The Checkout Optimization Playbook That Added $2M in Revenue

The $2M Problem

Our client had a 68% cart abandonment rate — roughly average for e-commerce. But "average" meant $8.2M in annual revenue was being left in abandoned carts. We recovered $2M of it in 90 days without changing a single product or price.

Here's the exact playbook.

Step 1: Measure Where They Drop

Before optimizing anything, instrument every step:

Funnel Analysis (Before):
  Add to Cart:                 100% (baseline)
  View Cart:                   72% (-28%)  ← Problem 1
  Begin Checkout:              48% (-24%)  ← Problem 2
  Enter Shipping Info:         41% (-7%)
  Enter Payment:               34% (-7%)
  Complete Order:              32% (-2%)

  Overall: 32% completion rate

The two biggest drops: Cart → View Cart and View Cart → Checkout
These two steps alone account for 52% of all abandonment.

Step 2: Fix the Cart Page

Problem: Surprise Costs

The #1 reason for cart abandonment is unexpected costs appearing at checkout.

Before (what the customer saw):
  Product: $79.00
  ← nothing else shown until checkout →
  At checkout: Shipping $12.99, Tax $7.11
  Total: $99.10 (25% more than expected)

After:
  Product: $79.00
  Estimated shipping: $12.99 (calculated by zip)
  Estimated tax: ~$7.00
  Estimated total: ~$98.99
  Free shipping on orders over $100 (add $21 more!)

Result: Cart → View Cart improved from 72% to 81%

Problem: No Urgency or Trust

Added to cart page:
  ✓ "In stock — ships today if ordered by 3pm EST"
  ✓ "Free returns within 30 days"
  ✓ Security badges (SSL, payment processor logos)
  ✓ "23 people bought this today" (real data, not fake)
  ✓ Estimated delivery date (calculated, not generic)

Step 3: Eliminate Checkout Friction

Guest Checkout (Non-Negotiable)

Before:
  Step 1: Create account (email, password, confirm password)
  Step 2: Enter shipping
  Step 3: Enter payment

After:
  Step 1: Enter email (account created automatically)
  Step 2: Enter shipping (auto-suggest with address API)
  Step 3: Enter payment

Account creation happens silently. Password set via email after purchase.
Registration wall removed: +8% checkout completion.

Form Optimization

// Address autocomplete eliminates 60% of form fields
const addressConfig = {
  provider: "Google Places",
  fields: {
    street: { autocomplete: "address-line1" },
    city: { autocomplete: "address-level2", readonly: true },
    state: { autocomplete: "address-level1", readonly: true },
    zip: { autocomplete: "postal-code" },
    country: { autocomplete: "country", default: "US" },
  },
  // Auto-fill city, state, country from zip code
  onZipChange: async (zip) => {
    const location = await lookupZip(zip);
    return { city: location.city, state: location.state };
  }
};
 
// Result: Average form completion time dropped from 94s to 38s

Express Payment Options

Payment methods offered (in order of conversion rate):
  1. Apple Pay / Google Pay:    89% completion rate
  2. Shop Pay / PayPal Express: 82% completion rate
  3. Saved credit card:         78% completion rate
  4. New credit card:           64% completion rate

Express payments should be the FIRST option, not hidden below
a credit card form. We moved Apple Pay above the fold:
  Result: +5% overall checkout completion

Step 4: Cart Recovery System

For the 68% who still abandon, systematic recovery:

Email Sequence

Email 1 (1 hour after abandonment):
  Subject: "You left something behind"
  Content: Cart contents with images and prices
  No discount. Just a reminder.
  Open rate: 45%, Recovery rate: 8%

Email 2 (24 hours):
  Subject: "Still thinking about [product name]?"
  Content: Product benefits + social proof (reviews)
  Still no discount.
  Open rate: 35%, Recovery rate: 5%

Email 3 (72 hours):
  Subject: "10% off your cart — expires tonight"
  Content: Cart + discount code + urgency
  Open rate: 30%, Recovery rate: 12%

Total recovery rate from email: ~18% of abandoned carts

Exit Intent (Desktop Only)

Trigger: Mouse moves toward browser close/back
Show: "Wait — free shipping on your order today"
  or: "Complete your order in the next 10 minutes for 5% off"

Conversion rate: 3-5% of exit-intent popups
Worth implementing but not a primary strategy.

SMS Recovery (If Opted In)

SMS (2 hours after abandonment):
  "Hey [name], your [product] is still in your cart.
   Complete your order: [short link]"

  Recovery rate: 10-15% (higher than email)
  Requires: SMS opt-in during email capture

Step 5: Technical Performance

Checkout speed directly impacts conversion:

Page load time vs checkout completion:
  < 1 second:    baseline
  1-2 seconds:   -7% completion
  2-3 seconds:   -16% completion
  3-5 seconds:   -32% completion
  > 5 seconds:   -50% completion

Optimizations we implemented:
  ✓ Prefetch checkout page when cart button clicked
  ✓ Lazy load non-critical scripts
  ✓ Edge-cached shipping rate calculations
  ✓ Payment form loads asynchronously
  ✓ Eliminated 3 redirect hops in checkout flow

Result: Checkout page load time from 3.2s to 0.9s

The Results

90-Day Results:

                        Before      After       Change
Cart → View Cart:       72%         81%         +9%
View Cart → Checkout:   48%         62%         +14%
Checkout Completion:    32%         44%         +12%

Cart Abandonment:       68%         56%         -12%

Revenue Impact:
  Additional completed orders/month: ~1,200
  Average order value: $142
  Monthly revenue recovered: $170,400
  Annualized: $2,044,800

  Plus cart recovery emails: ~$38,000/month additional

The Priority Order

If you can only do 3 things:

1. Show estimated total on cart page (kills surprise cost abandonment)
2. Add express payments above the fold (Apple Pay, Google Pay, Shop Pay)
3. Implement 3-email cart recovery sequence (recovers 15-18% of abandons)

These three changes alone account for 60% of the $2M recovery. Everything else is optimization on top of a solid foundation.

Checkout isn't a page — it's a funnel. Measure every step, fix the biggest drops first, and recover what you can't convert. The math works in your favor.