Shopify checkout optimization means getting more of the shoppers who reach checkout to finish the order. Some of that work happens inside checkout, through Shopify’s settings, its checkout editor and, on Shopify Plus, apps on the checkout steps. A lot of it happens before checkout, on the product and cart pages, where shoppers decide whether the total and the delivery terms are acceptable.
This guide covers why shoppers leave a checkout, what you can change in a Shopify checkout on each plan, how to measure it, the changes that matter, what our own checkout tests showed, how to A/B test a Shopify checkout, and whether you need Plus. What to change on the rest of the store is in our Shopify CRO guide.
Last updated October 15, 2026 by Devon Cox, Founder and President, ConversionTeam (16+ years in CRO). Shopify, Google and Baymard pages were checked in October 2026.
TL;DR: Shopify checkout optimization in one minute
To optimize a Shopify checkout, turn on express payment methods, don’t make an account a condition of buying, ask only for the fields an order needs, and test what’s left; the main Plus-only change is apps on the information, shipping and payment steps.
- Shoppers leave over extra costs, slow delivery, trust and forced accounts, according to Baymard’s survey.
- From the Basic plan up, Shopify gives you the checkout editor and apps for the thank-you and order status pages; checkout settings cover some form fields and sign-in, and accelerated checkout buttons can be turned on. Apps that change the information, shipping and payment steps need Shopify Plus.
- Measure checkout on its own, orders divided by checkouts started. Shopify’s Rollouts can test checkout configurations on the Grow plan or higher.
Bottom Line: fix what shoppers see before checkout first, then work through checkout’s settings, and test before you keep a change.
On this page:
- Why do shoppers leave a checkout without buying?
- How much can you customize a Shopify checkout on each plan?
- How do you measure a Shopify checkout?
- How do you optimize a Shopify checkout?
- What have our checkout tests shown?
- How do you A/B test a Shopify checkout?
- What should you change first in a Shopify checkout?
- Do you need Shopify Plus to optimize your checkout?
- FAQ
Why do shoppers leave a checkout without buying?
The most common reason is that the shopper was just browsing; after that come extra costs, slow delivery, not trusting the site with a card and being asked to create an account.
Baymard Institute’s average documented online shopping cart abandonment rate is 70.22%, across all ecommerce (Baymard). Its reasons come from a 2026 survey of 1,083 US adults who have shopped online in the past 3 months; respondents could pick more than one reason:
| Reason shoppers gave for abandoning an online purchase | Share |
|---|---|
| I was browsing / not ready to buy | 42% |
| Extra costs too high (shipping, etc.) | 40% |
| Delivery was too slow | 20% |
| I didn’t trust the site with my credit card | 19% |
| Had to create an account | 18% |
| Too long/complex checkout process | 17% |
| Website had errors/crashed | 17% |
| Return policy wasn’t satisfactory | 13% |
| I couldn’t see total order cost upfront | 12% |
| There weren’t enough payment methods | 9% |
Source: Baymard Institute, fetched October 2026.
The first row is the one a store can do the least about. In Baymard’s words, “These are largely unavoidable cart and checkout abandonments.” The rest are reasons a store can work on: costs, delivery, trust, accounts, the length of the checkout and payment methods.
Our own data measures something different: how many shoppers who reach a step go on to buy. Across all platforms, the median baseline conversion rate of the checkout-page tests we ran was 37.2%, and 32.0% for cart-page tests. Each figure is the share of shoppers who reached that step and bought in the same session, from the control versions of the tests. The full stage table, with ranges, is in our ecommerce conversion rate benchmarks.
At those medians, most shoppers who built a cart didn’t buy in that session, and most who reached checkout didn’t either.
How much can you customize a Shopify checkout on each plan?
From the Basic plan up, you can change checkout’s look, its settings and the thank-you page and add some app types; apps on the information, shipping and payment steps need Shopify Plus.
Shopify’s own line is this: “Standard checkout customizations are available on all pages for businesses that are on the Basic plan or higher. Advanced checkout customization features are available only on the Shopify Plus plan.” (Shopify Help).
From the Basic plan up:
- The checkout and accounts editor, where you set the logo, colors and fonts so checkout looks like the store.
- These app types, from Shopify’s app availability table: public apps built with Shopify Functions, post-purchase extensions, web pixel extensions, UI extensions for the thank-you and order status pages and for customer accounts pages, and Checkout Blocks, a free Shopify app, with some feature restrictions (Shopify Help).
Shopify Plus only:
- UI extensions for the information, shipping and payment pages. Shopify says “Apps that customize the information, shipping, and payment pages of the checkout … are available only to Shopify Plus.”
- Custom apps built with Shopify Functions.
Checkout settings decide whether some form fields are required, optional or left out and whether shoppers must sign in, and accelerated checkout buttons can be turned on (both covered below).
What no longer works on any plan: checkout.liquid is unsupported for the information, shipping and payment steps, and the additional-scripts box in checkout settings has been view-only since August 28, 2025 (Shopify, Shopify Help). Script tags on the thank-you and order status pages were sunset on August 28, 2025 for Plus stores, and are sunset for other stores on August 26, 2026.
A tag manager can’t change checkout either. On an upgraded checkout, Google Tag Manager can run as a custom pixel, and pixels run in a sandbox that “can’t render user interface elements, such as buttons, forms, banners, or modals” (Shopify Help). With theme code unsupported on the checkout steps, that means a tag manager can’t change checkout on any plan, and that includes Nantu, our testing tool.
Our Shopify CRO agency page has a checkout plan table, with what can be tested on each plan.
How do you measure a Shopify checkout?
Measure checkout on its own, as orders divided by checkouts started, and read it next to the cart and the steps before it, because each breaks for different reasons.
There are a few checkout measures, and they count different things:
- Checkout completion rate. Orders divided by checkouts started. It isolates checkout from the cart, as our ecommerce CRO guide sets out.
- Our checkout-stage median. The 37.2% above is the share of shoppers who reached checkout and bought in the same session, taken from the control versions of our checkout-page tests.
- Checkout conversion rate in Shopify’s Rollouts. A checkout Experiment reports checkout conversion rate, and you can’t customize the metrics (Shopify Help).
They count different things, so compare your own rate only with a rate measured the same way. We measure checkout completion, orders divided by checkouts started, separately from the cart, because the two break for different reasons. We read a store’s own checkout-page rate, measured the same way (shoppers who reached checkout and bought in the same session), against our checkout-stage median as a rough guide only, because the median comes from stores running testing programs, not from all stores.
Where to read it in Shopify:
- Conversion rate breakdown. This report shows sessions with cart additions, sessions that reached checkout and sessions that completed checkout as a funnel (Shopify Help). The drop between reached checkout and completed checkout is the checkout’s share of the problem.
- Abandoned checkouts. Under Orders, Shopify lists checkouts that weren’t completed. Shopify counts a checkout as abandoned when a shopper has entered an email address and hasn’t paid for more than ten minutes (Shopify Help). Each payment attempt shows on the abandoned checkout’s timeline.
- A GA4 funnel. GA4 measures the first step of checkout with a
begin_checkoutevent and a purchase with apurchaseevent, so a funnel exploration can run from one to the other (Google).
How do you optimize a Shopify checkout?
Offer express payment, let shoppers buy without an account, ask only for what an order needs, put trust and returns information where shoppers decide, and show a delivery date when you can promise one.
Turn on express payment. We turn on the express payment methods a store’s shoppers use. Shopify supports accelerated checkout buttons for Shop Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Amazon Pay and PayPal. They show in an Express Checkout section at the start of checkout, and on product pages they let shoppers skip the cart and go straight to checkout (Shopify Help). Shop Pay saves a shopper’s email address, payment method and shipping and billing details so the next checkout is faster (Shopify Help).
Don’t force an account. We don’t make an account a condition of buying; we offer one after the order. In Shopify, requiring shoppers to sign in before checkout is an optional setting, and shoppers who do sign in get their saved details filled in at checkout (Shopify Help, Shopify Help). In Baymard’s survey, 18% said “Had to create an account”.
Ask only for the fields you need. We ask only for the fields an order needs and mark optional fields as optional. In Shopify’s checkout settings, some fields can be set to required, optional or left out, such as company name and the second address line, and the name can be a single last-name field; not every field can be changed (Shopify Help). Shopify’s checkout can also suggest addresses as shoppers type, in the countries where address autocompletion is supported (Shopify Help). Baymard’s testing shows “an ideal checkout flow can be as short as 12-14 form elements (7-8 if only counting the form fields)”.
Put trust and returns information where shoppers decide. We put returns and security information where shoppers decide, on the product and cart pages, not only in the footer. In Baymard’s survey, 19% said “I didn’t trust the site with my credit card” and 13% said “Return policy wasn’t satisfactory”.
Show a delivery date. We show a delivery date or window before checkout when the store can promise one, so the shopper knows when the order arrives before paying. In Baymard’s survey, 20% said “Delivery was too slow”.
Check it on a phone. We go through checkout on a phone as well as a desktop after every change, from the cart to the order confirmation.
Set up abandoned-checkout emails. We turn on abandoned-checkout emails and edit them so they read like the store. Shopify can automatically email shoppers who abandoned a checkout a link back to their cart (Shopify Help). A longer recovery series is email marketing work.
Use the thank-you page. We use the thank-you page for the next step: a post-purchase poll, account creation or an offer for the next order. Apps built with UI extensions for the thank-you and order status pages are available from the Basic plan up, and post-purchase apps add content after payment and before the order confirmation page (Shopify Help).
Add checkout apps where your plan allows. From the Basic plan up, upsells in checkout run through apps on the post-purchase page; offers inside the information, shipping and payment pages need Shopify Plus. Before you add an offer, see what our tests showed below: some offers won and some lost.
Page speed matters on the cart and product pages that lead to checkout; that work is in our Shopify speed optimization guide.
What have our checkout tests shown?
Across all platforms, our checkout tests show simplified checkout headers winning, and offers added to checkout winning some tests and losing others.
Here’s a sample of our checkout-page tests and what they did.
| What we changed in checkout | Result | Winner? |
|---|---|---|
| Added a protection plan button to the order summary, so shoppers no longer had to go back to the cart | +10.7% purchases | Yes |
| Removed the mobile navigation bar, search bar and rewards widget from the checkout header | +10.3% purchases | Yes |
| Linked the customer-review badge in checkout to a testimonials page | +5.0% | Yes |
| Simplified the checkout header, with the logo where it sits on the cart page and a larger “Need help?” link to chat | +3.3% purchases | Yes |
| Moved the PayPal option below the international checkout option | +1.9% purchases | Yes |
| Redesigned checkout, a follow-up to an earlier checkout design test | +1.6% purchases | Yes |
| Restyled the shipping-step form fields: boxed fields, labels on top, an asterisk for required fields and errors under the field | +1.5% purchases | Yes |
| Defaulted returning shoppers to checking out with an account | +0.7% purchases | Yes |
| Changed the delivery-time estimates next to each shipping option | +0.2% purchases | Yes |
| Turned checkout into numbered steps that collapse when done, for guest shoppers | 0.0% purchases | No |
| Stopped asking guests to log in when their email matched an account | 0.0% purchases | No |
| Replaced the site navigation in checkout with a breadcrumb | -0.2% purchases | No |
| Offered a subscribe-and-save discount at checkout on single-item orders (first round) | -2.5% purchases | No |
| Offered the subscribe-and-save discount to signed-in shoppers only (second round) | +2.7% purchases | Yes |
| Extended the subscribe-and-save offer to signed-in shoppers with several items (later rounds) | -5.3% and -1.7% purchases | No |
| Removed a countdown timer from checkout (Shopify Plus store) | +1.1% conversion rate | No |
What the results have in common, as positions we act on:
- We test simplified checkout headers all the time.
- We test any offer we add to checkout instead of assuming it helps. Some of ours won and some lost.
How do you A/B test a Shopify checkout?
On the Grow plan or higher, a Rollouts Experiment compares two checkout and accounts configurations; apps on the information, shipping and payment steps need Shopify Plus; a tag manager can’t change checkout on any plan.
Rollouts Experiments. Rollouts is Shopify’s built-in testing, and Experiments are available to stores on the Grow plan or higher (Shopify Help). An Experiment can replace your checkout and accounts configuration with a new one and compare it against the current one (Shopify Help). A checkout Experiment reports checkout conversion rate, and you can’t customize the available metrics (Shopify Help). Experiments apply only to the online store.
Apps on checkout extensions. Apps that customize the information, shipping and payment pages are available only on Shopify Plus; on other plans, the app types Shopify lists from the Basic plan up are the ones available (Shopify Help).
Google Tag Manager tools. Nantu, ConversionTeam’s free testing tool, runs through Google Tag Manager in the theme, so it can’t test the information, shipping and payment steps of checkout on any plan, or the thank-you and order status pages (Installing Nantu on a Shopify store).
On a Shopify store, a Google Tag Manager tool such as Nantu can test the homepage, collection pages, product pages and the cart page (layout and copy). We’re testing-tool agnostic. We’ll use Nantu if you don’t have a testing tool, and we’re experienced with whatever testing tool you’re already using.
How to run the test itself, from the hypothesis to reading the result, is in our Shopify A/B testing guide.
What should you change first in a Shopify checkout?
Start with the pages that carry the most shoppers and lose the most of them, then turn on express payment, let shoppers buy without an account and cut the checkout fields to what an order needs.
We prioritize pages with the most traffic and drop-off first.
On stores below Plus, we start with the cart and product pages, because that’s where most checkout problems can be fixed.
Then, in order:
- Turn on the express payment methods your shoppers use.
- Let shoppers buy without an account, and offer one after the order.
- Ask only for the fields an order needs.
The full list of what to change on the rest of the store is in our Shopify CRO guide.
Do you need Shopify Plus to optimize your checkout?
No, for most of the changes in this guide; Plus is needed for apps that change the information, shipping and payment steps and for custom apps built with Shopify Functions.
In Shopify’s app table, the Plus-only apps are those built with UI extensions for the information, shipping and payment pages and custom apps built with Shopify Functions (Shopify Help). The rest of this guide’s changes happen on the product and cart pages, in checkout settings, in the checkout editor or through app types Shopify lists from the Basic plan up. Testing checkout configurations with Rollouts needs the Grow plan or higher. That matters when a store needs something on those steps that settings can’t do, such as an offer inside the checkout steps. Our Shopify CRO agency page has the checkout plan table and what can be tested on each plan.
FAQ
What is a typical checkout-page conversion rate?
Across all platforms, the median baseline conversion rate of the checkout-page tests we ran was 37.2%. That’s the share of shoppers who reached checkout and bought in the same session. Compare your own rate with it only when it’s measured the same way, and only as a rough guide, because it comes from stores running testing programs.
Can you customize Shopify checkout without Plus?
Yes, within limits. From the Basic plan up you can brand checkout in the checkout and accounts editor and add the app types Shopify lists for that plan, such as apps for the thank-you and order status pages and post-purchase apps. Checkout settings cover some form fields and sign-in, and accelerated checkout buttons can be turned on. Apps that change the information, shipping and payment steps need Shopify Plus.
Does Shopify have a one-page checkout?
Yes. Shopify’s checkout is one-page by default, with order details, shipping and payment on one page, and a store can switch to the three-page layout. Both collect the same information and support the same customizations.
Can you A/B test Shopify checkout?
Yes, on the Grow plan or higher: a Rollouts Experiment compares two checkout and accounts configurations and reports checkout conversion rate. A tag manager can’t change checkout on any plan, so Nantu and other Google Tag Manager tools test the pages before checkout.
How do you reduce checkout abandonment on Shopify?
Turn on the express payment methods your shoppers use, don’t make an account a condition of buying, and ask only for the fields an order needs, marking optional fields as optional. Then turn on abandoned-checkout emails for the shoppers who still leave.
What’s the difference between cart abandonment and checkout abandonment?
They count different things. Shopify counts a checkout as abandoned when a shopper has entered an email address and hasn’t paid for more than ten minutes, so a shopper who leaves from the cart page, before checkout, never shows up in Shopify’s abandoned checkouts list. Baymard’s 70.22% average is a cart abandonment rate.
How do abandoned checkout emails work on Shopify?
Shopify records checkouts where a shopper entered an email address and didn’t pay, and it can automatically email those shoppers a link back to their cart. Turn the email on in Shopify, edit the template so it looks like your store, and check that it sends.
What happened to checkout.liquid?
checkout.liquid is unsupported for the information, shipping and payment steps, and the checkout’s additional-scripts box has been view-only since August 28, 2025. Script tags on the thank-you and order status pages were sunset on August 28, 2025 for Plus stores, and are sunset for other stores on August 26, 2026. Checkout changes now run through settings, the checkout editor and apps.
Related reading
- Shopify CRO guide - what to change on each page of a Shopify store, with results from Shopify stores.
- Shopify CRO agency - audits and A/B testing for Shopify stores, with the plan-by-plan checkout table.
- Shopify A/B testing guide - the ways to test a Shopify store and how to run a test.
- Shopify speed optimization - what slows a Shopify store down and what to fix.
- Ecommerce conversion rate benchmarks - site, device, industry and funnel-stage benchmarks from our audited tests.
- Ecommerce CRO guide - the process, what to test and the measures to track.
About the author
Devon Cox is the Founder and President of ConversionTeam, with 16+ years in conversion rate optimization. He holds a B.S. from Boston College and an MBA from the University of Colorado Boulder. More about Devon.