A lot of founders treat abandonment like weather. It happens.
In reality, abandonment is mostly mechanical: slow pages, surprise fees, confusing checkout, mobile bugs, and weak trust at the last moment.
The exact percentage varies by store, but the physics is consistent.
Friction increases cognitive load.
Cognitive load increases doubt.
Doubt kills completion.
The latency tax
Every delay is a tax on intent.
On mobile, users are not impatient. They are context-switching constantly: notifications, weak signal, low battery, real life. If your checkout adds even two to three seconds, you are not losing some people. You are losing your most impulsive buyers, the ones most likely to complete.
The five biggest friction sources
1) surprise costs
Shipping or taxes revealed late feels like betrayal.
2) too many fields
If checkout asks for unnecessary information, people bounce.
3) slow scripts and bloated themes
Apps pile on JavaScript. Performance dies quietly.
4) weak trust at checkout
People hesitate when they are about to type their card.
5) mobile breakage
Tiny layout issues can destroy completion.
The friction audit (60 minutes)
You can do this today without fancy tools.
Step 1: run a buy test on mobile
Open your store on cellular data. Add a product. Go to checkout. Stop at the payment page.
Write down where you felt friction, where you hesitated, and what surprised you. If you felt it, buyers felt it ten times.
Step 2: time the key steps
- landing to interactive
- PDP scroll smoothness
- add-to-cart response
- checkout load time
You are not chasing perfect speed scores. You are chasing perceived fast.
Step 3: identify the point of doubt
Where do you suddenly feel uncertain? That is where trust signals belong.
Quick wins that pay back immediately
Fix 1: reveal total cost early
Even a simple line like "Shipping calculated at checkout (typical range: X to Y)" reduces surprise.
Fix 2: simplify the checkout path
Remove distractions, reduce optional fields, and enable accelerated payments where appropriate.
Fix 3: strip dead weight from scripts
Common offenders are too many popups, heavy tracking stacks, and redundant app scripts.
Fix 4: improve PDP to checkout continuity
If the PDP promise does not match checkout reality, trust breaks.
Fix 5: add last-mile trust
At checkout, add a short returns summary, shipping estimate, secure payment icons (not spammy), and a tiny FAQ.
A 48-hour triage sprint
An outcome sprint approach is simple: diagnose fast, then ship fixes fast.
Day 1: speed and mobile checks, app/script inventory, checkout friction points, and top device/browser breakdown.
Day 2: remove or defer scripts, simplify checkout settings, compress assets, fix mobile layout bugs, and add cost transparency.
No retainer needed. Just visible output.
The counterpoint: do not optimize a weak offer
If your offer is unclear, friction fixes will not save you. But even great offers get kneecapped by friction.
So it's usually not either/or: remove major friction first (fast wins), then refine positioning and proof.
The takeaway
Cart abandonment is a system bug, not a personality flaw.
Run the friction audit. Remove surprise. Reduce steps. Speed up the last mile. Add trust where doubt appears.
That is not optimization. That is recovering revenue you already earned.
Ready to ship?
If this is your bottleneck, we can scope a sprint and start fast.
