Across 600+ Shopify store audits, the most common checkout issue is low revenue per checkout: more than half of stores (54%) earn less on each completed checkout than their industry peers. The next most common are below-peer average order value (53%) and low free-shipping adoption (42%). Most stores have several at once.
Based on PDQ audits of 600+ Shopify stores, each benchmarked against its own industry.
This report draws on individual store audits, separate from our monthly Shopify Checkout Benchmarks index.
This is the most common issue we find. The store earns far less on each completed checkout than other brands in its category. It rarely traces to one cause. Low conversion and low average order value stack on top of each other, so the whole checkout underperforms at once. Fixing it means working both levers together: converting more of the shoppers who reach checkout, and raising what each one spends before they pay.
The average cart here runs at least 15% under the store's industry peers. Shoppers buy, but they buy small. The usual causes are missed upsells at the moment of purchase, weak or absent bundling, and a free-shipping threshold set too low to pull carts higher. Each order leaves margin on the table. The fix is offer design: relevant add-ons, smarter bundles, and a threshold tuned to how this store's shoppers actually spend.
Too few orders here qualify for free shipping. Almost always the threshold is set wrong, or there is none at all. Set too high, shoppers give up on reaching it. Set too low, the store gives away margin it did not need to. Missing entirely, there is no nudge to build a bigger cart. The right number is specific to each store's cart distribution, and most stores have never tested for it.
Here the delay starts before the carrier ever touches the box. Time from order to ship runs at least 30% slower than the industry norm. The checkout can promise a fast arrival, but the warehouse cannot keep it. That gap shows up as later delivery dates, weaker delivery promises, and lower trust at the moment of payment. The fix lives in operations and fulfillment routing, not in the checkout copy.
More than 1 in 4 stores we audit lose shoppers at checkout faster than their peers, at a rate at least 15% above benchmark. The shopper has already chosen to buy, then leaves at the final step. The usual triggers are a surprise shipping cost that appears late and a trust gap right before payment. Both are fixable inside the checkout, without touching traffic or product.
About 1 in 4 stores here lean too hard on discounts. Coupon usage runs at least 50% above the industry norm. Over time the brand has trained its own shoppers to wait for a code before they buy. Full-price sales dry up, margin erodes, and every promotion has to be bigger than the last to move the same volume. Breaking the habit means rebuilding urgency and value that does not depend on a discount.
Total time from click to doorstep runs at least 15% over the industry standard. Even when the warehouse ships on time, the parcel takes too long to arrive. Slow delivery rarely loses the first sale, but it quietly kills the second one. Shoppers who wait too long do not come back. The fix is faster, better-routed delivery and a promise the store can actually keep.
1 in 5 stores here convert below their industry benchmark once shoppers reach checkout. These are not cold visitors. They arrived at the checkout ready to pay, then bailed, at a rate at least 15% under peers. The drop points to friction in the flow itself: too many steps, a slow load, a forced account, or a payment method the shopper wanted and did not find.
First-time buyers here convert at least 25% worse than returning customers. The shopper who has never bought from the store needs a reason to trust it at the exact moment of payment, and does not get one. Missing social proof, thin security signals, and no reassurance near the pay button all widen the gap. The fix is trust built into the checkout itself, aimed squarely at the first-time buyer.
About 1 in 6 stores show a single shipping method at checkout. No economy choice, no express upgrade, no agency for the shopper. A buyer who wants it cheaper has no way down, and a buyer who wants it faster has no way up. Both are more likely to leave. Offering a small, well-priced set of options, named and anchored well, converts more of both.
At these stores, at least 85% of checkout traffic is first-time buyers, with nothing built to bring them back. Every sale starts from zero. Acquisition carries the whole business while retention sits idle. That makes growth expensive and fragile, because the store has to buy each customer again and again. The fix is a retention engine: post-purchase flows that turn a first order into a second.
The rarest issue in our top 12, but a real one. The cheapest carts convert far worse than the big ones, and they make up most of the traffic. A flood of low-intent, low-value shoppers pulls the store's overall conversion rate down and hides how well the high-value carts actually perform. The fix is segmentation: treat small carts and big carts as different shoppers, and stop optimizing for an average that does not exist.
Data from PDQ store audits, updated July 2026.
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