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Cart abandonment: what to fix on the site, beyond the price
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A long checkout weighs on cart abandonment as much as a site that crashes during payment: 17% each, according to the latest Baymard Institute survey. Together with an unclear returns policy (13%), too few payment methods (9%) and declined cards (10%), these are the causes of cart abandonment that a fix on the site solves right away, without waiting for a law or a recovery campaign.
Long checkout and a site that crashes: the two causes of cart abandonment with the same weight
Visible pricing and not forcing an account remain the most-cited causes of cart abandonment, and I've already covered them in website with a shopping cart: what you need beyond the buy now button. Here are the others, the ones that depend on how the site works, not on a legal requirement. According to Baymard's list of abandonment reasons (data updated October 28, 2026), 17% of people who abandon an online purchase do so because the checkout was too long or complicated, the same share that abandons because the site had errors or crashed during the purchase.
It isn't an isolated problem at a handful of shops. According to Baymard's benchmark on checkout quality, updated November 3, 2026, 59% of leading US and European e-commerce sites have a checkout rated "mediocre or worse" on desktop, and only 2% reach a good rating. The most direct fix is removing steps, not adding them: fewer required fields, an address entered once instead of twice, a purchase possible without creating an account. On the error side, the useful check is to personally try a complete purchase after every major change to the site, a newly installed payment method or a platform update: don't wait for a customer to be the first to notice.
The returns policy is shown before payment, not after
13% of people who abandon a cart do so because the returns policy didn't convince them or wasn't clear, according to the same Baymard list. In Italy there's already a fourteen-day right of withdrawal that applies by law to nearly every online purchase, which I detail in right of withdrawal: the fourteen days seen from the shop's side. The business point here is different from the legal one: having that guarantee doesn't reduce abandonment if the customer doesn't see it before paying. Showing it on the product page or in the cart, not only in the general terms at the bottom of the site, removes a doubt the customer would otherwise carry through to the last step.
More payment methods, fewer carts abandoned for this reason
9% of people who abandon say the site didn't offer a payment method that worked for them, according to Baymard. It isn't the most common of the five causes, but it's among the easiest to fix: a second method besides the card, such as a digital wallet, has a per-transaction cost that's easy to compare, as I show in online payment fees: what you actually keep, and it typically recovers more sales than it costs to add.
A declined card can't be avoided, but it can be handled
10% of people who abandon do so because the card was declined at the moment of payment, according to Baymard. It's one of the few cases the site doesn't control directly, because the decision belongs to the customer's bank, not the shop. The only realistic action is what happens right after: a clear message about what went wrong, and an alternative payment method offered immediately, instead of leaving the customer stuck on an error with no way forward.
What to fix, by weight
| Cause | Share of abandoners | What to fix |
|---|---|---|
| Checkout too long or complicated | 17% | Fewer steps, fewer required fields |
| The site has errors or crashes | 17% | Test a full purchase after every change |
| Unclear returns policy | 13% | Show it before payment, not at the bottom of the site |
| Credit card declined | 10% | Offer an alternative method right away |
| Too few payment methods | 9% | Add a second method besides the card |
None of these five points requires switching platforms or rebuilding the site: they're targeted fixes to a checkout that already exists. If you want to find out which of these are blocking your sales, get in touch, or start from the page sell your products and services online.