The average ecommerce store loses the majority of its potential revenue not on the product page — but in the final steps before payment. If your ad spend and traffic look healthy but revenue doesn’t match, your checkout is usually the first place to look.
At Knit Agency, checkout audits are one of the most common (and highest-ROI) requests we get from Shopify Plus and BigCommerce brands. Here are the seven warning signs we look for first.
1. Your Cart Abandonment Rate Is Above Industry Benchmarks
| Industry | Average Cart Abandonment Rate |
|---|---|
| Overall ecommerce average | ~70% |
| Fashion & Apparel | ~68% |
| Home & Furniture | ~75% |
| Health & Beauty | ~65% |
| Electronics | ~73% |
If you’re sitting noticeably above your category’s benchmark, something in the flow — not just the traffic quality — is likely to blame.
2. Checkout Takes More Than 3–4 Steps
Every additional step is another chance for a customer to hesitate, get distracted, or simply give up. Signs this is hurting you:
- Customers have to create an account before they can pay
- Shipping and billing information are on separate screens instead of one flow
- Payment method selection happens on its own step, disconnected from the order summary
3. Shipping Costs Are a Surprise at the Last Step
This is consistently the #1 cited reason for cart abandonment across ecommerce research. If shipping costs, taxes, or fees only appear after the customer has already filled in their details, you’re asking them to re-decide whether to buy — right at the most fragile point in the funnel.
4. Mobile Checkout Feels Like an Afterthought
- Form fields are too small or misaligned on smaller screens
- Autofill and digital wallets (Apple Pay, Google Pay, Shop Pay) aren’t enabled or prominently placed
- Users have to pinch-zoom to read the order summary
- The “Place Order” button isn’t immediately visible without scrolling
Given that mobile traffic makes up the majority of ecommerce sessions for most brands, a desktop-optimized-only checkout is one of the most expensive gaps to leave unaddressed.
5. Limited or Unclear Payment Options
Customers abandon when their preferred payment method isn’t available or isn’t clearly presented. At minimum, a modern checkout should offer:
- Major credit/debit cards
- A digital wallet option (Shop Pay, Apple Pay, or Google Pay)
- A Buy Now, Pay Later option (Klarna, Afterpay, or similar) for higher-AOV categories
6. No Guest Checkout Option
Forcing account creation before purchase remains one of the most common and easily fixable checkout mistakes. Guest checkout should always be the default path, with account creation offered as an optional, post-purchase step.
7. There’s No Visible Trust Signal at the Point of Payment
Right before someone enters their card details is when hesitation peaks. If your checkout page has no visible reassurance — security badges, a clear return policy link, or real customer reviews — you’re leaving that doubt unaddressed at the worst possible moment.
How to Start Fixing This
- Pull your funnel data first. Look specifically at where in checkout (not just “cart”) people drop off — the step matters more than the overall rate.
- Test on a real phone, not just a browser resize. Emulators miss autofill quirks, keyboard behavior, and payment sheet issues.
- Benchmark against your specific category, not ecommerce overall — a 75% abandonment rate might be normal for furniture but alarming for a $30 skincare product.
- Prioritize fixes by effort vs. impact. Enabling a digital wallet is a days-long fix; a full checkout redesign is a longer project — start with the fast wins.
If you’re not sure whether your checkout is the actual bottleneck or just a symptom of something upstream (like traffic quality or pricing), that’s exactly the kind of question a proper store audit answers before any redesign work starts.
Related: