Checkout Optimisation: How to Fix Checkout Friction

Checkout optimisation starts by removing unnecessary typing, showing the total cost early and making payment errors easy to fix. If customers disappear between shipping and payment, walk through that transition on a real phone before changing the layout. A shorter-looking checkout can still ask for exactly the same work.

Auditing Your Checkout Step by Step

Audit one ordinary purchase from product selection to order confirmation. Use a test store and test payments for the final step. Keep a record of the device, basket and delivery address so you can repeat the same journey after a change.

1. Count required fields. Remove information you don’t need to fulfil the order, and explain why a phone number is required if your carrier needs it.
2. Find guest checkout. Customers must be able to buy without creating a password unless the purchase genuinely requires an account.
3. Enter an address on a real phone. Record whether email opens an email keyboard and postcode opens a numeric keyboard. Try autocomplete, then manually enter a unit address that the suggestions miss.
4. Check the shipping choices. Each option must show its cost and useful delivery information before payment.
5. Try the payment methods your customers use. Confirm that wallet buttons appear on supported devices and that a failed payment preserves the basket.
6. Trigger a field error. The message must identify the field and explain the correction, without clearing information already entered.
7. Measure the tap targets. Check their width, height and spacing, then use them one-handed with the keyboard open. Confirm the next action remains reachable.

Baymard’s checkout user experience guidance supports the mobile checks in this audit. Treat a customer’s repeated typing or failed correction as a specific defect to fix. For the broader reasons shoppers leave a basket, use the cart abandonment guide.

One Page Checkout vs Multi-Step

One page checkout puts contact, shipping and payment on one page. Multi-step checkout separates those tasks and can make a long form easier to scan. Neither layout removes the need to enter information by itself.

Baymard’s checkout research puts the work in the form ahead of a universal preference for fewer pages. On mobile, compare scrolling and keyboard behaviour against the extra navigation between steps. A multi-step flow must preserve entries when customers go back. A one-page flow must make errors and changing totals visible without forcing customers to search the page.

Platform	What you get initially	What the store controls
Shopify	Hosted checkout, with one-page checkout as the default and a three-page option	Layout selection and basic branding, with deeper checkout extensions restricted by plan
BigCommerce	Optimized One-Page Checkout with a shared checkout styling system	Supported theme styling, checkout settings and developer customisation within its checkout rules
WooCommerce	Cart and Checkout blocks within your WordPress store	Theme layout, extensions, hosting and the performance of the checkout’s dependencies

For a retailer wanting less responsibility for checkout infrastructure, Shopify and BigCommerce are the stronger starting points. WooCommerce gives the store more control, but the store also owns its hosting and plugin performance. This is a comparison of responsibility and defaults, not evidence that one platform completes more orders on every store.

Shopify’s one-page and three-page layouts collect the same information. Switching layouts alone is therefore a test of presentation. Keep the required fields unchanged during that experiment so you can interpret the result.

Express, Guest and One Click Checkout

Express checkout uses saved information to reduce form filling. Shop Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal can supply payment details and, depending on the service, contact and delivery information. The customer can still need to authenticate or choose a shipping option.

Place an express button beside the product purchase controls when buying that product alone makes sense. Keep the ordinary Add to cart action available. On the cart, put express checkout near the main checkout action. At checkout, put eligible wallet buttons before manual entry so customers see the shortcut before typing.

Shopify calls product-page shortcuts accelerated checkout buttons. They can bypass the cart, so they’re unsuitable when required gift options or delivery instructions are collected only there. Their appearance also depends on the enabled payment method and the customer’s device.

Make guest checkout prominent, then invite account creation on the confirmation page. One click checkout describes a returning customer buying with saved details and a short confirmation flow. Shop Pay and eligible wallet flows provide this kind of shortcut. It doesn’t mean every first-time customer can pay with one tap, or that authentication disappears.

Shopify Checkout Extensibility and Extensions

Shopify Checkout Extensibility replaces checkout.liquid customisation with supported branding settings, checkout UI extensions and Shopify Functions. You can change the checkout through those supported mechanisms, rather than rewriting its underlying page freely.

A checkout UI extension can add content such as a trust badge, delivery note field or relevant upsell block at a supported location. Shopify Functions handle supported business logic, such as delivery or payment customisation. Functions don’t give an app unrestricted control over the checkout layout.

Shopify’s app-availability table reserves extensions on the information, shipping and payment pages for Shopify Plus. Basic and higher plans can use supported thank-you and order-status extensions, post-purchase apps and public apps using Shopify Functions. Custom apps using Functions require Plus. Advanced checkout branding also requires Plus.

Choose the extension point before choosing the app. A delivery field needed before payment belongs in an eligible checkout location. An optional offer after payment can use a post-purchase extension. Test each addition against the original checkout task, and remove blocks that distract customers from finishing it.

Speeding Up a Slow WooCommerce Checkout

Find which operation stalls before adding another optimisation plugin. Compare initial page loading with the delay after changing the shipping address or pressing Pay. Those are different operations and can have different causes.

Use a staging copy, browser network timings and server logs to locate the delay. A slow server response points towards hosting, database work or plugin processing. Long external requests can expose payment or shipping dependencies. Large script downloads point towards front-end weight.

Apply fixes in this order of effort, measuring the same action after each one:

1. Remove unused checkout plugins and duplicate tracking scripts on staging. Retest the required payment and shipping features after every removal.
2. Inspect cart-fragment requests. WooCommerce limits their default loading, but themes or dependencies can still request them. Its Mini-Cart block avoids the cart-fragments API.
3. Review payment gateway scripts. Remove unused integrations and investigate the specific request that stalls. Don’t delay a required payment script without testing payment submission.
4. Trial the block-based Cart and Checkout. Confirm that your gateways, shipping rules and custom fields support blocks before switching.
5. Improve hosting when server measurements show insufficient resources or slow processing. Repeat the same basket and shipping calculation after the move.

WooCommerce’s Checkout blocks use the Store API for cart and order interactions. They don’t guarantee a faster store or repair a slow external gateway. Keep customer-specific cart and checkout responses out of shared page caches. Confirm totals, stock and payment still work after any caching change.

Payment Options Australians Expect

Give customers a card option, supported digital wallets and PayPal. Add buy now pay later when it suits your customers and basket values. Payment choice must remain readable on a phone.

There’s no universal best number of visible payment buttons. Start with the methods customers actually use and remove unused duplicates. Keep wallet shortcuts near the top, then group the remaining choices in the payment section. Show buy now pay later as a distinct payment option without crowding out cards.

Use payment selection and failure data to decide what stays. If a method is rarely selected, check whether it appears on eligible devices before assuming customers don’t want it.

Surcharges, Shipping and Surprise Costs

Show the basket total and any known delivery cost before customers start entering payment details. If delivery depends on the postcode, provide an estimate early and update it visibly when the address is complete. Explain free-delivery conditions beside the estimate.

The Reserve Bank of Australia’s card surcharge guidance explains the designated networks’ no-surcharge rules. Retailers must remove prohibited surcharges when the relevant network rules apply, unless an exception applies. Audit your online payment settings as well as terminals. For the detailed scope, use the surcharge ban guide.

A renamed payment fee can still be a surcharge when it is charged because the customer pays by card. Separate genuine delivery costs from payment charges, and make the payable total visible before the final order action.

Answering Questions Before Payment

Put short delivery and refund answers near the point where customers decide to pay. A customer checking whether an item arrives in time needs the store’s actual dispatch and delivery policy. Keep the answer available without losing the checkout entries.

An assistant in a supported checkout location can answer from store policies without sending the customer to another page. Its placement must fit the platform’s extension rules. Give it a route to staff when a policy doesn’t resolve the customer’s situation.

AI agents can also propose payments for shoppers. Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) is an emerging open protocol that records payment authority through signed mandates. It distinguishes a customer approving a particular basket from delegating a purchase within agreed rules. The agentic checkout guide explains that separate purchase flow.

Testing Checkout Changes Safely

Change one element at a time and track completed orders from started checkouts separately for mobile and desktop. Record the starting result and keep the device mix and reporting method comparable. A layout change and a new payment method launched together won’t reveal which caused the difference.

Use a test store with permission to change its payment settings. Shopify’s documentation now calls the simulator previously known as Bogus Gateway the Test payment gateway. It can simulate success, a declined payment and a provider error without charging a real card.

1. Open Settings, then Payments in the test store. Deactivate the existing card provider before selecting Shopify’s Test payment gateway from the available providers. Activate it and save.
2. Create a basket through the storefront and complete checkout. Enter Test payment gateway as the card name, card number 1 for success, any three-digit security code and a future expiry.
3. Repeat with card number 2 for a failed transaction and 3 for a provider exception. Confirm the errors explain what happened and allow the customer to retry.
4. Inspect the successful order. Confirm the delivery charge, tax, stock adjustment and confirmation email match the test basket.
5. Open that test order in Orders. Choose More actions, then Cancel order, select a reason and restore inventory where required. Confirm cancellation.
6. Archive the order through More actions if it isn’t archived automatically. Archiving removes it from the open-orders view. Eligible test orders can then be deleted to remove their records from Shopify admin. Third-party sandbox orders aren’t always eligible for deletion.
7. Deactivate the test gateway and restore the intended payment settings. Confirm that test mode is off before accepting real orders.

A payment provider’s sandbox is another option, but its own test card details and failure scenarios apply. Keep test payments isolated from live orders and fulfilment. If the order succeeds but no email arrives, inspect notification settings and the test recipient before repeating payment.

Finish by repeating the original phone journey with the changed checkout. The customer must reach confirmation with the expected total, preserved entries after errors and the selected delivery method intact. Keep the change only when the completed-order results support it.