guide covers the checkout itself, why shoppers leave and how to bring them back, and the pages around it that decide whether they get that far.
Why carts are abandoned
Most online shopping carts are abandoned before purchase. Widely cited research puts the average near 70 percent. Each one is a customer who wanted to buy and hit a snag. The usual snags are:
- Unexpected costs, such as shipping, fees, or tax revealed late.
- Being forced to create an account.
- A long or confusing checkout.
- Concerns about security, or about returns.
- Slow pages, or a checkout that is awkward on a phone.
Removing those snags is one of the highest-return things a store can do.
The checkout essentials
- Offer guest checkout. Do not force account creation; offer it after the purchase.
- Keep it to as few steps as possible, and show progress.
- Show total costs, including shipping and tax, as early as you can.
- Offer the payment methods your customers expect, including wallets on mobile.
- Reassure at the point of payment: secure-payment cues, and a link to a clear returns policy.
- Make errors specific and keep what the shopper has already entered.
Test it on a phone
Most shopping happens on phones, so the checkout has to be flawless there. That means large tap targets, the right keyboard for each field, address and card autofill working, and no fiddly steps. Buy something from your own store on your phone, and fix whatever annoys you.
Shipping and returns policies
For an online store, unclear shipping and returns information is one of the biggest reasons carts get abandoned. Clear, fair, easy-to-find policies remove doubt at exactly the moment people decide to buy.
- Shipping costs and timeframes, shown early rather than sprung at checkout.
- Your returns window and how the process works.
- Who pays for return shipping.
- Any exceptions, in plain language.
A clear and fair returns policy, displayed prominently, tends to increase sales because it lowers the risk of buying. Burying or complicating it does the opposite.
Product descriptions that sell
Product descriptions do the work a shop assistant would do in person. A flat list of specifications rarely converts, and a description that connects features to benefits does.
- Turn features into benefits: "keeps drinks cold for 24 hours" says more than "double-wall insulation".
- Answer the questions that stop people buying, such as sizing, compatibility, and care.
- Use clear, scannable formatting.
- Include the practical details: size, materials, delivery.
Write naturally with the words shoppers actually use, and add product structured data so your items can appear well in search and shopping results. Only mark up what is genuinely on the page, including real prices and availability.
Upselling and cross-selling
Upselling suggests a better version, and cross-selling suggests a related product. Done tastefully they genuinely help people get more of what they need. The key is relevance, not pressure.
- Suggest add-ons or upgrades the customer would genuinely benefit from.
- Frame it as helping, for example "customers also add".
- Keep it easy to accept or ignore.
- Do not distract from completing the main purchase.
The best upsells feel like helpful recommendations, not sales tactics.
Recovering abandoned carts
A well-timed reminder email brings back a share of the shoppers who left. Send one or two, the first within a few hours, show what they left, and make returning one click. Only email people who have given you their address with consent. Our email marketing guide covers the rules for the US and Canada.
What to measure
- The share of shoppers who reach each step of checkout, to see where they drop.
- Checkout completion on mobile compared with desktop.
- The reasons given when you ask, even informally. Customers will often tell you what stopped them.