Shopify Checkout Drop-Off: How to Diagnose and Fix It

Shopify checkout drop-off happens when a shopper starts checkout but leaves before paying. It is narrower than cart abandonment and usually easier to fix. To diagnose it, track Shopify's checkout events from checkout_started to checkout_completed and find the step that loses the most shoppers. Then match that step to its likely cause: surprise costs, slow delivery, trust or payment friction.

The headline number most teams quote is Baymard Institute's documented average cart abandonment rate of 70.22% across 50 studies (last updated September 2025). That figure blends two groups: shoppers who left from the cart and shoppers who left partway through checkout. This guide covers only the second group, the people who already clicked "Checkout". If your problem is carts that never reach checkout, start with our guide to recovering abandoned Shopify carts.

What is Shopify checkout drop-off?

Shopify checkout drop-off is the share of shoppers who begin Shopify's checkout and leave without placing an order. These shoppers have already chosen products and signaled clear intent to buy. When they leave, it's usually because a specific step stopped them, not because they lost interest in the product.

Checkout completion rate = checkouts completed ÷ checkouts started. Checkout drop-off rate = 1 − checkout completion rate. Calculate both per step as well as end to end.

The causes differ from cart abandonment. Cart abandonment is mostly about product doubt, price comparison and distraction. Checkout drop-off is mostly about friction and surprises inside the flow: a shipping price shows up, a delivery date looks too far away, a card gets declined, or a form throws an error on mobile.

Cart abandonment vs checkout drop-off: what's the difference?

Cart abandonment starts when a product is added to the cart. Checkout drop-off starts only once the shopper enters checkout. Here is how the two compare in practice:

How do you measure checkout drop-off in Shopify?

Measure it at two levels. Shopify Analytics gives you the top-level funnel. Shopify's Web Pixels standard events give you the step-by-step detail. The funnel shows you whether you have a checkout problem, and the events show you which step causes it.

Level 1: the Shopify Analytics conversion funnel

Shopify's Conversion rate breakdown report shows four stages: all sessions, sessions with cart additions, sessions that reached checkout, and sessions that completed checkout. Divide completed by reached-checkout and you have a session-level checkout completion rate you can check every week.

There's one detail to keep in mind. Shopify counts a session as "reached checkout" only when there was user input during checkout, such as a key press or a click. A shopper who opens checkout just to see the total and closes it right away may not be counted. This report is session-based, so its numbers won't match event counts exactly. Compare each report with itself over time rather than against the other.

Level 2: Web Pixels events for each checkout step

Shopify's Web Pixels API standard events fire at each stage of checkout. In the order a shopper usually hits them:

1. checkout_started: the customer starts the checkout process.
2. checkout_contact_info_submitted: the customer submits the contact form.
3. checkout_address_info_submitted: the customer submits a mailing address.
4. checkout_shipping_info_submitted: the customer chooses a shipping rate.
5. payment_info_submitted: the customer submits payment information.
6. checkout_completed: the visitor completes the purchase.

You capture these with a custom pixel (Settings, then Customer events, in the Shopify admin), subscribing with analytics.subscribe, or with an app pixel from your analytics provider. Send them to GA4 or your data warehouse and build a funnel from them. Shopify notes that some of these events are available only in checkouts that use Checkout Extensibility. Shopify's deadline to move the information, shipping and payment pages off checkout.liquid was August 13, 2024, with automatic upgrades starting in January 2025.

What you can and can't track inside Shopify checkout

Tools built for storefront pages don't behave the same way in Shopify's hosted checkout.

• You can capture the standard checkout events above on any plan through custom or app pixels.
• You can read the session-level funnel in Shopify Analytics without any setup.
• You can't paste arbitrary scripts into checkout pages. Pixels run in a sandbox, and Shopify warns that not every pixel feature works there.
• Session recording and heatmaps inside checkout rely on Shopify's Advanced DOM Pixel Events. Only apps approved for heatmap or session-recording use get access, and on checkout those events are limited to Shopify Plus stores.
• Layout matters. One-page checkout is Shopify's default, and merchants can switch to three-page checkout. Step events show where a shopper stopped submitting information, not which page they left from. Place a few test orders, including one with an express wallet, to see how the events fire in your setup before you read gaps as drop-off.

How do you find the step that loses the most buyers?

Calculate the completion rate between each pair of consecutive checkout events. Then rank the steps by lost orders multiplied by average order value. The step with the biggest revenue loss is your first target, even when another step has a worse percentage.

1. Pull two to four weeks of event data, analyzing sale days separately.
2. Split by device and by new vs returning customers. Mobile form problems and first-time trust issues get hidden in blended numbers.
3. Calculate step conversion. For example, if 1,000 sessions fire checkout_started and 780 fire checkout_contact_info_submitted, that step converts 78% and loses 220 shoppers.
4. Convert losses to revenue. Multiply shoppers lost at each step by your AOV so you can compare steps on the same scale.
5. Match the worst step to a hypothesis using the table below. Then confirm it with qualitative evidence before you change anything.

Treat these as starting hypotheses, not rules.

What causes checkout drop-off on Shopify?

The most common causes are extra costs, slow delivery, low trust in the site, forced account creation and a long or error-prone flow. Baymard's latest survey of US online shoppers who abandoned during checkout (excluding people who were just browsing) ranks the reasons as follows:

Keep two caveats in mind. First, this is survey data from US shoppers across all of ecommerce, not Shopify-only data, so use it to rank hypotheses, not to forecast results. Second, many of these causes start before checkout. Shipping cost, delivery time and returns policy are all things a shopper could have learned on the product page. If they only find out at checkout, checkout is where they leave.

Form length is the other structural issue. Baymard finds the average US checkout has 23.48 form elements, while an ideal flow needs 12 to 14. It estimates that the average large ecommerce site could gain a 35.26% increase in conversion rate through better checkout design alone.

How do you find out why shoppers leave, not just where?

Pair your funnel data with qualitative evidence from the pages just before checkout. Checkout itself is mostly silent: shoppers rarely explain why they leave a payment form. They do ask questions on product pages, in the cart and in chat, and those questions usually point to the same causes that show up later in checkout.

• Pre-checkout questions. Tag every shopper question about shipping cost, delivery date, returns, sizing and payment options. A rise in "how much is shipping to…" questions alongside a drop at the shipping step supports the same diagnosis from two directions.
• Session recordings where you can get them. On storefront pages any recording tool works. Inside checkout, you need an approved app and a Plus plan, as covered above. For a rundown of tools, see our review of cart abandonment software.
• Payment provider reports. Declines and authentication failures show up there, not in your analytics.

This is where conversational data helps. REP AI's shopper insights layer groups conversations into topics such as pricing objections and sizing confusion. It surfaces drop-off reasons with context, and its Missing Information view shows the shopper questions your knowledge base couldn't answer. REP AI's AI Sales Agent works on product pages, in search and in chat, before the shopper reaches checkout. It does not run inside Shopify's hosted checkout pages. Its job is to answer the shipping, returns and fit questions early, so shoppers don't first run into them at checkout. VIBAe's case study describes one version of this: when a shopper adds two sizes of the same item to the cart, which often leads to a return, the agent steps in and helps them pick the right one.

Segmenting by intent also matters. A loyal returning customer and a first-time paid-traffic visitor need different responses; we cover that split in AI for cart recovery with behavioral intent.

How do you reduce checkout drop-off? A four-week plan

Start with low-effort fixes for the causes your data points to, then move on to structural changes, and measure every change against the baseline you set in week one.

Week 1: set the baseline and make quick fixes

• Record step-level completion rates, split by device and by new vs returning customers.
• Confirm guest checkout is available and account creation is optional.
• Show a shipping estimate or free-shipping threshold on product pages and in the cart.
• Put the returns policy one click from every product page.

Weeks 2 and 3: fix the biggest-loss step

• If shipping is the leak, review rates by region and show delivery dates instead of ranges.
• If payment is the leak, review your wallets and payment methods, and read your provider's decline reasons.
• If contact or address is the leak, remove optional fields and audit the apps that add checkout fields or extensions.
• Test every change on real phones, because mobile is where form problems show up first.

Week 4: measure and decide what's next

• Compare step completion rates with your week-one baseline over a similar period.
• Check whether the pre-checkout questions tied to that cause have become less frequent.
• Move to the next step in the ranking.

How do you measure the impact of checkout fixes?

Track checkout completion rate, the conversion rate of the step you fixed, and revenue per checkout started, all against your own baseline. Industry averages are too broad to tell you whether a change worked.

Illustrative example, not a benchmark: a store with 10,000 checkouts started per month and an $80 AOV raises checkout completion from 45% to 55%. That's 1,000 extra orders, or $80,000 in monthly revenue, with no change in ad spend.

When the change is a new tool rather than a settings fix (a new on-site AI agent or engagement layer, for example), before-and-after numbers aren't enough, because seasonality and promotions distort them. The cleanest read is a holdout group: measure the incremental lift among shoppers who saw the tool compared with a similar group who didn't. We explain how to set that up in our guide to measuring Shopify AI sales agent ROI. For a wider look at where on-site AI tends to fail across the buying journey, see 8 customer journey gaps your ecommerce AI agent misses.

If you want an AI agent that answers shoppers' pre-checkout questions and shows you what's driving your drop-off, start your 14-day free trial of REP AI. It includes all plans, needs no credit card, and you can cancel anytime.

FAQs

What is a normal checkout drop-off rate for Shopify stores?

There is no reliable public benchmark that covers only Shopify checkouts. Baymard's 70.22% figure is an average cart abandonment rate across 50 studies, and it includes shoppers who never started checkout. The more useful benchmark is your own: calculate checkouts completed divided by checkouts started, split by device, and track the trend week over week.

What's the difference between cart abandonment and checkout drop-off?

Cart abandonment counts shoppers who add items to the cart and leave, whether or not they started checkout. Checkout drop-off counts only shoppers who started checkout and didn't finish. Checkout drop-off usually comes from friction inside the flow, such as surprise costs, delivery times or payment failures. Cart abandonment leans more toward product doubt and comparison shopping.

Can you add session recording to Shopify checkout?

Only in a limited way. Session recording and heatmaps in checkout rely on Shopify's Advanced DOM Pixel Events. These are available only to apps approved for heatmap or session-recording use, and on checkout they're limited to stores on the Shopify Plus plan. Every other store can still track the standard checkout events through custom or app pixels.

Which Shopify events track each checkout step?

The Web Pixels API standard events are checkout_started, checkout_contact_info_submitted, checkout_address_info_submitted, checkout_shipping_info_submitted, payment_info_submitted and checkout_completed. Capture them with a custom pixel under Customer events in the Shopify admin, or with an app pixel. Then build a funnel in GA4 or your warehouse to see completion rates step by step.

What is the most common cause of checkout drop-off?

Extra costs. Baymard's survey of US online shoppers finds that 40% of those who abandoned during checkout, excluding people who were just browsing, did so because shipping, taxes or fees were too high. Slow delivery (20%), low trust in the site (19%) and required account creation (18%) come next. Showing costs and delivery dates before checkout addresses the biggest share.

Can an AI chat agent reduce checkout drop-off?

Mostly indirectly. For most Shopify stores, on-site chat agents run on product pages, in search and in the cart, not inside Shopify's hosted checkout. They help by answering shipping, returns and sizing questions before checkout, so shoppers don't hit those surprises during payment. Judge the effect with a holdout group rather than before-and-after comparisons.