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The 77-Point Checkout Audit Checklist

Every check we run when a store asks us where its checkout is leaking revenue, from the cart page to the recovery email. Read it here, tick off what passes, and take the printable version into your next team meeting.

77 checkpoints
11 sections, cart to recovery
58 checkable on the live storefront
19 need access or a test order
Why a Checklist

What a Scanner Sees, and What It Never Will

Automated tools are good at the outside of a store. A checkout audit has to go where they cannot.

What our free audit covers

The free automated audit crawls your public pages, walks the cart and guest checkout up to the payment step, and reports what it can verify from outside: speed, form markup, cost disclosure, trust signals. It never types a card number, never logs in and never sees your analytics.

Run the free audit

What only a human can check

19 of these points need something a scanner cannot have: a completed test order, a customer account, a real Android phone, or access to GA4 and your email platform. That is where 3DS failures, duplicate purchase events and discount-first recovery flows hide.

How to use this list

Work through sections A to I on your phone with a real product in the cart and tick what passes. Hand sections J and K to whoever owns analytics and email. Anything tagged Critical goes to the top of the fix list, whatever else is on it.

Get the printable PDF

The 77 checkpoints

Storefront verifiable on the live store, no login Needs access a test order, an account, analytics or a real device Critical a failure here costs orders on its own Tick a box to track progress. Saved in this browser only.

Section A · Cart to checkout handoff · 7 checks

Does your cart hand shoppers off to checkout cleanly?

The cart is where intent becomes commitment, and most abandonment that gets blamed on the checkout starts here: a buried button, a total that changes later, an item that turns out to be out of stock at the payment step.

  1. The cart page should present a single, visually dominant checkout call to action visible without scrolling. Competing buttons or a buried CTA make shoppers hesitate at the exact moment they are ready to buy.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Make the checkout button the single most prominent element above the fold on the cart page. Demote or remove competing calls to action so the path forward is unmistakable.

  2. Shoppers who return to the cart mid-checkout to adjust quantities should find their items intact and keep any form data already entered. Losing either forces rework and is a common abandonment trigger.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Preserve cart contents and previously entered checkout fields when the shopper navigates back to the cart and returns. Persist form state in session storage or server-side draft orders.

  3. Both the cart and the checkout order summary should show each item's image, chosen variant, and quantity. Shoppers verify what they are buying at these points; missing detail creates doubt and support tickets.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Show product image, selected variant, and quantity for every line item in both the cart and the checkout order summary so shoppers can confirm their order at a glance.

  4. The cart should present an estimated order total that accounts for shipping and tax before the shopper commits to checkout. Surprise costs discovered later are the single most cited reason for abandonment.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Add a shipping and tax estimator to the cart, using geolocation or a postal code prompt, so the displayed total is close to the final charge before checkout begins.

  5. A large, open promo code box invites shoppers to leave and search for discounts, and many never return. The field should be present but understated, typically behind a collapsed link.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Collapse the promo code entry behind a subtle link and keep it visually secondary to the checkout action. Consider auto-applying eligible discounts instead of asking for codes.

  6. Cart contents should survive a page reload and a returning visit, and follow logged-in customers across devices. Shoppers often research on mobile and buy on desktop; an evaporating cart breaks that journey.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Persist the cart in a durable cookie or server-side session with a long expiry, and sync it to the customer account so logged-in shoppers see the same cart on every device.

  7. Out-of-stock or low-stock conditions should surface on the product page and in the cart. Learning an item is unavailable at the payment step wastes the shopper's effort and erodes trust in the whole store.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Validate inventory when items are added and again on the cart page, showing clear availability messages there instead of rejecting the order at the payment step.

Section B · Entry and account friction · 6 checks

How much stands between the checkout button and the first form field?

Forced account creation is one of the most cited abandonment reasons in Baymard Institute's checkout research. Every screen a shopper has to get past before they can start typing is a chance to leave.

  1. Shoppers must be able to complete a purchase without creating an account. Forced registration is one of the most damaging checkout barriers measured in usability research and directly blocks purchases.

    Storefront Critical
    How to fix it

    Add a guest checkout path that collects only what the order needs. Offer account creation after the purchase is complete, prefilled from the order data.

  2. When checkout entry offers both paths, the guest option should be at least as prominent as sign-in. Layouts that visually push new customers toward login make them feel unwelcome and add friction for the majority.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Give the guest path equal or greater visual weight than sign-in on the checkout entry screen, and label it in plain language such as 'Continue as guest'.

  3. The best moment to invite registration is the confirmation page, where one added password creates the account from data the shopper already entered. This captures accounts without adding checkout friction.

    Needs access
    How to fix it

    On the order confirmation page, offer to create an account with a single password field, reusing the name, email, and address already captured by the order.

  4. Express options such as Shop Pay, PayPal, Apple Pay, and Google Pay should appear at the start of checkout, not after the full form. They let ready buyers skip data entry entirely and lift mobile conversion.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Surface available express payment buttons at the top of the checkout entry screen and on the cart page, ahead of the manual form, so returning wallet users can pay in one step.

  5. When an email matches an existing account, checkout should not dead-end into a login wall or password reset. Shoppers who forgot their password must still be able to complete the purchase without leaving the flow.

    Needs access
    How to fix it

    Let recognized emails continue as guests or offer a one-time login code instead of forcing a password reset. Never make account recovery a precondition of completing the order.

  6. Newsletter and marketing consent must be a genuine choice, not a precondition of buying. Pre-ticked or mandatory opt-ins damage trust and violate consent rules in many markets.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Make marketing consent an unticked, optional checkbox that has no effect on the ability to complete the purchase, with clear wording about what the shopper is agreeing to.

Section C · Form design and field logic · 10 checks

Is every form field earning its place?

Each field costs completion rate, so each one needs a reason to exist. The fields that stay should be labelled, ordered the way the local postal system expects, and wired for browser autofill.

  1. Each field in the checkout form should earn its place; every extra input measurably increases abandonment. Fields that exist for internal convenience rather than order fulfillment should be removed.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Audit each field against what fulfillment actually requires and remove the rest. Derive values where possible, for example billing address defaulting to shipping address.

  2. Optional inputs still cost attention and cause hesitation. Fields like address line 2, company, and phone should either explain why they are asked, be hidden behind a link, or be removed.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Collapse rarely used optional fields behind an 'Add' link and attach a short reason to any field that stays, such as 'for delivery questions' next to phone.

  3. Labels must remain visible while the shopper types. Placeholder-only labels disappear on focus, forcing shoppers to remember what each field wanted and making review and error recovery much harder.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Use persistent labels above each field or a float-on-focus pattern so the label stays visible during entry and review. Reserve placeholders for format hints only.

  4. Correct autocomplete attributes let the browser fill name, address, email, and phone in one action. Missing or wrong tokens force manual typing, which is slow and error-prone, especially on mobile.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Add the standard HTML autocomplete tokens (name, email, tel, address-line1, postal-code, and related values) to every checkout field so browser autofill completes the form in one step.

  5. An address lookup service that suggests complete addresses as the shopper types cuts entry time and reduces failed deliveries from typos. It should be active in the store's primary markets.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Integrate an address autocomplete service for the store's supported countries so shoppers pick a verified address from suggestions instead of typing it field by field.

  6. In markets where the postal code determines city and region, entering it should prefill those fields automatically. Asking shoppers to type data the code already encodes is avoidable friction.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Derive city and region from the postal code in countries where the mapping is reliable, prefilling those fields and letting the shopper correct them only if needed.

  7. One full-name field is faster to complete and matches how people think of their own name. Separate first and last name fields are justified only when downstream systems genuinely require them.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Replace separate first and last name inputs with a single full-name field, splitting the value server-side only if carriers or ERP systems require separate parts.

  8. Address fields should follow the order shoppers in each market expect, for example postal code before city in much of Europe. A foreign field order causes hesitation and mis-entered addresses.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Reorder address fields per market to match local postal convention, driven by the selected country, rather than using one fixed layout for every shopper.

  9. Moving through the form with the keyboard should follow the visual layout exactly, and focus must never get stuck in a widget. Broken tab order slows every shopper and locks out keyboard and assistive-tech users.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Keep the DOM order aligned with the visual order, avoid positive tabindex values, and test that focus moves through every field and out of every widget without trapping.

  10. When checkout spans multiple steps, shoppers need to see how many steps exist and where they are. A visible progress indicator reduces the uncertainty that makes people abandon mid-flow.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Add a step indicator showing named steps and the shopper's current position, and keep completed steps clickable so earlier entries can be reviewed without losing progress.

Section D · Mobile · 7 checks

Does your checkout actually work on a phone?

Mobile carries most of the traffic and the weakest conversion rates. The failures are rarely dramatic: the wrong keyboard, a tap target too small for a thumb, an order summary that pushes the pay button below the fold.

  1. Email, phone, and numeric fields should declare types or inputmode values that raise the matching mobile keyboard. Typing digits on an alphabetic keyboard is slow and produces avoidable errors.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Set type=email, type=tel, and inputmode=numeric (with matching patterns) on the relevant fields so each one raises the correct keyboard on touch devices.

  2. Every interactive element in cart and checkout, including small controls like radios, checkboxes, and quantity steppers, needs a touch area of at least 44x44 pixels. Smaller targets cause mis-taps and frustration.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Enlarge the tappable area of every control to at least 44x44 pixels, extending padding or hit areas on radios, checkboxes, links, and steppers rather than only the visible glyph.

  3. iOS Safari zooms the page when a focused input's font size is under 16px, disorienting shoppers and hiding surrounding context. All checkout inputs should use a 16px or larger font.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Set the font size of all checkout inputs to at least 16px so mobile browsers do not auto-zoom on focus. Do not disable user zoom to work around it.

  4. On mobile, the order summary should collapse or stay compactly pinned so the primary button remains reachable. A full summary wedged above the CTA buries the action shoppers came to take.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Collapse the order summary into an expandable bar on mobile, or make it sticky and compact, so the continue and pay buttons stay visible without long scrolling.

  5. The primary action on each checkout step should be reachable with minimal scrolling on typical phone viewports. Long forms with the button far below the fold measurably slow completion.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Shorten each step's form, or make the primary button sticky at the bottom of the mobile viewport, so shoppers never hunt for the way forward.

  6. Apple Pay on iOS Safari and Google Pay on Android should appear when the device and browser support them. Device-native wallets are the fastest mobile payment path and their absence pushes shoppers to manual entry.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Enable Apple Pay and Google Pay in the payment gateway and render their buttons conditionally based on device support detection, placed with the other express options.

  7. Emulators miss real-world behavior: actual keyboards, autofill, wallet sheets, and mid-range performance. The checkout should be verified on physical hardware representative of the customer base.

    Needs access
    How to fix it

    Run the full purchase flow on a physical mid-range Android device and a recent iPhone, checking keyboards, autofill, wallet availability, and responsiveness under real conditions.

Section E · Payment methods and localization · 7 checks

Can shoppers pay the way they expect to in their market?

Payment is where localisation stops being a translation exercise. A missing local method, an undisclosed currency conversion or an untested 3DS flow fails without leaving a trace in your error logs.

  1. Each market has payment methods shoppers expect, such as iDEAL, BLIK, Klarna, SEPA, or Bancontact. Missing the locally dominant method can cost a large share of that market's orders outright.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Map the store's target markets to their dominant payment methods and enable the missing ones through the payment provider, showing them by shopper location.

  2. Prices should appear in the currency shoppers expect for their market, and any conversion at charge time must be disclosed before payment. Surprise currency switches on the card statement drive chargebacks.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Localize displayed currency by market, and where the charge settles in a different currency, state that clearly next to the total before the shopper pays.

  3. The card entry form should accept pasted numbers, work with browser and password-manager autofill, and detect the card brand as digits are typed. Blocking these behaviors slows the most sensitive step of checkout.

    Needs access
    How to fix it

    Allow paste and autofill in all card fields, auto-format the number with spaces, and show the detected card brand as the shopper types.

  4. Buy-now-pay-later options should state the installment schedule, total cost, and any fees before the shopper selects them. Terms revealed only after selection feel like a trap and stall the payment step.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Display each BNPL option's installment amount, schedule, and total cost inline next to the option itself, before the shopper commits to it.

  5. Every payment logo shown at checkout should correspond to a method the store actually accepts. Dead logos mislead shoppers into planning a payment that will fail at the final step.

    Needs access
    How to fix it

    Reconcile the icons shown in the footer, cart, and payment step against the methods actually enabled in the gateway, and remove any logo that cannot complete a payment.

  6. Strong customer authentication must work through the full loop in every market where it applies: challenge shown, success, failure, and retry. A broken 3DS flow silently blocks purchases at the last step.

    Needs access Critical
    How to fix it

    Run test transactions per market covering the 3DS challenge, a declined authentication, and a retry, confirming the shopper always lands back in a working checkout with data intact.

  7. A declined or failed payment must return the shopper to the payment step with cart, addresses, and selections preserved, plus a clear explanation. Wiping the order after a decline loses the sale permanently.

    Needs access Critical
    How to fix it

    On payment failure, preserve all entered data and cart contents, show a plain-language reason, and offer an immediate retry or alternative payment method.

Section F · Cost transparency, shipping and tax · 7 checks

Are all costs on the table before the payment step?

Unexpected costs are the leading abandonment reason in Baymard Institute's surveys. Shipping, tax, duties and the delivery date all belong before the card form, not on the review step.

  1. Shipping cost must be known before the shopper reaches payment. Discovering the true cost only at the point of paying is the classic surprise-cost pattern behind most checkout abandonment.

    Storefront Critical
    How to fix it

    Surface shipping cost in the cart via an estimator and show the selected rate in the running total on every checkout step before payment.

  2. Shoppers choose shipping options based on when the order arrives, not which carrier moves it. Each option should state a delivery date or date range rather than only a service name.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Label each shipping option with an expected delivery date or range, computed from cutoff times and transit estimates, alongside the price.

  3. International shoppers need to know whether duties and import taxes are included in the total or collected on delivery. Unstated duties turn into refused parcels and chargebacks.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Show duties and import taxes in the checkout total for international destinations, or state plainly that they are due on delivery, so the shopper knows the full landed cost.

  4. When a free-shipping threshold exists, the cart should show how close the shopper is and what to add to qualify. Visible progress raises average order value and removes cost uncertainty.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Add a progress indicator such as 'You are 12 EUR away from free shipping' in the cart and checkout, updating live as the cart changes.

  5. The shipping list should lead with the option most shoppers actually want, typically the best balance of speed and cost, rather than a raw cheapest-first sort that buries the sensible default.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Order shipping options by likely relevance, preselect a sensible default, and keep the list short with clear date and price on each option.

  6. The final review must contain no new charges: every fee, tax, and shipping cost should already have appeared in the running total. A last-second cost increase is the most trust-destroying pattern in checkout.

    Storefront Critical
    How to fix it

    Compute and display all fees, taxes, and shipping in the running order total as soon as they are determinable, so the final step only confirms a number the shopper has already seen.

  7. Choosing store pickup or local delivery should adapt the form gracefully, hiding irrelevant shipping fields and validating what remains. A pickup path that still demands a full shipping address confuses and stalls shoppers.

    Needs access
    How to fix it

    Branch the form on fulfillment choice: pickup collects only contact details and a location, local delivery validates the service area, and neither demands unused shipping fields.

Section G · Trust and security signals · 7 checks

Does the payment step feel safe?

Shoppers judge safety in the last thirty seconds, on the screen where they type a card number. Badges in the footer do not count, and neither does a policy they have to leave checkout to read.

  1. Reassurance matters most where card details are entered. Recognized security and payment marks should sit near the payment fields, since a footer badge is off-screen at the moment of highest anxiety.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Place a concise trust cluster next to the card form: a padlock with a short security statement and the marks of accepted payment networks.

  2. Shoppers finalizing a purchase often want to confirm the return terms. The policy should open in a modal or expandable panel inside checkout, since navigating away risks losing the shopper entirely.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Link the return and refund policy from checkout and open it in an overlay or expandable section so the shopper's progress is never at risk.

  3. A phone number, chat entry, or support email visible in checkout tells shoppers help exists if something goes wrong. Its absence at the money step reads as a store that will be unreachable after purchase.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Show at least one contact channel (phone, chat, or email) in the checkout header or footer, kept unobtrusive so it reassures without distracting from completion.

  4. Every cart and checkout URL must serve over valid TLS with zero mixed-content requests. Browser security warnings at the payment step end purchases immediately and expose shopper data in transit.

    Storefront Critical
    How to fix it

    Fix the certificate chain, force HTTPS on all funnel URLs, and eliminate every insecure subresource so no browser shows a security warning anywhere in the flow.

  5. The payment step should show what is being paid for: items, costs, and the final total. Asking for card details against a bare form makes shoppers second-guess the amount and leave to re-check.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Keep a full order summary with line items and the final total visible (or one tap away on mobile) on the same screen where payment details are entered.

  6. Once the shopper commits to paying, nothing should interrupt the path to confirmation. Surprise upsells, popups, or detours at this stage feel manipulative and create doubt about whether the order went through.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Remove interstitial offers and popups from the payment-to-confirmation path. Post-purchase offers belong on the confirmation page after the order is clearly confirmed.

  7. Checkout collects personal data, and a privacy notice explaining its use should be reachable in one click from the form. This supports both shopper trust and consent-law obligations in most markets.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Link the privacy policy near the checkout form or its submit button, opening in an overlay or new tab so it never navigates the shopper away from their progress.

Section H · Performance · 6 checks

Is the checkout as fast as the rest of the site?

Checkout is uncacheable by design, so the speed work that made your homepage fast often does not apply to it. It needs its own measurements and its own budget for third-party scripts.

  1. Checkout templates have their own performance profile and are usually excluded from public lab metrics. Largest Contentful Paint should be measured on the actual funnel steps, where slowness costs orders directly.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Measure LCP per funnel step, then cut checkout-specific weight: defer non-essential scripts, preload the critical template assets, and keep server response times low on these routes.

  2. Analytics, chat, heatmap, and marketing tags accumulate on checkout templates and compete with the form for bandwidth and CPU. Anything not needed to complete the purchase should be deferred or removed there.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Inventory every third-party request on checkout steps, remove tags that serve no purchase function, and load the rest deferred or after interaction so the form renders first.

  3. Hosted payment fields and gateway SDKs should load asynchronously so the rest of the step renders immediately. A blocking payment script leaves shoppers staring at an empty form at the worst possible moment.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Load the payment SDK asynchronously, render the surrounding form and summary immediately, and show a lightweight placeholder in the card-field area while the iframe initializes.

  4. Full-page or CDN caching must exclude cart and checkout state. Misconfigured caching, a known hazard on Magento and Adobe Commerce, can show one shopper another's cart or serve stale totals.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Send private, no-store cache headers on cart and checkout documents, hole-punch any cached blocks that contain session data, and verify CDN rules never cache personalized responses.

  5. A checkout that feels fine on office broadband can be unusable on a mid-range phone over 4G. The funnel should be exercised under throttled network conditions to expose real-world load behavior.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Profile the funnel under a throttled 4G profile, then trim payload and script weight until each step stays responsive at realistic mobile speeds.

  6. Shipping rates and payment widgets often arrive after first render. Their containers should be pre-sized so content does not jump, since layout shift near buttons causes mis-taps and undermines confidence.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Reserve fixed-size containers or skeletons for shipping options and payment widgets so the layout is stable when they populate, keeping CLS on funnel steps near zero.

Section I · Errors and validation · 6 checks

When something goes wrong, can the shopper recover?

Every checkout produces errors. What matters is whether the shopper sees what to fix, keeps what they already typed and can try again without starting over.

  1. Fields should validate as the shopper leaves them, confirming good input and flagging problems immediately. Deferring all validation to submit produces a wall of errors that many shoppers abandon rather than fix.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Validate each field on blur with the message anchored to the field, and re-validate live once a field has been marked invalid so shoppers see the fix register.

  2. An error message should name the problem and the remedy, for example the expected format. Generic 'invalid input' text forces shoppers to guess, and repeated failed guesses end in abandonment.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Rewrite validation messages to state what is wrong and how to fix it, such as 'Enter your postal code in the format 1234 AB', positioned directly at the affected field.

  3. Validation rules must accept the real formats of every supported market: spaces and country codes in phone numbers, letters in postal codes where applicable. Over-strict patterns reject paying customers with valid data.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Normalize input before validating (strip spaces and separators) and validate per selected country using a maintained library instead of a single rigid pattern.

  4. When a submit fails validation or errors out, everything the shopper typed must still be there. Clearing fields after a failure destroys minutes of effort and is one of the surest ways to lose the order.

    Storefront Critical
    How to fix it

    Preserve all field values through failed submissions, including reloads and server-side rejections, restoring state from session or local storage where needed.

  5. The pay button must lock after the first press, with visible processing feedback, and the backend must treat repeats as idempotent. Unprotected pay buttons produce duplicate charges and the chargebacks that follow.

    Needs access Critical
    How to fix it

    Disable the pay button on first click with a processing indicator, and enforce an idempotency key server-side so repeated requests can never create a second charge.

  6. When the backend fails mid-checkout, the shopper should see a plain-language explanation and a way forward, with their data preserved. A raw error page or silent failure at this stage usually ends the purchase.

    Needs access
    How to fix it

    Catch server-side failures in the checkout flow and show a friendly message with a retry action and a contact option, keeping the cart and entered data intact.

Section J · Analytics and measurement · 8 checks

Can you see where shoppers drop off?

Without a working event chain you are guessing. These checks need access to your analytics, which is exactly why no outside scanner can run them for you.

  1. The standard GA4 ecommerce events should fire at each funnel stage. Missing events leave blind spots in the exact reporting used to find where shoppers drop off.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Implement the full GA4 ecommerce event set through the tag manager or platform integration so every funnel stage emits its event exactly once.

  2. Each ecommerce event should carry complete parameters: the items array, order value, currency, and coupon where applicable. Events without parameters render revenue and product reports useless.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Populate the data layer with the full GA4 ecommerce schema (items, value, currency, coupon) before each event fires, and validate the payloads in debug view.

  3. Each shopper action should produce exactly one event. Duplicate firing, typically from overlapping tags or repeated triggers, inflates funnel counts and corrupts conversion-rate math.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Deduplicate tag triggers so each interaction fires its event once, removing overlapping hardcoded and tag-manager implementations of the same event.

  4. Purchases reported in GA4 should be regularly compared with the payment processor's settled transactions. An unmonitored gap means marketing decisions run on numbers that do not match the money.

    Needs access
    How to fix it

    Set up a recurring reconciliation between GA4 purchase counts and processor settlements, investigate discrepancies beyond a few percent, and fix the tracking gaps they reveal.

  5. Purchase events must carry unique transaction IDs so reloads of the confirmation page cannot double-count revenue, and refunds should flow back into analytics so reported revenue reflects reality.

    Needs access
    How to fix it

    Send a unique transaction_id on every purchase event, rely on GA4 deduplication, and push refund events (full and partial) so reported revenue matches the books.

  6. With consent management in place, analytics should run in consent mode so declined-consent traffic is modeled rather than silently dropped. Otherwise EU funnel data understates traffic and skews conversion rates.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Configure Google consent mode with correct default and update states wired to the consent banner, so measurement degrades gracefully instead of disappearing for non-consenting visitors.

  7. Knowing which specific field shoppers abandon on turns 'checkout leaks' into a fixable list. Form analytics or custom events should record field interactions and the last field touched before exit.

    Storefront
    How to fix it

    Add form analytics or lightweight custom events that record field focus, completion, and the last field touched before abandonment, then review the worst offenders regularly.

  8. Aggregate funnel numbers hide segment-specific failures, such as a broken step that only affects mobile or one country. Reporting should break the funnel down by device class and market.

    Needs access
    How to fix it

    Build funnel explorations segmented by device category and geography so a regression affecting one segment is visible instead of averaged away.

Section K · Post-purchase and recovery · 6 checks

What happens after the order, and after the abandoned cart?

Checkout does not end when the tab closes. The confirmation page and the recovery flow are the last two conversion surfaces, and the two most audits never look at.

  1. The confirmation page should answer the three questions every buyer has: did it work (order number), when does it arrive (delivery estimate), and what happens next. Gaps here generate support contacts and anxiety.

    Needs access
    How to fix it

    Show the order number, an expected delivery date or range, and a short what-happens-next summary (confirmation email, shipping notification, tracking) on the confirmation page.

  2. Shoppers who started checkout are the highest-intent segment to recover, yet many recovery flows only watch cart additions. The automation should also trigger on checkout entry with an email captured.

    Needs access
    How to fix it

    Extend the recovery automation to trigger on checkout starts once an email is known, capturing the email early in the flow to maximize the recoverable audience.

  3. Someone who left at shipping needs a different message than someone who left at payment. Recovery flows segmented by the stage reached convert meaningfully better than one generic reminder.

    Needs access
    How to fix it

    Segment recovery sequences by the last funnel stage reached and tailor each message to the likely objection at that stage, such as shipping cost or payment doubts.

  4. Leading recovery with a discount trains shoppers to abandon carts on purpose and erodes margin. The first message should simply remind and remove obstacles, holding any incentive for later touches.

    Needs access
    How to fix it

    Make the first recovery touch a plain reminder with an easy return link and a help option, and introduce an incentive only in later messages if the shopper has not returned.

  5. SMS recovery requires explicit consent collected for that channel and sending windows that respect the recipient's local time and regulations. Getting this wrong risks fines and immediate brand damage.

    Needs access
    How to fix it

    Send SMS only to shoppers who explicitly opted into that channel, schedule within local daytime windows, and honor opt-outs immediately across all flows.

  6. A recovery email or SMS should deep-link back into a checkout with the cart and entered details restored. Links that land on the homepage or an empty cart squander the second chance the message earned.

    Needs access
    How to fix it

    Use tokenized recovery URLs that rebuild the cart and prefill previously entered details, landing the shopper as close to the abandoned step as the platform allows.

Don't want to run 77 checks yourself?

We run this exact list on your live store, with a test order, analytics access and a real phone in hand, and come back with a prioritised fix list and the revenue at stake for each item.

Free consultation. No commitment. NDA on request.

Common Questions

Checkout Audit Checklist: Your Questions Answered

How long it takes, what needs access, and how it relates to the free audit. Something else? Ask us.

A checkout audit is a structured review of every step between the cart page and the order confirmation, plus the measurement and recovery flows around them. It looks for the places where shoppers who intended to buy fail to finish: unclear costs, forced accounts, form friction, missing payment methods, slow pages, broken validation and analytics gaps. This checklist is the full list of points we review.
Sections A to I can be walked on a phone with a real product in the cart in about an hour for a single market. Sections J and K need access to your analytics and email platform and usually take another half day with the person who owns them. A complete audit with test orders across markets, devices and payment methods is a multi-day engagement.
Not for most of it. 58 of the 77 points can be verified on the live storefront the way a shopper sees it. The remaining 19 need a completed test order, a customer account, analytics access or a real device in hand. Those are tagged "Needs access" in the list above.
Yes. The checks describe what the shopper experiences, not how a platform implements it, so they apply to any storefront. Some points are harder to fix on some platforms: Shopify's hosted checkout limits what you can change without Plus, and Magento's checkout is uncacheable and script-heavy by default. The fixes differ. The checks do not.
The free audit is a scanner. It crawls your public pages, walks the cart and guest checkout as far as the payment step, and reports what it can verify from outside within the hour. This checklist is the full human method behind it. Roughly a quarter of the points need something a scanner can never have: a completed order, your analytics, an account or a phone in hand. Run the free audit first, then use this list for everything it could not reach.
Run the storefront sections after any release that touches the cart, checkout, payment or shipping configuration, and at least once a quarter regardless, because payment providers, apps and browser behaviour change underneath you. Re-check the analytics section whenever tracking or consent tooling changes.
They are the checklist our own auditors and our audit tooling work from. The points draw on Baymard Institute's checkout usability research, Google's GA4 ecommerce event specification and Core Web Vitals guidance, and the patterns we see repeatedly in checkout engagements on Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce and BigCommerce. The data file behind this page is the same one our automated audit reads, so the published list cannot drift from what we actually check.
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