Where checkout friction is actually costing e-commerce brands revenue

Across the conversion audits we run, a small number of checkout friction points recur consistently enough to name plainly, without attaching specific client figures to them.

Forced account creation before checkout remains a common blocker — offering guest checkout as the default, with account creation as an optional post-purchase step, consistently reduces checkout abandonment where we've tested it.

Unexpected costs revealed only at the final checkout step (shipping, taxes, fees) are one of the most consistently cited reasons for cart abandonment in general e-commerce research, and showing estimated total cost earlier in the funnel measurably reduces this specific drop-off point.

Payment method limitations — not offering the payment method a customer actually wants to use — is a quieter but real blocker, particularly as buy-now-pay-later and digital wallet adoption continues to grow across categories.