How to Optimise Your Checkout and Reduce Abandoned Carts

By the FabricLoop Team · May 2026 · 5 min read

Roughly 70% of shoppers who add something to a cart never complete the purchase. That number has held remarkably steady for years, across industries and geographies. It means that for every ten people who get to your checkout, seven leave without buying.

Some of that abandonment is irretrievable — price comparison shoppers, casual browsers, people who simply changed their minds. But a significant portion of it is caused by friction: moments in your checkout flow where doubt, confusion, or inconvenience tipped the balance from "buy" to "not now."

That friction is fixable. And fixing it costs nothing compared to acquiring the traffic in the first place.

"You've already paid to bring these people to your checkout. Every percentage point improvement in conversion is pure recovered revenue."

The checkout friction audit

Go through your own checkout as a customer would — ideally on mobile, where friction is highest. Use the checklist below to identify which of the eight most common friction points apply to your checkout. Each is rated by typical impact on abandonment rate.

Unexpected costs at checkout Critical

Shipping fees, taxes, or surcharges that only appear at the final step are the single biggest cause of cart abandonment. Buyers feel deceived and leave.

Fix: Display total cost — including shipping and tax estimates — as early as the product page or cart view. Consider offering free shipping above a threshold and baking the cost into your prices.

Forced account creation Critical

Requiring buyers to create an account before purchasing is a wall between intent and action. Many won't bother, especially on a first purchase from an unfamiliar brand.

Fix: Offer a prominent guest checkout option. You can invite them to create an account after the purchase is complete — when they're already committed and satisfied.

Missing trust signals High impact

Payment pages without visible security indicators — SSL badges, recognisable payment logos, return policy links — trigger doubt in buyers who don't yet know your brand.

Fix: Add SSL/security badges near the payment form, display accepted payment method logos (Visa, Mastercard, PayPal), link to your returns and refund policy, and include a brief satisfaction guarantee if you offer one.

Too many form fields High impact

Every extra field is a decision and an opportunity to abandon. Checkout forms that ask for phone numbers, birth dates, or unnecessary preferences add friction without adding value.

Fix: Audit each field — if you don't need it to complete the transaction, remove it. Use address autocomplete. Separate billing and shipping only when they actually differ. On mobile, use the right input type for each field (email, tel, number) to trigger the right keyboard.

Limited payment options High impact

A buyer whose preferred payment method isn't available will often leave rather than use an alternative. This is especially acute with younger buyers expecting Apple Pay, Google Pay, or Buy Now Pay Later.

Fix: Support card payments, PayPal, and at least one digital wallet (Apple/Google Pay). Consider a BNPL option like Klarna or Clearpay if your average order value is above £50. Each additional method typically recovers 2–5% of would-be abandonments.

Poor mobile experience Medium impact

Over 60% of e-commerce traffic now comes from mobile, but many checkouts were designed for desktop first. Small tap targets, tiny text, and forms that require pinching to zoom all increase abandonment on phones.

Fix: Complete your own checkout on a real phone — not a browser simulator. Check that buttons are at least 44px tall, inputs are easy to tap, and the form doesn't require horizontal scrolling. Consider a single-column layout on mobile.

Slow page load Medium impact

A one-second delay in checkout page load time can reduce conversions by 7%. Payment pages that load slowly feel unreliable and make buyers second-guess the transaction.

Fix: Run your checkout URL through Google PageSpeed Insights. Defer non-essential scripts, compress images, and use a CDN. Most hosted checkout platforms (Shopify, Stripe) handle this automatically — if you've built a custom checkout, it's worth a performance audit.

No clear returns or refund policy Medium impact

First-time buyers from your brand carry risk anxiety — they're not sure what happens if the product isn't right. A buried or absent returns policy forces them to go looking, often breaking the purchase flow entirely.

Fix: Put a plain-language returns summary directly on the checkout page — not just in the footer. "30-day free returns, no questions asked" as a single line near the total does more work than a full policy page nobody reads at checkout.

After the audit: where to start

If your audit reveals multiple issues, fix the critical ones first — unexpected costs and forced account creation typically account for the largest share of abandonment. These are changes you can make today with no design work. Remove the surprise costs from the final screen; add a guest checkout path.

Then work down the priority list. Most of these fixes are one-time changes that compound over every future transaction.

Measure before and after Before making changes, record your current checkout completion rate (completed orders ÷ checkout initiations). Measure again 30 days after changes. Even a 5 percentage point improvement in checkout conversion — say from 30% to 35% — is a 17% increase in revenue from the same traffic.

The abandoned cart recovery sequence

Even after you've reduced friction, some carts will still be abandoned. For e-commerce businesses with email capture, an abandoned cart recovery sequence is one of the highest-ROI automations available.

A simple three-email sequence:

Email 1 — 1 hour after abandonment: A gentle reminder. No discount. Just "You left something behind" with a clear link back to the cart. This email recovers the highest-intent abandoners — people who genuinely just got distracted.
Email 2 — 24 hours after abandonment: Address the most common objection. Highlight your returns policy, shipping speed, or a reassurance about quality. Include a customer review if you have one relevant to the abandoned product.
Email 3 — 72 hours after abandonment: If you're willing to offer a discount, this is where to use it. Keep it modest — 10% is usually enough — and make it time-limited to create genuine urgency. "Your cart is saved — here's 10% off if you decide in the next 48 hours."

Don't train your customers to wait for a discount If you send a discount email every time someone abandons their cart, you'll start seeing customers intentionally abandon to wait for the offer. Reserve the discount for the third email only, and don't send it every time — A/B test whether it's actually needed before making it a permanent sequence step.

For service businesses: the "abandoned inquiry"

Cart abandonment isn't only an e-commerce problem. Service businesses face the same dynamic with contact forms, quote requests, and booking flows. A potential client who starts a booking process and doesn't complete it has the same psychology as a cart abandoner — something caused hesitation.

For service businesses, the fix is often simpler: a personal follow-up email or phone call within a few hours of an incomplete inquiry. "We noticed you started a booking with us — is there anything I can answer to help you decide?" This personal touch converts far better than any automated sequence, because it addresses the actual objection rather than guessing at it.

How FabricLoop helps your team follow up faster For service businesses, speed of follow-up is the biggest driver of conversion from inquiry to client. FabricLoop keeps your team's follow-up tasks, lead context, and conversation history in one thread so no inquiry sits unanswered for a day while someone figures out whose job it is to respond.

10 things to take away from this article

Around 70% of shoppers abandon checkout — much of this is caused by fixable friction, not just changed minds.
Unexpected costs (shipping, taxes) revealed at the final step are the single biggest cause of abandonment.
Forced account creation is a wall between intent and purchase — guest checkout is almost always worth adding.
Trust signals (security badges, payment logos, returns policy) near the payment form directly reduce abandonment.
Every unnecessary form field is an opportunity to lose the sale — audit and remove anything you don't genuinely need.
Offering Apple Pay, Google Pay, or BNPL options can recover 2–5% of abandons per payment method added.
Complete your checkout on a real mobile phone — simulators miss friction that real users feel immediately.
A plain-language returns summary on the checkout page does more than a full policy page buried in the footer.
A three-email abandoned cart sequence (reminder → reassurance → optional discount) is one of the highest-ROI automations available.
Don't send a discount on every abandoned cart — you'll train customers to abandon deliberately in order to get the offer.