Do these 3 things before closing this tab:
1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsIf your online store gets visitors but few orders, start by finding where shoppers encounter friction—not by assuming every abandoned cart is a lost sale. Baymard Institute’s research identifies recurring problems such as surprise costs, forced registration, cumbersome forms and mobile usability issues. Those findings are clues, not a forecast of what any one store will recover. Use your own funnel data and customer feedback to identify and test the changes that matter to your shoppers.
Why customers leave an online store
Abandonment does not automatically mean your website failed. Baymard reports that 58.6% of American shoppers in its latest quantitative study had abandoned a site within the previous three months because they were browsing or not ready to buy. The page reporting this figure does not establish the study’s publication year. Treat it as a reminder that some visitors are not yet shopping with purchase intent—not as a site-failure benchmark.
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For other abandonment reasons, Baymard reports the following survey responses. They indicate what respondents said, not the causal effect of a particular redesign, and they do not predict the sales impact of a fix for your store.
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| Reason respondents gave | Share |
|---|---|
| Extra costs, such as shipping, taxes or fees | 48% |
| Being prompted to create an account | 24% |
| Delivery taking too long | 22% |
| Not trusting the site with credit-card information | 18% |
| Checkout being too complicated or long | 17% |
| Not being able to see the total order cost before checkout | 16% |
| Site crashing or showing an error | 13% |
| Dissatisfaction with the return policy | 12% |
| Not enough payment methods | 9% |
These figures come from Baymard’s UX statistics page; its page extract does not establish the publication year of the quantitative study. The extra-cost response was reported by people who abandoned for reasons other than simply browsing or not being ready to buy.
#1 Best Overall
Show the full cost before checkout
A shopper should not have to reach the final checkout step to discover shipping fees, taxes or other charges. Put prices and delivery costs where shoppers compare products and review the cart. If the exact total depends on location, explain that and provide a useful estimate before asking for commitment.
- Show shipping charges or a clear way to estimate them on product and cart pages.
- Make taxes and other likely fees visible as early as practical, with the calculation explained when location is needed.
- Display the running total in the cart and update it when quantities, shipping choices or discounts change.
- Check the purchase journey with different delivery regions, since a cost estimate that works for one location may mislead another.
Offer guest checkout instead of demanding an account
Account creation can interrupt a shopper who is ready to buy. Baymard reports that 24% of respondents in its cited abandonment study said they were prompted to create an account. Where practical, let customers complete an order as guests, then offer account creation after purchase. Do not assume that this one change will recover a fixed share of abandoned orders.
Make checkout forms shorter and easier to complete
Baymard reports that 17% of respondents cited a checkout that was too complicated or long. Its checkout UX statistics page says an ideal flow in its testing could be as short as 12–14 form elements, compared with a benchmark average of 23.48 default form elements. A form element is not necessarily the same as a page or checkout step, so do not compare those measures as if they were interchangeable.
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Baymard’s 2024 checkout update reports more than 4,000 hours of research and testing based on more than 200 qualitative user/site sessions. It highlights persistent friction around forms and billing-address fields. Audit each field rather than removing fields blindly: some are needed for payment, delivery or compliance in a particular context.
- Remove fields that do not serve a clear purpose for the order.
- Use clear labels and explain formats where a value may be unfamiliar.
- Make optional fields visibly optional and avoid making customers guess which fields are required.
- When validation fails, identify the field and explain how to correct it.
- Preserve valid entries after an error so customers do not have to re-enter information.
- Test address, payment and form behavior on mobile as well as desktop.
Explain delivery, returns and payment choices near the buying decision
In Baymard’s cited study, 22% of respondents named slow delivery, 12% dissatisfaction with the return policy and 9% too few payment methods as reasons for abandoning. Put realistic delivery timing and accessible return terms near product and cart decisions, and show accepted payment methods before the last checkout step. Avoid vague delivery promises that cannot be supported for a customer’s location or selected shipping method.
Address trust and reliability without relying on badges
Baymard reports that 18% of respondents cited not trusting a site with credit-card information, while 13% cited a crash or error. Make your business identity and contact information easy to find, use secure payment processing, and monitor checkout and site errors. The cited data does not establish that any particular trust badge or security claim will solve the problem; a badge cannot substitute for clear information and a functioning checkout.
Design mobile shopping for mobile use
Mobile shoppers do not simply need a smaller desktop layout. Baymard’s 2021 mobile UX article reports that 63% of mobile participants in its testing abandoned a product or site at least once solely because of preventable mobile usability issues. That is a finding about participants in testing, not a population-wide mobile abandonment rate.
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Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →The article groups problems around poor page overview, disorientation, technical quirks, inadvertent or unregistered taps, and external interruptions. Cluttered pages and buried navigation can make products or key information hard to locate; crowded or undersized tap areas can cause missed actions.
- Keep category navigation, search and cart access easy to recognize and reach.
- Make product details, price, delivery information and the primary purchase action easy to scan without hunting through a crowded page.
- Give buttons and controls enough space to reduce accidental taps.
- Test product selection, quantity controls, cart updates, forms and validation at real mobile viewport sizes.
- Check that navigation remains understandable when a shopper returns from a product or checkout page.
Use honest interface patterns
A 2019 peer-reviewed study in Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction analyzed about 53,000 product pages across about 11,000 shopping websites. It identified 1,818 dark-pattern instances across 15 types and seven broader categories, and found deceptive practices on 183 websites. The study documents patterns that can undermine informed decision-making; it does not establish a general sales effect for each pattern.
Keep availability and discount claims accurate, make marketing opt-ins clear, and make declining an option as straightforward as accepting. Honest choices help customers understand what they are agreeing to and avoid confusing the purchase flow.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Diagnose your store before choosing a fix
- Walk through the purchase journey. Inspect category navigation, product details, cart and checkout on a phone and a desktop browser as a shopper would.
- Find the exit points. Review where visitors leave the purchase funnel and compare patterns by device, traffic source and product. A store’s own analytics can show where to investigate, but an exit alone does not explain why it happened.
- Check the information available before commitment. Look for unclear total costs, delivery timing, return terms and payment options on product and cart pages, not only at the end of checkout.
- Test registration and forms. Check guest checkout, field count and purpose, labels, validation messages, and whether entered values survive an error.
- Fix one high-confidence issue and retest. Compare the result with your own baseline, and gather customer feedback where analytics cannot explain what caused the friction.
External benchmarks are useful for generating hypotheses; they are not guaranteed uplift estimates. Validate a change against your store’s own audience and journey before attributing a sales change to it.
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curl -G "https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot" -d access_key=YOUR_API_KEY --data-urlencode url=https://stripe.com -o shot.webpSee the ScreenshotNeo API documentation for parameters and setup. Cookie and consent banners are accepted like a visitor and removed, along with supported newsletter popups and chat widgets, before capture; each cleanup step can be turned off. Bot checks or CAPTCHAs, blank pages, timeouts, failed loads and cache hits are not billed, and responses identify the page verdict and billing status. An MCP server provides take_screenshot, get_page_info and capture_pdf tools for AI agents. The free plan includes 1,000 screenshots a month with no card; paid plans start at $5 for 3,000 shots.
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