What is Checkout Drop-off Revenue Loss?
This estimates the revenue lost to a checkout completion rate that sits below the typical benchmark. Checkout is the highest-value place in any funnel to fix, because everyone in it has already chosen a product, accepted the price and started handing over payment details — you paid to acquire them and they are leaving at the last step. The result is best read as an upper bound on what is recoverable rather than money waiting to be collected, since no checkout converts everyone and some abandonment is simply people changing their minds.
Why it matters
- It turns a checkout UX problem into a specific monthly dollar figure, making it easy to prioritize against other projects.
- It's often one of the highest-leverage fixes available, since checkout traffic is already high-intent.
- A negative result (performing above benchmark) is useful too — it confirms checkout isn't the current bottleneck.
The formula
Revenue Lost = Monthly Checkout Starts × (Benchmark Completion Rate − Your Checkout Completion Rate) × Average Order Value
- Monthly Checkout Starts
- — people who begin checkout in a month
- Benchmark Completion Rate
- — what a comparable store completes at
- Your Checkout Completion Rate
- — what yours completes at now
- Average Order Value
- — revenue per completed order
How to use this calculator
- 01Pull monthly checkout starts and your actual completion rate from analytics.
- 02Use the benchmark rate (commonly ~70%) or a more specific one for your category.
- 03Enter average order value.
- 04A positive result shows revenue currently being lost to checkout friction; a negative result means you're already ahead of benchmark.
Worked example
A store has 10,000 monthly checkout starts, completes at 60% against a 70% benchmark, with an $80 average order value.
- Checkout starts per month = 10,000, completing at 60% against a 70% benchmark
- Orders lost to the gap = 10,000 × (70% − 60%) = 1,000 orders
- Revenue lost = 1,000 × $80 = $80,000 per month
- Closing even half the gap would return roughly $40,000 a month
Closing this gap to benchmark would be worth roughly $80,000/month — this is very likely the highest-leverage CRO project available on this site.
Industry benchmarks
Compiled August 2026
Typical ecommerce checkout completion
~70%
Commonly cited cross-industry benchmark.
Well-optimized, low-friction checkout
75% – 85%
One-page checkout, saved payment, guest checkout enabled.
High-friction checkout
Below 55%
Often signals forced account creation, unexpected costs, or too many steps.
Mobile versus desktop
Typically 10–15 points lower
Payment and address entry are the usual culprits.
Common mistakes
- Using a generic benchmark instead of one specific to your product category, where norms vary.
- Not investigating why the gap exists before starting expensive redesign work — often the cause is simple (unexpected shipping costs, forced account creation).
- Treating this as guaranteed recoverable revenue rather than a realistic upper bound to work toward.
- Reading one blended completion rate when mobile and desktop differ by ten points or more — the average hides which experience is actually broken.
How to improve your checkout drop-off loss
Check for the most common checkout killers first
Unexpected costs, forced account creation, and too many form fields are the most common causes of below-benchmark completion.
Test fixes with a real A/B test
Validate any checkout change before rolling it out fully.
Plan your test →Show the total cost before the final step
Unexpected shipping and tax at the last screen is the most consistently cited reason for abandonment. Surfacing it earlier loses some carts sooner and converts more of the ones that continue.
Recover the carts you still lose →Frequently asked questions
Why might my completion rate be below benchmark?+
The most common causes: unexpected shipping/tax costs revealed late, forced account creation, too many form fields, or a slow checkout page.
Is 70% a realistic target for every business?+
It's a general benchmark — high-consideration or high-price products often see naturally lower completion rates, so use category-specific data if available.
What exactly counts as a checkout start?+
Pick one event and hold to it — usually the first checkout screen loading. Counting cart views instead includes browsing behaviour and will make completion look far worse than it is, which sends you fixing a checkout that is fine.
Is any of this loss unavoidable?+
Yes, a good deal of it. Comparison shopping, price checking and simple second thoughts all show up as abandonment and no interface change removes them. That is why the benchmark sits near 70% rather than 100%, and why closing the whole gap is not the goal.
Related calculators
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