Shopify Checkout Best Practices 2026: How to do checkout optimization for more sales

You spent months planning your Shopify store launch. Invested a lot in ads to gain customers and optimized your lead-generating channels to the peak.

But after a few spikes in your sales revenue, the remaining weeks have been flat. Your returns only notch up a bit when you boost ad spend. You checked your analytics and noticed that only a handful of customers completed the checkout process. The rest? They go silent midway. 

If this sounds familiar, you're not alone.

According to LittleData, the average checkout completion rate is 45%. That means 51% checkouts fail on average. And one of the leading causes is poor checkout optimization. 

Customers either get tired of the multiple touchpoints, your payment options aren't broad enough, or there are bigger issues like a lack of upsell options.

In this article, we'll share practical steps to avoid these checkout blockers and boost your sales in 2026.

Top 12 Shopify Checkout Best Practices for 2026

Shopify converts 36% better than competitors like Magento and WooCommerce. But that doesn’t automatically translate into conversions for your store. This Reddit user shares that view:

If you want to position your store for profitable revenue in 2026, these are some of the things you should do:

1. Implement one-click and fast pay checkout options

According to the Baymard Institute 2025 survey, the average cart abandonment rate sits at 70.22%. 18% of respondents in the survey say they abandoned their purchase because the checkout process was too long or complex. 

And you can’t blame them. They’ve been subjected to dozens of touchpoints from researching the product to arriving at your store. Making them go through another one is a deal-breaker.

What to do: Reduce the number of touchpoints between your product page and checkout. Also, introduce one-click checkout options like Razorpay, Shopify’s native Shop Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal One Touch. 

How Flowcart helps

Flowcart is a full-stack WhatsApp commerce platform that automates efficient lead generation, conversion, and retention. When you integrate your Shopify store with Flowcart, your shop’s products and details sync, and customers can access what you sell from WhatsApp directly. 

So, let’s say a customer joins your messages via Click-to-WhatsApp-ads and chooses a product to buy. Flowcart auto-fills their name, number, and address from WhatsApp. To ensure address accuracy, one-tap address sharing via live location is enabled.

Flowcart also integrates with 30+ global payment options, including Razorpay, so your customers can make instant purchases without even leaving their WhatsApp inbox. This reduces checkout time by 70%.

2. Display trust signals on the checkout page

19% of respondents in the same Baymard report abandoned their carts in the past 3 months because they couldn’t trust the site with their credit card details.

What to do: Add trust signals like security badges, familiar payment logos like Mastercard and Visa, and social proofs from sites like TrustPilot. An experiment shows that adding Norton’s security badge can boost conversion by up to 12.2%.

How Flowcart helps

Flowcart’s in-chat checkout feature keeps your sales and interactions within WhatsApp, reducing exposure to external servers. Customers never type card details into chat messages.

Instead, Flowcart connects with trusted payment processors such as Paystack and Stripe to present a secure in-chat payment interface. Card data is handled directly by these processors, not by WhatsApp or the merchant, thus ensuring your transactions stay protected end to end.

3. Design a mobile-first checkout page

Mobile commerce hit over $2.5 trillion in market revenue in 2025. That’s about 63% of retail ecommerce. But despite the opportunities, the mobile cart abandonment rate sits as high as 80.2%, according to Analyzify. 

An illustration of the abandonment rate by devices from Wiserreview

This is because most stores are not optimized for mobile. Talk about slow loading speed, overstretched layout, and confusing navigation. 

What to do: Use mobile-friendly themes, set variations for different mobile screen sizes, and eliminate multiple touch points. Also, optimize for speed. You can use Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool to know what’s causing a lag and fix it.

How Flowcart helps

Flowcart removes the friction of mobile storefronts by letting you run marketing and sales directly in WhatsApp. Instead of forcing customers through a compressed website layout, you guide them through a clear WhatsApp buying flow. No awkward navigation or layouts that break on small screens.

This works because WhatsApp is built for mobile use from the start and requires no technical setup on your side. Your customers already use it daily, which means you are not asking them to download an app or create a new account.

4. Reduce form fields and add a clear progress indicator

The average checkout flow averages 5.1 steps and often contains as many as 11 form fields. That explains why 18% of customers disappear from the radar. You likely would too.

What to do: Summarize your form fields, if at all necessary, into max 6. Touchpoints should be fewer than 2-3 between your product page and final checkout. You can also add a progress indicator to gamify the checkout process and psychologically reassure your customers they’re just about done.

How Flowcart helps

Once you move your interactions and sales to WhatsApp, Flowcart eliminates the unnecessary form fields and multiple touchpoints. 

Customers enter your chat from a click-to-WhatsApp ad or smart broadcast and confirm the product they need. Their details autofill from WhatsApp, and they make payment instantly. All these happen within the same interface, reducing checkout time by 70%.

5. Show full order cost early with no hidden fees

14% of respondents say they’ve abandoned a cart because they couldn't see the total cost upfront. A Reddit user also explained how this experience discourages them from continuing the checkout process.

What to do: Show the full order cost before checkout. On your product page, mention extra fees, including delivery cost, handling cost, etc., and a total right there. This level of transparency boosts trust. See how Palmgolfco did it below.

How Flowcart helps

With Flowcart’s in-chat WhatsApp checkout feature, your customers see all they need to pay at a glance before they click the checkout options. This removes ambiguity about total cost and reduces cart abandonment.

6. Enable guest checkout by default

Mandating that your audience create an account during checkout is a major blocker. Besides, it adds to your touchpoints. 

According to Capterra’s survey, 66% of online consumers prefer to check out as a guest, while another 19% of respondents in Baymard’s survey say they’ve ditched a purchase in the past three months because they were forced to create an account.

What to do: Enable the guest checkout option and put it in the top bar so your customers can see it. Guest checkout is available on all Shopify plans.

How Flowcart helps

While Guest checkout minimizes cart abandonment, it also means you can’t collect customers’ data for future marketing outreach or re-engagement. And that’s lost revenue.

Flowcart solves this by bringing your checkouts inside WhatsApp. Your customers can choose a product in-chat and check out almost instantly. This is faster compared to using Guest checkout on your website’s storefront. 

At the same time, when a customer sends you a message on WhatsApp, Flowcart’s AI-powered segmentation feature instantly collects their details, primarily the phone number and preferences, and integrates them into a personalized broadcast flow. This allows you to re-engage them.

7. Offer multiple payment methods

10% of consumers will abandon their carts if there aren’t enough payment options. Different payment service providers have varying transaction processing speeds and charges. You need to give your customers a wide range of options so they can choose the one that best suits them.

What to do: There’s no benchmark for how many payment options should be on your checkout page, but you should have a minimum on your page. The best approach is to include a mix of mobile wallets, such as Google, Apple, and Samsung Pay, as well as providers like PayPal, Stripe, Razorpay, and Amazon Pay. A constant is Shoppay since it’s a Shopify store.

How Flowcart helps

To integrate with more payment providers on Shopify, you need to be on the advanced plan. Then there’s also the issue of paying higher transaction fees with third-party gateways than with native Shopify alternatives.

Flowcart solves this by integrating with over 30 payment options, from Razorpay and Peach to Stripe and Paystack, at no extra cost to your business. The in-chat checkout feature lets you offer your customers multiple payment methods, including mobile wallets, pay-on-delivery, and card payments.

8. Make shipping timelines and return policies visible at checkout

In a report published by Sana, 29% attribute their frustration with online ordering to a lack of information about delivery times. 

Ambiguity about delivery timeliness can make buyers lose trust in your store espcially if you sell high-value products. The same thing applies to not displaying your return policies where they can see them.

What to do: Display your shipping timeliness with detailed information, including timing and logistics, at each touchpoint. You should also provide options for express delivery if available. Likewise, your checkout policy must be visible just near the pay button so that your customers can review it.

How Flowcart helps

Flowcart’s WhatsApp flow feature helps communicate the preset shipping timeline and return policies to your customers before they complete their purchase. Post-purchase, Flowcart actively engages them by providing product location data until delivery is confirmed.

9. Use controlled cross-sells and free delivery

Upselling and cross-selling can significantly boost your average order value (AOV). Amazon, for instance, reported a whopping 35% increase in revenue from these strategies. However, you have to keep it controlled to avoid scaring your customers away with too high costs.

What to do: Recommend complementary products that are a quarter of the cost of the customer’s original product when cross-selling. Most importantly, keep the suggestions relevant to their needs and focus on usefulness rather than volume. 

When upselling, ensure the recommended alternative is only slightly more expensive than the customer's initial choice.

How Flowcart helps

Flowcart’s AI-generated carts utilize customer purchase history and insights to recommend the right products to your customers both before, during, and after a purchase. 

Your customers see only products that solve their needs at the right time without any extra input from you. This results in 18% higher upsell value.

10. Provide instant support 

At checkout, when doubts arise, your customers need someone who can guide them without having to wait minutes or hours. If that option is unavailable, they immediately cancel or find another seller who can provide the answers they need.

What to do: Integrate two lines of support on your support page. The first can be a chatbot to handle repetitive queries, while the second should be a line to your support agents for more complex issues.

This Reddit user explains how implementing an AI assistant at checkout has reduced communication friction and minimized drop-offs.

How Flowcart helps

Flowcart’s WhatsApp flows help you automate customer interactions and handle repetitive queries with personalized responses during checkout. Once the automated flow hits a blocker, it instantly reroutes to a live agent without any lag. This results in 5× ROAS and 23 % fewer abandoned carts.

“We stopped using generic replies. Now each visitor gets something that feels designed for them. The result? More leads, more replies, and more sales,”

Clinton Obura,
CEO and Founder at Samaking

11. Offer free delivery

39% of consumers say they will abandon a purchase if the extra fees, like delivery, payment charges, and miscellaneous fees, are too high. And you know, the highest of them is usually the delivery fees, especially when shipping across states or countries.

What to do: Raise the free delivery threshold. Let customers qualify for free shipping by adding one recommended item to their cart. Total margin should comfortably cover the delivery cost. That’s what Palmgolf did below.

How Flowcart helps

Flowcart uses AI-generated carts to recommend the right add-on products based on customer intent and your profit margins. Customers unlock free delivery. You protect revenue and close the sale inside WhatsApp.

12. Ask customers for their opinion

The best way to optimize your checkout? Hear from your customers. They have direct experience with the friction points and blockers in your Shopify store. So, ask them.

What to do: Embed surveys on your post-purchase page or reach out to them via email and any other contact options if they opted in for messaging.

How Flowcart helps

With Flowcart’s flows, you can directly ask customers to rate their buying experience or share feedback inside WhatsApp and receive instant responses. You can also reward customers with redeemable points for completing surveys. This gamifies the feedback experience and enhances customer satisfaction.

How Flowcart can help you improve checkouts 

45% conversion rate, 3 mins Average Open Time, 60% Click Rate, and 98% Open Rate. WhatsApp is the new Shopify storefront, and Flowcart helps you bring it to life.

Flowcart connects directly to your Shopify catalog and mirrors your products inside WhatsApp. Customers browse, ask questions, and complete checkout without leaving the chat. No redirects, extra pages, or form fatigue.

The best part? Flowcart removes common blockers to checkout:

• Customers do not re-enter details
• Names, phone numbers, and addresses auto-fill from WhatsApp
• Payments happen through a secure in-chat interface powered by trusted gateways

And even better? Flowcart’s abandoned cart recovery feature helps reduce your abandoned cart by more than 30% and win back lost sales.

When a shopper abandons mid-checkout, Flowcart detects it instantly. You recover the sale with a timely WhatsApp reminder that brings them back to a one-tap checkout, not a cold storefront page.

“We used to lose a lot of carts, especially on weekends. Now, Flowcart brings them back with better timing and smarter messages than we ever could manually,”

‍Willy Kimani,
CEO & Founder at Jaza, shares.

Ready to boost your checkout completion rates and reduce abandonments? Book a demo with us today.

Conclusion

Your Shopify store’s checkout performance depends on how much friction you leave in the buying path. Every extra step, delay, or unanswered question pushes your customers away, even when demand is strong.

To remove these blockers, focus on simplifying the path to payment, cutting unnecessary steps, showing total costs early, and offering fast and familiar payment options. 

Provide support on the checkout page, add trust signals where necessary, and use controlled cross-sells to increase AOV.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Why do customers abandon checkout on my Shopify store?

Most drop-offs happen because your checkout feels longer than it should. Extra form fields, surprise fees, slow load times, or unclear support at the payment stage make buyers pause and leave.

2. How many steps should checkout really have?

Aim for two or three steps from product selection to payment. Anything beyond that gives customers time to second-guess their decision or get distracted.

3. Should I allow guest checkout on Shopify?

 Yes. Many of your buyers do not want to create accounts before paying. Guest checkout removes that resistance and helps first-time customers complete purchases faster.

4. Can WhatsApp work as a checkout channel for your Shopify store?

Yes. WhatsApp lets you sell where your customers already spend time. With Flowcart, you can bring product browsing, questions, and payment into a single chat, instead of pushing buyers back to your storefront.

5. What is the most effective way to recover abandoned carts?

Follow up where customers respond fastest. Email often gets ignored. But a timely WhatsApp message, automated using Flowcat’s WhatsApp flow, can bring them back to a one-tap checkout and give you a better chance to close the sale.