Checkout Optimisation: Every Second Counts
Checkout optimisation is where “nearly there” customers either become revenue – or disappear. On Shopify, every second (and every extra field) is a chance to lose momentum, so the goal is simple: keep checkout fast, clear, and confidence-building.
Why every second counts
By the time someone hits checkout, you’ve already paid for the click, earned the trust, and done the hard work on product, price, and persuasion. If the checkout experience then feels sluggish, confusing, or like it’s asking for too much, that’s when customers start thinking, “I’ll come back later” (and you know how that story ends).
Shopify’s own messaging around one-page checkout is clear: the direction of travel is shorter, faster, and more intuitive checkout experiences built for speed and conversion. That’s not just a design preference – it’s an acknowledgement that friction at this point is pure profit leakage.
The biggest checkout friction points (and how to fix them)
Checkout optimisation isn’t about stuffing in more “growth hacks”. It’s removing hesitation – and doing it without breaking what Shopify already does brilliantly.
Here are the usual culprits:
- Too many steps or distractions: Shopify’s one-page checkout is designed to reduce steps and make the flow feel quicker, while still supporting a structured checkout experience. Keep customers focused on finishing the purchase, not rethinking it.
- Form overload: If you’re collecting information you don’t truly need (extra fields, unnecessary account prompts), you’re adding drag. Strip it back to the essentials and let the customer get on with it.
- Surprise costs: Delivery, duties, taxes – if they appear late, they feel like a trick (even when they’re legitimate). Shopify has features like Duties & Import Taxes to help provide transparency at checkout for cross-border customers.
- Mobile pain: A checkout that’s “fine on desktop” can be brutal on a phone (tiny tap targets, slow loading, awkward autofill). Given how many customers browse and buy on mobile, checkout needs to be built with thumbs in mind.
- Trust gaps: At checkout, customers want reassurance: secure payment, clear delivery expectations, easy returns, and a brand that looks legit. Get the basics right and the whole thing feels safer.
Speed wins that don’t require a redesign
Not every checkout improvement means a full rebuild. Often, it’s about clearing out the stuff that’s quietly slowing you down.
A practical checklist that tends to move the needle:
- Audit apps and scripts: Too many apps (or heavy tracking scripts) can bloat performance and create odd checkout behaviour. Keep what genuinely earns its place and remove the rest.
- Optimise your theme and assets: While checkout is partly platform-managed, the journey into checkout (product page > cart) still shapes perceived speed. Faster “pre-checkout” pages mean customers arrive with more momentum.
- Reduce cart friction: The cart is the warm-up act for checkout – if it’s messy, slow, or confusing, fewer people even reach the payment stage. Clean layout, clear totals, and sensible upsells beat clutter every time.
Smarter checkout customisation
Shopify has been pushing merchants toward checkout extensibility, which is built to be upgrade-safe and designed to work cleanly with Shopify’s checkout editor and app ecosystem. The big benefit is you can customise the experience (within the rules) without relying on fragile custom code that becomes a headache later.
That matters because checkout is not the place for duct-tape development. If you’re going to add anything – upsells, delivery messaging, trust prompts, post-purchase flows – it needs to be stable, fast, and properly implemented.
One often-overlooked optimisation is the order of your payment methods. Customers tend to scan quickly and click the option they recognise and trust most. If your analytics show that most buyers use Shop Pay, PayPal, or a specific local payment method, make sure it appears prominently rather than buried at the bottom.
What to track (so it’s not guesswork)
Checkout optimisation should be treated like proper CRO: measure, change one thing, validate, repeat. Otherwise you’re just rearranging the furniture and hoping revenue follows.
A solid starting set of metrics:
- Checkout conversion rate (started checkout vs completed purchase).
- Abandonment rate by step (where people drop off).
- Device split (desktop vs mobile performance).
- Speed signals across the journey (product > cart > checkout).
Support tickets / customer feedback that mention payment, delivery, or “it wouldn’t work”.
Shopify has been improving its analytics over the past year, with updates like real-time reporting, customisable dashboards, and easier ways to track key metrics. These changes make it simpler for merchants to spot checkout issues as they happen and take action before they cost revenue, and can make a big difference for your checkout’s effectiveness.
Conclusion: make checkout feel effortless
The best checkout experiences don’t feel clever – they feel inevitable. Customers should glide from “I want it” to “Order confirmed” without pauses, puzzles, or second thoughts.
If you want a hand tightening up your Shopify checkout (and the whole run-up to it), Glaze Digital can help you spot the friction, prioritise fixes, and implement improvements properly. Get in touch via our website and we’ll help make your checkout faster, smoother, and built to convert.
And if you’re interested in more tips and tricks for improving your Shopify store, you can sign up to our newsletter Shopify Insider:
