Forced Registration - the First Barrier
The most common cause of cart abandonment is requiring an account before payment. The customer came for a specific product, and now they are being asked to create a password, confirm an email address, and fill out a profile. That is extra friction at the exact moment the decision has already been made.
Add a guest checkout option - just a name, phone number, and delivery address. You can offer account creation afterwards, once the order is placed. At that point the motivation to save order history is much higher.
Check this right now: try placing an order on your own site as a new visitor. If a registration form appears on the second step, that is where you are losing people.
Hidden Costs That Appear at the Last Step
A customer sees the product price, adds it to the cart, reaches the final step - and that is when shipping, a payment processing fee, or a service charge appears. The total is suddenly 15-30% higher than expected.
The reaction is predictable: they feel misled and close the tab. Even if the shipping fee is genuinely reasonable, the surprise effect works against you.
Delivery costs should be visible before the customer starts entering their details. Ideally, show them on the product page itself or in the cart, before checkout begins.
Checkout Form: Unnecessary Fields and Poor Mobile Input
A long form is not a problem in itself - the problem is fields the order could easily do without. Middle name, date of birth, how did you hear about us - these slow things down and frustrate people.
The rule is simple: keep only what is needed for delivery and contact. Name, phone number, address - that covers most orders. Email is optional.
Mobile input deserves special attention. If the phone field does not trigger a numeric keyboard, and the address field offers no autocomplete suggestions, some customers will leave simply because it is too awkward to type on a small screen.
- Remove fields that have no bearing on delivery or payment
- Check that each field triggers the correct keyboard type on mobile
- Add autocomplete to the address field
- Write error messages that actually help: not 'Invalid format' but 'Please enter a number like +1 (555) 123-4567'
Payment Options and the Feeling of Security
If your site only accepts one payment method, a portion of customers simply will not or cannot use it. Some people always pay by card, others prefer digital wallets, and some want to pay on delivery.
Trust signals matter just as much. A payment page without HTTPS, no recognisable payment logos, or an unexpected redirect to an unfamiliar domain - all of these are warning signs that make people close the tab at the last second.
At a minimum, offer card payment, at least one digital wallet option, and cash on delivery. Make sure the browser address bar shows a padlock and your own domain name throughout checkout.
What Happens After the Customer Clicks 'Place Order'
This step is often overlooked. The customer clicked the button - now what? If the page just refreshed or nothing visible happened, they have no idea whether the order went through. They start clicking again, calling support, sending messages.
There should be a clear confirmation page: the order number, a summary of what was purchased, and when to expect a call or email. A confirmation SMS or email should follow immediately, not an hour later.
Test this step on a mobile device on a slow connection. The button should be disabled after the first click to prevent duplicate orders. The confirmation page should load even with a weak signal.
How to Run a Quick Audit of Your Store
You do not need to hire an analyst. Ask someone you know - ideally someone outside your business - to buy something on your site using their phone. Watch where they slow down, what they ask about, and at which step they look confused.
If you have Google Analytics, open the checkout funnel report and see which step has the highest drop-off rate. That is where to focus first.
Fixing most of the issues described here is a matter of days for a developer, not months. If your store runs on a popular platform, some fixes are a matter of configuration. If the site was built custom, it needs targeted changes to specific screens.
At EFIMOV DEV we build online stores in React from scratch and improve existing ones. If you want to find out exactly where your store is losing customers, get in touch and we can talk through it.
Cart abandonment is almost always a symptom of a specific problem, not vague 'low conversion'. Find the step where people leave, remove the barrier - forced registration, a hidden cost, an awkward form - and the results show up within the first few weeks.
Frequently asked
At which step do online stores lose the most customers?
Most often at checkout itself, when forced registration or unexpected costs appear. The second most common issue is a long form with unnecessary fields.
Should I remove registration from my store entirely?
No. You just need to make it optional - let customers check out as guests, and offer account creation after the order is placed.
How do I find out at which step my customers are leaving?
Set up a checkout funnel in Google Analytics tracking each step. The step with the highest exit rate is the first one to fix.
How many fields should a checkout form have?
For most stores, name, phone number, and delivery address are enough. Anything else should be there because you genuinely need it, not just in case.