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Checkout conversion: why shoppers abandon payment and how to fix it
Baymard Institute's average of 50 studies puts online cart abandonment at about 70%. At the payment step, shoppers leave because of unexpected costs, forced account creation, long forms, missing local methods, declined cards and 3-D Secure friction. Showing total costs early, offering guest checkout, wallets and the methods each country expects, using SCA exemptions and retrying soft declines recover a large share of those orders.
At a glance
| Average cart abandonment rate | 70.22% across 50 studies (Baymard Institute, 2026) |
|---|---|
| Top reason: extra costs too high | 40% of shoppers who abandoned during checkout, excluding those just browsing |
| Payment-related reasons | 19% distrust the site with card details, 10% had a card declined, 9% found too few payment methods |
| Possible conversion gain from checkout design | 35.26% for an average large e-commerce site, according to Baymard |
| Checkout length | Average US checkout shows 23.48 form elements; 12 to 14 are enough |
| SCA low-value exemption (EU) | Up to €30 per payment, until €100 or 5 payments accumulate since the last authentication |
What is shopping cart abandonment, and how high is it?
Cart abandonment is the share of shoppers who add items to the basket but do not complete the purchase. Baymard Institute aggregates 50 published studies to an average of 70.22%, meaning only about three in ten carts become orders.
Part of that is unavoidable: in Baymard's survey 42% of US shoppers had abandoned a cart while just browsing. The rest abandons for reasons a merchant controls, and many of them sit in the checkout and payment step, where the shopper has already decided to buy.
Why do shoppers abandon the checkout at the payment step?
Baymard's survey of shoppers who abandoned during checkout lists cost, trust, effort and payment problems as the main causes. Each has a concrete fix in the checkout or in the payment set-up.
| Reason | Share of shoppers | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Extra costs too high (shipping, tax, fees) | 40% | Show the full price, including shipping and surcharges, before the payment step |
| Delivery too slow | 20% | Show delivery dates and faster options in the basket |
| Did not trust the site with card details | 19% | Use a recognised payment page or wallet, show methods and security cues |
| Site wanted an account | 18% | Offer guest checkout and create the account after payment |
| Checkout too long or complicated | 17% | Cut fields to 12 to 14 elements, autofill addresses |
| Website errors or crashes | 17% | Monitor checkout errors and payment API latency |
| Card was declined | 10% | Retry soft declines, offer another method, route to a second acquirer |
| Not enough payment methods | 9% | Add the local methods of each target country |
Which local payment methods should a checkout offer in each country?
Shoppers trust and complete faster with the method they use every day, and in many European countries that is not a credit card. In the Netherlands about 70% of online purchases are paid with iDEAL; Belgian shoppers expect Bancontact; Polish shoppers BLIK. Showing the local method first, based on the shopper's country, is one of the cheapest conversion gains.
Bank-based methods also cost less than cards and carry no consumer chargebacks, so they improve margin as well as conversion.
| Country | Local methods to show first | Also expected |
|---|---|---|
| Netherlands | iDEAL, moving to Wero by the end of 2027 | Cards, PayPal, Klarna |
| Belgium | Bancontact (about 15 million cards) | Cards, PayPal |
| Germany | PayPal, SEPA Direct Debit, Klarna | Cards, Pay by Bank |
| France | Cartes Bancaires | PayPal, Apple Pay |
| Poland | BLIK, bank transfers | Cards, PayPal |
| Portugal | MB WAY, Multibanco | Cards, PayPal |
| Sweden, Denmark, Norway | Swish, MobilePay, Vipps | Cards, Klarna |
Do one-click checkout and digital wallets increase conversion?
One-click checkout removes the forms entirely: the shopper confirms a stored card, a wallet or a saved account and pays in one step. Apple Pay and Google Pay pass the address and a tokenised card with device biometrics, which also satisfies strong customer authentication. Click to Pay from Visa and Mastercard offers a similar flow on desktop.
Returning customers convert best with saved payment details. Store the card as a network token with the shopper's consent, offer wallets above the form on mobile, and keep a guest path for shoppers who do not want an account.
How can you reduce 3-D Secure friction without losing protection?
Strong customer authentication is mandatory for most card payments in the EEA, but a challenge is not. 3-D Secure 2 sends device and order data to the issuer, which approves most low-risk payments without a challenge. Merchants or their acquirer can also request exemptions under the EU rules, while authenticated payments shift fraud liability to the issuer.
Transaction risk analysis lets the acquirer skip SCA up to a threshold that depends on its fraud rate. Recurring merchant-initiated charges are out of scope, and shoppers can add a merchant to their trusted list at the issuer.
| Exemption | Limit | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| Low value | Up to €30 | Until €100 or 5 payments accumulate since the last SCA |
| Transaction risk analysis | Up to €100 | Provider fraud rate at or below 0.13% |
| Transaction risk analysis | Up to €250 | Provider fraud rate at or below 0.06% |
| Transaction risk analysis | Up to €500 | Provider fraud rate at or below 0.01% |
| Trusted beneficiary | No amount limit | Shopper whitelists the merchant at the issuer |
How should a checkout handle errors and declined payments?
A declined card is a lost order only if the checkout gives up. Show a plain message that says what to do next, keep the basket and the entered data, and offer another method on the same screen. Never show raw response codes or blame the shopper.
Behind the scenes, separate soft declines, such as issuer unavailable or a do-not-honour response without fraud signals, from hard declines. Soft declines can be retried once or cascaded to a second acquirer within the scheme rules; hard declines and do-not-retry codes must not be retried.
- Validate card number, expiry and IBAN inline as the shopper types
- Keep the session and basket alive after a failed payment
- Track authorisation rate by method, issuer country and acquirer
- Alert on rising decline or timeout rates per provider
Hosted or embedded checkout: which converts better?
A hosted payment page redirects the shopper to the provider and is quickest to launch, with the smallest PCI DSS scope. Embedded fields or a drop-in component keep the shopper on your domain, which usually feels more trustworthy and allows more design control. Both convert well when they are fast, mobile-friendly and show local methods; the redirect itself matters less than the experience on each side.
| Criterion | Hosted payment page | Embedded fields or drop-in | Direct API |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCI DSS self-assessment | SAQ A | SAQ A with provider iframes | SAQ A-EP or SAQ D |
| Time to launch | Days | 1 to 3 weeks | Several weeks |
| Design control | Logo and colours | High | Full |
| Local methods and wallets | Included by the provider | Included by the provider | Built per method |
How do you A/B test checkout changes?
Test one change at a time, such as method order, wallet placement or a shorter address form, and measure checkout completion and payment success rate, not only clicks. Payment tests need enough volume: at a 70% completion rate, detecting a 2-point change needs about 8,000 checkouts per variant at common significance levels.
Routing tests run on the same principle: split eligible traffic between two acquirers and compare authorisation rate and cost. OrsunPay connects the merchant's own PSP accounts through a hosted checkout and smart routing, so methods and routing rules can be changed and tested without rebuilding the integration.
Checkout conversion checklist
- Measure the funnel Track basket, checkout start, payment start, authorisation and order completion, split by device, country and method.
- Remove cost and account surprises Show the full price with shipping before payment and offer guest checkout.
- Shorten the form Cut to 12 to 14 form elements, use address autofill and inline validation.
- Show local methods and wallets Order methods by the shopper's country and show Apple Pay or Google Pay first on mobile.
- Tune authentication Send full 3-D Secure 2 data and ask your acquirer to apply low-value and risk-analysis exemptions.
- Recover declines Show clear error messages, offer another method and retry or cascade soft declines.
- Test and repeat A/B test one change at a time and keep what raises payment success rate.
Frequently asked questions
What is shopping cart abandonment?
Shopping cart abandonment is when a shopper adds products to an online basket but leaves before paying. The average rate across 50 studies collected by Baymard Institute is about 70%.
What is one-click checkout?
One-click checkout lets a returning shopper pay with stored payment and delivery details in a single step, without filling in forms. It works with saved cards, wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay, and accounts at PayPal or similar providers.
How can I increase my e-commerce conversion rate at checkout?
Show the full price early, allow guest checkout, shorten the form and offer the payment methods each country expects. Then reduce 3-D Secure challenges with exemptions and recover declined payments with clear messages and retries.
Does 3-D Secure reduce conversion?
A challenge adds a step and some shoppers drop out, but 3-D Secure 2 approves most low-risk payments without one. Exemptions for low-value and low-risk payments reduce challenges further while authenticated payments move fraud liability to the issuer.
Does offering more payment methods increase conversion?
Adding the methods shoppers in a country expect usually helps; 9% of shoppers in Baymard's survey abandoned because of too few payment methods. Too many options can slow the decision, so show the most relevant three to five for each country first.
Can customers check out with a bank account instead of a card?
Yes. Methods such as iDEAL, Bancontact, BLIK, Pay by Bank and Wero let shoppers pay from their bank account through their banking app. They are confirmed in real time and cost the merchant less than most card payments.