Before you rewrite your sales page again, check the checkout. Baymard Institute puts the average online cart abandonment rate at 70.22% across 50 studies, and most of the reasons shoppers give are about the checkout itself: surprise costs, forced accounts, long forms and doubts about trust (Baymard, 2025). The ten checks below take five minutes on your phone.
Why buyers leave at checkout
| Reason (Baymard survey) | Share of shoppers | Fix on a creator checkout |
|---|---|---|
| Extra costs too high (shipping, tax, fees) | 40% | Show the full price on the offer, not only at payment |
| Didn't trust the site with card details | 19% | Use a known payment provider and show your name and photo |
| Site wanted an account | 18% | Let buyers pay as guests with just an email |
| Checkout too long or complicated | 17% | Name, email and payment on one screen |
| Couldn't see the total cost up front | 12% | Same price on the offer card and the payment screen |
| Not enough payment methods | 9% | Offer the wallets people use on their phone |
Shares exclude shoppers who were “just browsing”. Several of the reasons (delivery speed, returns) apply to physical goods more than to digital products, which is good news: the rest are in your control.
The ten checks
- Can someone pay in under 60 seconds on a phone, on mobile data?
- Is the price identical from the offer card to the payment screen?
- Are you asking for anything you do not need to deliver the product? Remove it.
- Can buyers pay without creating an account?
- Is there a wallet option (such as Apple Pay or Google Pay) on mobile?
- Does the page show who is selling: your name, photo and how to reach you?
- Is the refund rule stated in one plain sentence?
- Does the confirmation screen give access right away, or say exactly what happens next?
- Does the receipt email arrive within a minute, with the download or link inside?
- Have you bought your own product this month to see all of the above for yourself?
How to run the audit
Use your phone, not your laptop, and switch off Wi-Fi. Start from the link in your bio, exactly as a follower would. Time the purchase from the first tap to the confirmation screen, and write down every moment you hesitate or have to scroll to find something. Each note is a fix. Then ask one friend who has never seen the product to buy it while you watch without helping.
What to fix first
If the audit turns up several problems, fix them in the order of how many buyers they cost. Using Baymard's survey shares as a guide:
- Price surprises first (40%): the number on the offer must be the number at payment.
- Trust next (19%): show who you are, how buyers reach you and your refund rule.
- Then forced accounts (18%) and long forms (17%): remove every field you do not need to deliver.
- Then payment options (9%): add what your buyers use on their phones.
Measure whether the fix worked
Track one number before and after each change: the share of people who start checkout and finish paying. Compare the two weeks before a change with the two weeks after, and change one thing at a time, so you know which fix moved the number. If traffic is small, look at the trend over a month rather than a single week.
Why one-step checkout wins for creator products
Multi-page funnels were built for physical goods and high-ticket programs, where shipping, options and applications need their own steps. A $29 guide does not. Tapmy's one-step checkout keeps name, email and payment on a single screen; if you still send buyers through a multi-page funnel for a low-priced product, simplify it. More on the reasoning in why we built one-step checkout.
Frequently asked questions
What is a normal cart abandonment rate?
Baymard Institute's average across 50 studies is 70.22%: about 7 in 10 online carts are not completed. Compare your own checkout start-to-paid rate over time rather than against that average.
What is the most common reason buyers abandon checkout?
Unexpected extra costs: 40% of US shoppers in Baymard's survey left for that reason, excluding people who were only browsing. Show the full price before the payment screen.
Does a shorter checkout increase sales?
It removes two common reasons people leave: being asked to create an account (18% in Baymard's survey) and a checkout that is too long or complicated (17%). Measure your own checkout start-to-paid rate before and after to see the effect for your product.
How often should I audit my checkout?
Before every launch and once a month. Buy your own product on your phone; it takes five minutes and catches most problems.
