Frictionless
Checkout

A checkout that punished intent

The platform had strong top-of-funnel performance — conversion from landing to cart was healthy. But 70% of users who added items to their cart never completed the purchase. The checkout was where intent went to die.

The original flow: Cart review → Account creation (required) → Shipping details → Payment. Four screens, 14 mandatory fields, and a hard gate requiring account creation before purchase. The account creation screen had a 52% abandonment rate alone.

Session recordings showed a consistent pattern: users who reached the account creation screen would pause, read the form, and either leave immediately or attempt to fill it out, encounter friction (email already registered, password requirements), and abandon. Very few made it through unprompted.

What users actually needed to complete a purchase

We ran a field study with 18 participants across three demographic groups: occasional purchasers, frequent buyers and first-time users. We asked them to complete a purchase and think aloud throughout. We supplemented this with analysis of 4,200 session recordings tagged by abandonment stage.

The real barriers

1. Account creation as a gate

   Users didn’t object to having an account eventually. They objected to being required to create one before they’d completed a purchase. The value exchange was wrong: “give us your data” before “receive your product”.

2. Redundant fields

   Of the 14 fields, 4 were duplicated across screens (email appeared twice, address was split across fields that could be one). 3 were entirely optional but presented as required. 2 could be inferred from payment data.

3. Invisible progress

   Users didn’t know how many steps remained. The progress indicator showed step numbers but not what each step contained. “I don’t know when this ends” was the most common verbal expression of frustration.

4. Trust signals missing

   On the payment screen, security badges were absent. On mobile, the checkout did not trigger device payment APIs (Apple Pay, Google Pay). Both were major friction points on high-intent, first-time users.

Guest-first. Progressive disclosure. Two screens.

The guiding principle: remove every field and step that wasn’t strictly necessary to complete the transaction. Then offer account creation after purchase, as a value exchange (save your details, track your orders) rather than a gate.

Screen 1: Unified contact & delivery

Email, name and delivery address consolidated into a single screen. The address field uses autocomplete via Places API — reducing 5 fields (street, building, city, region, postcode) to a single search input with review step. Total fields on screen 1: 4.

Screen 2: Payment

Native device payment (Apple Pay / Google Pay) presented first, as the primary CTA. Card entry below as a secondary option. CVV tooltip on demand. Order summary collapsed by default, expandable. One “Place order” button. No redundant confirmation screen — redirect directly to order confirmation with a post-purchase account creation prompt.

The post-purchase account creation prompt converted at 31% — compared to 8% through the pre-purchase gate. Users who had just completed a successful transaction had a positive emotional context for making a further commitment.

70% reduction in abandonment in 90 days

The guest-first model drove the single largest impact. 63% of completed purchases were made by guest users who were then offered post-purchase account creation — of whom 31% converted. Net result: more completed purchases and more accounts created, simultaneously. The false trade-off between conversion and account creation was eliminated entirely.