What we learned rebuilding a checkout from six steps to three
Removing steps helped. Removing uncertainty helped more. A short walk through a storefront rebuild and the things that actually moved the numbers.
Northwind came to us with a six-step checkout, a 34% mobile bounce on the cart page and a suspicion that the problem was the design. It was partly the design. Mostly it was that nobody knew what was going to happen next.
The diagnosis
We recorded sessions for a fortnight. The pattern was clear: people filled in the first two steps, hit the shipping options page, saw a cost they had not expected, and left.
What we changed
- Shipping cost and the delivery window moved onto the cart, before the checkout started.
- Guest checkout came first; account creation became an offer after payment, not a toll gate.
- The three remaining steps became one page with clear sections, so progress was visible.
- Every validation message moved next to the field that caused it.
The result
Mobile conversion up 34%, average page load down to 1.1 seconds. The most-cited improvement in customer feedback was being able to see the total before committing.
The lesson we keep re-learning: people abandon when they are uncertain, not when they are busy.