How to reduce cart abandonment
Fix the reasons shoppers leave a Shopify cart: shipping cost shown early, no forced sign-in, fast payment buttons, a shorter checkout form and fewer doubts.
What this is for
An abandoned cart email wins back some of the people who leave. It does nothing about why they left. Most of the reasons are on your side of the screen: a shipping charge that only appears at the last step, an account wall, a form that asks for things it does not need, or no quick way to pay on a phone. Fixing those means fewer carts to chase in the first place.
This guide works through the store and checkout side, in the order that usually pays off first. The email side, the reminder flow for people who still leave, is covered step by step in setting up an abandoned cart flow in Klaviyo.
Time needed and what you need
Time needed: about 3 hours. An hour reading your abandoned checkouts and funnel, an hour on shipping and checkout settings, and an hour testing checkout on a phone.
- Admin access to Shopify settings for checkout, shipping and payments
- Your shipping rates and any free-shipping threshold written down
- A phone, so you can go through your own checkout as a shopper
- Your returns policy and usual delivery times, in one sentence each
The steps
Start by finding out where people leave. Then fix the causes in this order: price surprises, access, speed, form length, doubt.
1. Find where shoppers drop out
Open Orders, then Abandoned checkouts in Shopify and read through a few weeks of them. Look for patterns: the same shipping country, the same product, a failed payment in the timeline, carts that stall at the delivery step. Shopify counts a checkout as abandoned once it has sat unfinished for ten minutes after the shopper typed their email. source, checked 28 September 2026
Export what you need as you go. Shopify deletes abandoned checkouts after three months, so the history you want to compare against next quarter will not be there unless you save it. source, checked 28 September 2026
2. Show the shipping cost before checkout
A delivery charge that appears for the first time at checkout is the classic reason to leave. Put your rates, or your free-shipping threshold, on product pages and in the cart, and show a running total that includes delivery. In the UK this is also the law: hiding unavoidable charges until later in the purchase is treated as drip pricing. source, checked 28 September 2026
Show when the parcel will arrive, too. Shopify's shipping settings can add transit times to flat rates so checkout shows a delivery estimate, not just a price. source, checked 28 September 2026
3. Let people check out without signing in
In Settings, then Checkout, leave the option that forces customers to sign in before checkout switched off unless you truly need it, for example for wholesale. Besides the extra step, turning it on hides express payment buttons such as Apple Pay from the cart. source, checked 28 September 2026
4. Turn on express payment options
Activate Shop Pay and the wallets your payment provider supports, such as Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal. Returning shoppers get their details filled in, and the buttons can sit on product pages so a shopper can skip the cart altogether. Shopify itself warns that hiding these options can cost conversions. source, checked 28 September 2026
5. Remove checkout fields you do not need
In the Customer information section of the checkout settings, go through each field. If you do not sell to businesses, remove Company name; making it required also stops some express options such as Apple Pay from appearing. Keep the second address line optional, because requiring or removing it can stop some people completing an order depending on where they live. Only require a phone number if your carrier or payment provider needs one. source, checked 28 September 2026
6. Answer the last doubts on the cart page
Under the cart total, answer in one line each what a nervous first-time buyer wonders: how long delivery takes, how returns work, and how to reach you. A short review line or star rating for the items in the cart helps too. Keep it short; the cart is not the place for a new offer or a pop-up. The free Shopify store audit flags pages where these answers are missing.
- Delivery: when it will arrive, not only what it costs
- Returns: the window and who pays for the return
- Contact: an email or chat link that someone answers
7. Go through your own checkout on a phone
Buy something from your store on your phone as a new customer: add to cart, use a discount code, try an express button, enter an address in another country you ship to. Note every moment you had to stop, scroll or retype. Anything that annoys you will stop some of your customers.
8. Measure the change over the same length of time
Change a few things at once only if you cannot wait, and write down the date of each change. Then compare completed checkouts as a share of started checkouts for the four weeks before and after, avoiding sale periods that would distort either side. If the number moves, keep the change; if it does not, try the next cause on the list. To test one change properly, use a split test as in running an A/B test on Shopify.
A worked example
For a candle store with 1,500 started checkouts a month
Worked example (an invented store, with invented numbers)
In a normal month the store sees 1,500 started checkouts and 600 orders. Reading its abandoned checkouts, it notices many stall at the delivery step, and its $6.95 shipping charge appears nowhere before checkout. Company name is also a required field.
It adds a line to product pages and the cart saying shipping is $6.95 or free over $50, adds delivery estimates, and removes the Company name field. In the next four weeks, 1,500 checkouts are started again and 690 become orders.
That is 90 more orders a month before any reminder email is sent. At its average order of $42, it is $3,780 a month.
Common mistakes
Treating an abandoned cart flow as the whole fix. The flow recovers some shoppers after they have left; the checkout changes stop them leaving. Do both, but start with the store.
Forcing account creation to build a customer list. You get a few more accounts and lose buyers who did not want one. Collect email marketing consent at checkout instead.
Putting a discount pop-up on the cart page. It teaches shoppers that leaving gets them a better price and distracts people who were about to pay. Answer doubts on the cart page; save offers for campaigns.
Changing checkout settings and never testing on a phone. A field that looks harmless on a desktop can hide the express buttons or push the pay button below the fold on mobile. Test every change as a shopper would.
Doing this with Tilly
Tilly's CRO agent runs a CRO audit of your store for 20 credits, and each fix it writes for your theme costs 10 credits. Fixes are published to a preview copy of your theme, and nothing changes on your live store until you approve it.
Settings inside Shopify checkout, such as sign-in, payment methods and form fields, stay with you in the Shopify admin.
Questions people ask
Is free shipping the only way to stop shipping-cost abandonment?
No. Much of the damage comes from the surprise, not the charge. A clear rate shown early, or a free-shipping threshold a little above your usual order, often works without giving shipping away on every order.
How do I know which step shoppers leave at?
Shopify's abandoned checkouts list shows what each shopper entered and any failed payment attempts, and Shopify suggests reviewing it for patterns. Your analytics funnel from cart to checkout to order shows how many leave before checkout even starts. source, checked 28 September 2026
Do I need to show delivery charges in UK ads and emails too?
UK guidance treats an email or social post with a price as an invitation to purchase, so a mandatory delivery charge belongs there as well, not only at checkout. source, checked 28 September 2026
See this on your own store
Paste your store URL. The first pass takes about a minute and needs no account. Save a card (nothing is charged) and Tilly reads the whole store and works out who buys from you.