Around 70% of online shopping carts get abandoned before checkout completes. You’ve probably seen that stat before. But here’s the thing: that number, on its own, tells you absolutely nothing useful. It doesn’t tell you where people leave, why they leave, or what you should do about it. To actually fix the problem, you need to stop staring at the headline number and start looking at the steps underneath it.
If you’ve been working on finding funnel leaks in your checkout flow, this is where the real detective work begins.
Cart Abandonment vs. Checkout Abandonment: They’re Not the Same
Most people use “cart abandonment” and “checkout abandonment” interchangeably. They shouldn’t. The distinction matters because each one points to a completely different problem.
Cart abandonment happens when someone adds items to their cart but never starts the checkout process. They browsed, they liked something enough to add it, and then they left. This is often window shopping. It’s the digital equivalent of carrying a shirt around a store and then putting it back on the rack.
Checkout abandonment is more specific and more concerning. This is when someone actually begins the checkout process — they clicked the “checkout” button — and then drops off before completing the purchase. These people had real purchase intent. Something in your checkout flow stopped them.
The industry-wide 70% figure usually refers to cart abandonment. Checkout abandonment rates are typically lower (around 20-40%), but they’re far more actionable because you’re losing people who were genuinely trying to buy.
The 4 Checkout Steps Where People Actually Drop Off
When I’ve audited checkout flows for clients, the drop-offs almost always cluster around the same four friction points. Here’s what each one looks like and what the data is telling you.
Step 1: Account Creation
This is the first wall many shoppers hit. You ask them to create an account, pick a password, maybe verify an email — and a significant chunk of them just leave.
What the data means: friction. People came to buy a product, not to join your membership club. A high drop-off here is almost always a sign that you’re asking for too much too soon. According to the Baymard Institute’s checkout research, forced account creation is one of the top reasons shoppers abandon checkout.
Step 2: Shipping Information
The shopper enters their address, selects a shipping method, and sees the shipping cost for the first time. This is where sticker shock happens.
What the data means: unexpected costs. If your drop-off spikes at this step, people are seeing a total that’s higher than they expected. Shipping fees, taxes, or handling charges that weren’t visible earlier are the usual culprits.
Step 3: Payment
The shopper reaches the payment form. They need to pull out a credit card, type in numbers, and trust your site enough to do it.
What the data means: trust issues or limited options. A high drop-off at payment usually signals one of two things. Either the shopper doesn’t feel confident that your site is secure, or you don’t offer their preferred payment method. If someone wants to pay with PayPal and you only accept credit cards, they’re gone.
Step 4: Order Review
The final step before clicking “Place Order.” The shopper sees their complete order summary — items, shipping, taxes, total.
What the data means: second thoughts or price sensitivity. People who drop at this stage often had a moment of “wait, do I really need this?” It can also mean the final total (with all fees combined) crossed a psychological threshold. This is the hardest drop-off to fix because some of it is simply human nature.
How to Measure Checkout Abandonment Step by Step
You can’t diagnose what you can’t see. The first thing you need is a proper funnel set up in your analytics tool that tracks each checkout step as a separate event.
Here’s the event naming convention I recommend:
| Checkout Step | Event Name | Trigger |
|---|---|---|
| Cart viewed | view_cart |
User views cart page |
| Checkout started | begin_checkout |
User clicks checkout button |
| Account step completed | checkout_account_complete |
User logs in or continues as guest |
| Shipping info entered | add_shipping_info |
User submits shipping details |
| Payment info entered | add_payment_info |
User submits payment method |
| Order placed | purchase |
Order confirmation loads |
These event names align with Google Analytics 4’s recommended ecommerce events, which makes setup easier if you’re using GA4. But the same logic applies regardless of your analytics platform.
Once you have these events firing, build a funnel report. Every analytics tool worth using has some version of funnel visualization. You want to see the count of users at each step and the percentage that drops between steps.
The step-to-step drop-off rate is your diagnostic tool. Don’t just look at the overall abandonment rate — look at where the steepest drop happens.
Reading the Data: What Each Drop-Off Pattern Means
Here’s how to interpret what your funnel is showing you.
Steep drop at account creation (begin_checkout to checkout_account_complete): You’re creating unnecessary friction. Shoppers don’t want to commit to a relationship just to buy a pair of socks. Guest checkout is the fix, and it’s usually straightforward to implement.
Steep drop at shipping (checkout_account_complete to add_shipping_info): Unexpected costs are killing conversions. The shopper saw a price on the product page, and now the total is meaningfully different. This is a transparency problem.
Steep drop at payment (add_shipping_info to add_payment_info): Either your payment form looks untrustworthy, you’re missing popular payment methods, or the form itself is frustrating to fill out (especially on mobile). This is a trust and usability problem.
Steep drop at order review (add_payment_info to purchase): The final total triggered hesitation, or the buyer simply got cold feet. Some of this is unavoidable, but if this drop is unusually high, check whether your order review page introduces any new information (like a delivery date that’s further out than expected).
Understanding the difference between a primary and secondary conversion can also help you calibrate which drop-offs matter most for your specific business.
What the Data Cannot Tell You
Analytics is powerful, but it has blind spots. Here’s what your checkout funnel data won’t reveal:
- Comparison shopping: Many shoppers add items to carts across multiple stores, then buy from the cheapest one. Your data shows abandonment, but the intent was never to buy from you specifically.
- “Saving for later”: Some people use the cart as a wishlist. They fully intend to come back. Your data can’t distinguish between “gone forever” and “coming back on payday.”
- External interruptions: The baby cried, the meeting started, the phone rang. Real life pulls people away from checkouts constantly, and there’s no event for “got distracted.”
- True purchase intent: Just because someone started checkout doesn’t mean they were genuinely committed. Some people start the process just to see the total with shipping before deciding.
This doesn’t mean the data is useless. It means you should focus on the patterns, not individual sessions. A 60% drop at shipping across thousands of sessions is a clear signal. One person leaving at payment is noise.
Practical Fixes by Drop-Off Point
Now for the part you actually came here for. Based on where your biggest drop-off occurs, here’s what to do about it.
High Drop-Off at Account Creation
- Offer guest checkout. This is the single highest-impact change you can make. Let people buy without creating an account.
- Delay account creation. Ask them to create an account after the purchase, on the confirmation page. “Want to track your order? Create an account.” Much less friction.
- Add social login. “Continue with Google” or “Continue with Apple” reduces the effort from 30 seconds to 2 clicks.
- Reduce required fields. Do you really need their date of birth to sell them a t-shirt? Cut every field that isn’t strictly necessary.
High Drop-Off at Shipping
- Show estimated shipping costs on the product page. Use the shopper’s IP-based location to estimate shipping before they even reach checkout.
- Offer free shipping thresholds. “Free shipping on orders over $50” is one of the most effective conversion levers in ecommerce.
- Be transparent about all costs upfront. If there are taxes, handling fees, or surcharges, show them as early as possible. Surprise costs at checkout destroy trust.
- Provide multiple shipping options. Some people will pay more for speed. Others want the cheapest option. Give them the choice.
High Drop-Off at Payment
- Display trust signals prominently. SSL badges, payment processor logos, and “secure checkout” indicators near the payment form. These feel basic, but they work.
- Offer multiple payment methods. Credit cards, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and buy-now-pay-later options like Klarna or Afterpay cover the vast majority of preferences.
- Simplify the payment form. Auto-detect card type from the number, use a single field for the card number (not four separate boxes), and auto-advance between fields.
- Optimize for mobile. If your payment form isn’t easy to fill out on a phone, you’re losing a huge segment. Use the correct input types so the numeric keyboard appears for card numbers.
High Drop-Off at Order Review
- Make the order easy to edit. If someone wants to change their shipping method or remove an item, let them do it without going back to the beginning.
- Reinforce value. Show product images in the summary, display any savings or discounts applied, and remind them of your return policy.
- Add urgency (honestly). If stock is genuinely limited or a sale is ending, say so. But don’t fake it — shoppers can tell.
- Implement cart recovery emails. For shoppers who do leave at this stage, a well-timed email with their cart contents can recover 5-10% of abandoned orders.
Frequently Asked Questions
A checkout abandonment rate between 20% and 30% is generally considered good for ecommerce. Anything above 40% signals significant friction in your checkout flow. However, the “right” number depends on your industry, price point, and whether you sell impulse purchases or considered purchases. Instead of benchmarking against an industry average, focus on improving your own rate over time.
Cart abandonment measures people who add items to their cart but never start checkout. Checkout abandonment measures people who begin the checkout process but don’t complete the purchase. Checkout abandonment is more actionable because these shoppers demonstrated real purchase intent. The overall cart abandonment rate (around 70%) includes casual browsers, while checkout abandonment (20-40%) reflects genuine friction in your buying process.
Set up ecommerce events for each checkout step: begin_checkout, add_shipping_info, add_payment_info, and purchase. Then create a funnel exploration report in GA4’s Explore section, adding these events as funnel steps in order. The report will show you the drop-off rate between each step, making it easy to identify where shoppers leave.
The two quickest wins are adding guest checkout (if you currently require account creation) and showing all costs upfront including shipping and taxes. These two changes address the top reasons shoppers abandon checkout. After implementing them, set up step-by-step funnel tracking to identify any remaining friction points specific to your store.
