---
title: "A five-minute checkout audit: 10 checks that recover sales"
deck: "About 7 in 10 online carts are abandoned. Most of the reasons are fixable on your checkout. Run these ten checks on your phone before your next launch."
excerpt: "Baymard Institute puts the average cart abandonment rate at 70.22% across 50 studies. Ten checks that fix the most common reasons, from surprise costs to forced accounts, in five minutes on your phone."
category: "guides"
publishedAt: "2026-07-14"
publishedLabel: "Jul 14, 2026"
readTimeMin: 3
author: "alex-tyshchenko"
coverTone: "sand"
coverLabel: "Kill the friction"
updatedAt: "2026-10-17"
faq:
  - question: "What is a normal cart abandonment rate?"
    answer: "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."
  - question: "What is the most common reason buyers abandon checkout?"
    answer: "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."
  - question: "Does a shorter checkout increase sales?"
    answer: "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."
  - question: "How often should I audit my checkout?"
    answer: "Before every launch and once a month. Buy your own product on your phone; it takes five minutes and catches most problems."
cta:
  href: "/one-step-checkout"
  label: "See Tapmy's one-step checkout"
  text: "Name, email and payment on one screen, straight from your bio link."
sources:
  - label: "Cart abandonment rate statistics (Baymard Institute, updated Sep 22, 2025)"
    url: "https://baymard.com/lists/cart-abandonment-rate"
tags:
  - digital-products
  - payments-fees
---

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](https://baymard.com/lists/cart-abandonment-rate)). The ten checks below take five minutes on your phone.

## Why buyers leave at checkout {#why-buyers-leave}

Table: Reasons US shoppers abandoned a checkout, and the fix for a creator store
| 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 {#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 {#how-to-run-it}

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 {#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 {#measure-the-fix}

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 {#one-step-wins}

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](/blog/why-we-built-one-step-checkout).