If you ask any e-commerce business owner what the biggest hurdle in their business is, it has to be cart abandonment. It is when a customer adds something to the cart in an attempt to buy it, but ends up abandoning the checkout, leaving the item in the cart. Now, cart abandonment is problematic for multiple reasons. Firstly, it means there’s a stock in someone’s cart you cannot sell, and secondly, that unsold stock means that you lose a lot of revenue.

If you want to calculate the cart abandonment rate, simply subtract the total checkouts initiated from the number of transactions that actually went through. It is truly the biggest struggle for most e-commerce businesses, which have to clear stocks before the next shipment cycle.

It mostly happens due to a lot of friction in the checkout process. Which is why in this article, we’ll be revealing 5 ways you can significantly lower the cart abandonment rates.

Why Checkout Optimization Matters?

The goal of checkout optimization is to make the checkout process on your ecommerce site easier to use and more functional. This will lower the number of people who leave their carts and increase the number of people who buy something. This often means making the layout simpler, cutting down on the number of form fields, giving customers more payment and delivery options, making sure the site works well on mobile devices, and making it more secure.

What does this mean? The last and most important step in the customer journey is the checkout process. Customers are more likely to leave their carts and not finish their purchases if the process isn’t smooth and easy to understand.

Improving the checkout process could help the US and EU markets get back as much as $260 billion in lost orders. You can turn more potential buyers into actual customers by making the process easier and more user-friendly.

In fact, many studies and research have been done on how optimising the eCommerce checkout process affects conversion rates and the success of a business as a whole. A study in the Journal of Marketing found that making the checkout process shorter can lead to more sales. The study found that adding even one more step to the checkout process can cut conversion rates by as much as 35%. Thus, making the checkout process better can have a big effect on conversion rates and how well the business does overall.

Tactic 1: Simplify the Checkout Form

The first method is actually to make the checkout process simple. If it’s too complicated, Customers would just get frustrated and then would lead to cart abandonment, and it’s really simple to do it. Firstly, ask only for important information. For example, name, email, shipping address, and payment details are sufficient; anything more than this makes the customer feel like too much work.  Secondly, try to implement autofill in the payment form. It makes the process simple, and there’s a lower chance of cart abandonment.

Tactic 2: Offer Multiple Secure Payment Methods

Someone might be comfortable paying via card, and someone might be comfortable with cash on delivery. Regardless, it’s your responsibility to make sure multiple secure payment methods are available. For example, if you’re going to shop online, and you can only pay COD, and you end up seeing that there is no Cash on Delivery available in the first place, chances are you’re gonna close the window altogether. That’s what leads to cart abandonment, and having flexible payment options can help avoid it.

Tactic 3: Be Transparent About All Costs

Let’s be real, if the price initially shows $500, and then during checkout you add random fees and bump it up to $700, chances are the customer is going to abandon the cart then and there. As a business owner, you need to be transparent about costs upfront to the customer. Shipping, taxes, etc, should be mentioned early on, regardless of how high they are. Another way to get around it is by adding an estimated cost based on location, it allows them to plan and reduce cart abandonment.

Tactic 4: Optimise Checkout for Mobile

Most people shop by mobile; this is a well-known fact. Which is why, if you truly want to reduce cart abandonment, the most important thing you should do is optimise the screen for phones. For example, large buttons, readable fonts, and thumb-friendly design are helpful. Make sure that you don’t use an overcrowded design.

Tactic 5: Reduce Distractions & Build Trust

Lastly, you need to build trust and reduce distractions for proper checkout optimization. Firstly, keep the page clean, which means no unwanted links and ads. People are less likely to trust websites with a lot of ads. Also, make sure that you add a lot of customer testimonials and security icons, as they’re responsible for increasing the trust factor significantly.

Additional Fast-Fix Optimisations

Now, the above 5 steps are the core steps you can take to reduce cart abandonment. You can do that with these simple steps.

Tactic How It Helps Why It Works
Save Cart for Later Let shoppers return whenever they’re ready without losing items. People often browse casually. Saving the cart removes pressure and boosts return visits.
Send Abandoned Cart Reminders Sends a friendly nudge to complete the purchase. Many customers simply forget or get distracted—reminders bring them back.
Offer Live Chat During Checkout Gives instant help if someone is confused about shipping, payment, or product details. Quick answers prevent frustration and stop customers from leaving mid-checkout.
Provide Multiple Delivery Options Let shoppers choose what suits them—standard, express, or same-day. Flexibility makes customers feel in control and reduces last-minute hesitation.
Use Urgency Cues Reminds shoppers about delivery deadlines, stock levels, or time-limited deals. A gentle sense of urgency encourages faster decision-making and fewer drop-offs.

Conclusion

In short, the best way to stop people from leaving their carts is to set up a checkout optimization system. These systems help people trust each other and make the checkout process so easy that people don’t leave their carts as often as they used to. Remember, cart abandonment hurts online stores, and a smoother checkout flow can bring those numbers down.