17 eCommerce Checkout Best Practices & Optimisation Tips (2025)

💬 As eCommerce growth marketers and founders, we know the importance of optimising conversion rates, with key goals around reducing friction and making it as seamless as possible for customer transactions.

Even just the smallest optimisations and tests can lead to awesome results - and that's why I created this free resource of areas within the checkout flow process that I've tried with brands I've worked with, and also what I've seen top brands have done too.

Optimisation areas that are cost-effective and easy to test for improving Checkout flow performance (i.e. CRO)

💬 As mentioned, here are some tactical tests presented in a checklist/progress format that you/your team can discuss, to see if it can help improve results for your store's flow.

The goal of any checkout is to keep the UX as simple as possible, streamlined and straight-forward - i.e. in other words, nothing clunky.

I share some of these UI element optimisations below with examples.

Most online shopping is dome via mobile, especially when acquisition sources are from the likes of Meta Ads, etc.

So, you have to ensure mobile UX looks awesome and fast. Keep any sort of imagery well-optimised, and double check font file sizes and any embeds attached which could be slowing it down.

‍Tip: explore chrome dev tools to test check out load time and/or, you can hire a cost-effective freelancer/consultant to analyse and provide recommendations too.

You can include the likes of 'links', but the key note here is to make sure not to have those links open up external pages.

This is where a 'hover' tip UX prompt comes in handy.

From my experience, progress bars are helpful to paint a quick visual to customers on the steps they need to do to complete the purchase.

I find personally it's a good UX and provides ease for customers - especially when on mobile.

Having express payments on offer does help customers/visitors to check out faster (valuable to have for mobile UX), as usually their details are already attached to their express payment provider.

Plus, it's good to highlight them as a trust signal, especially for new customers (since they would know existing trusted payment providers).

Related to the above, having BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) serves a similar purpose - especially when it comes to visitors/customers wanting to buy expensive items, or simply ordering a higher cart value.

From a UX point of view (and having experienced this myself with a small number of stores over the years), it's not ideal to create an account before making a transaction - especially when it comes to mobile UX.

That's where having a guest check out is paramount - and this is particularly an important UX factor to have for first-time customers.

Whilst there's nothing wrong with getting customers to create an account, get them to do it AFTER they have made a transaction (and promote the benefits of account creation post-purchase - i.e. receiving exclusive rewards, etc).

It's a minimal optimisation piece and there's a good chance you have this already, but it's still important to bring up.

It's all about consumer confidence (and having piece of mind) in a world where there are a lot of scams, security issues, etc - you want customers to be reassured their details will be safe.

Now this is up for testing and I wouldn't make this a top priority experiment, but it's worth exploring if you're wanting to find ways to improve checkout CRO.

It only needs to be a subtle element, but is good as a 'signal' for trust to encourage first-time customers to complete the transaction.

Try be upfront with costs earlier in the process, as visitors/customers certainly appreciate transparency and no 'hidden surprises'.

You also don't want them to find out by the end of the process before they transact, where they then have to 'think' again about the decision.

The goal by this point is not making them think but simply complete the process as fast as they can. So include a summary recommendation of the costs involved (incl. shipping/delivery costs) before they input their details.

Adding in real-time form validation is a good touch to ensure customers have filled out their information properly, and also that they haven't missed any fields.

It also helps accuracy of field inputs from customers/visitors too (which is helpful for the business).

Whilst a small optimisation, ensure that customer support details are clear, whether that be live chat, an email, or a business phone number.

I wouldn't have a live chat prompted during checkout, but maybe a link to live chat being prompted (or via a separate page) is worth considering.

A tactic to help with conversion rates is to highlight what customers/visitors can receive as rewards as part of your loyalty program.

It's a small tactic/optimisation, but it's also good to include if possible as it doesn't take up too much real estate on the page.

As shipping/delivery fees can impact conversion rates (especially if on the higher side), if you have a physical store, then highlight that they can save if they come pick it up.

As part of the order summary, make it evident to customers that they are saving on their order based on whatever threshold they meet for free shipping, or any other deal that you're running.

As a reminder which marketers/founders need to know - you have to ensure you opt-in visitors/customers properly to receive email marketing communications from your brand.

As practice, you should include a 'tick box' (which is unticked), where people can then choose (where they tick the box) to opt-in if they wish to receive marketing-related email comms.