Short answer
When shoppers add to cart but don’t buy, they stop either in the cart or in checkout. In the cart, the usual cause is a surprise: shipping cost, a minimum, or a cart that’s hard to use on a phone. In checkout, it’s extra costs, forced accounts, missing payment methods or trust. Shopify’s Conversion rate breakdown shows which of the two steps loses more people.
Key takeaways
- Separate the two drops: cart → checkout and checkout → order. They have different causes.
- Many “abandoned carts” are shoppers comparing or saving for later. Look for patterns, not every exit.
- Unexpected cost is the most reported reason shoppers give for abandoning checkout. Show shipping earlier.
- Test the cart and checkout yourself on a phone, logged out, with a real address.
An add to cart is the clearest sign of intent a shopper gives before paying. So when carts fill up and orders don’t follow, the product and the traffic are usually fine: the problem sits in the last two steps. This guide shows how to tell which step, and what to check in each.
Is it the cart or the checkout?
Open Analytics → Reports → Conversion rate breakdown. It lists sessions with cart additions, sessions that reached checkout and sessions that completed checkout (Shopify Help: Behavior reports). Two ratios tell you where the drop is:
- Cart → checkout: sessions that reached checkout ÷ sessions with cart additions.
- Checkout → order: sessions that completed checkout ÷ sessions that reached checkout.
Compare each with its own last few months and split it by device. If one step fell recently, look at what changed on the store or in shipping settings around that date.
Not every abandoned cart is a problem
Shoppers use carts as wish lists, price calculators and reminders. In Baymard Institute’s survey, 42% of US online shoppers said they had abandoned a cart because they were “just browsing / not ready to buy” (Baymard Institute). Baymard puts the average documented cart abandonment rate at 70.22%, across 50 studies. A high abandonment rate on its own is normal. What matters is a rate that is getting worse, or much worse for one device or source.
When shoppers leave the cart
The cart is part of your theme, so this step is under your control. Common causes:
- The first time they see the real total. If shipping only appears here or later, the cart is where the price surprise lands.
- A cart drawer that fights the shopper. Hard to close, hard to change quantity, or the checkout button sits below the fold on a phone.
- Upsells that push the button away. Recommendation blocks and banners can bury the one action the shopper came to take.
- A discount code box with no code. An empty code field can send shoppers off to search for one. Some never come back.
- Something broken after an app or theme change. An app block that stopped loading, or a button that doesn’t respond. See sales dropped after a theme change.
When shoppers leave checkout
Shopify’s checkout isn’t part of your theme, but its settings are yours: shipping rates, account requirements, payment methods. Baymard’s survey lists the reasons shoppers give most often:
| Reason | Share of abandoners |
|---|---|
| Extra costs too high (shipping, tax, fees) | 40% |
| Delivery was too slow | 20% |
| Didn’t trust the site with card details | 19% |
| Site wanted me to create an account | 18% |
| Too long or complicated checkout | 17% |
| Website had errors or crashed | 17% |
Each maps to something you can check in your admin: shipping rates and free-shipping thresholds, delivery estimates, whether customer accounts are required, and which payment methods and express checkouts are turned on. The full list, with how to check each, is in 11 reasons shoppers abandon checkout.
Use the abandoned checkouts list
In your admin, Orders → Abandoned checkouts lists checkouts that were started and not completed, with the cart contents and, when the shopper entered them, contact and shipping details. Read twenty of them in a row and look for patterns: the same product, the same shipping region, very high or very low cart values, or a spike on one date.
Patterns point to causes. Abandoned checkouts clustered in one region often mean a shipping rate problem there. Clustered on one product, check its shipping profile, stock and delivery time.
See the moment it happens
Once you know the step and the segment (for example: phone shoppers who opened the cart drawer and left), watch a handful of those sessions in a session recording tool. You’re looking for the exact moment: the scroll back up to re-read the price, the tap on a button that did nothing, the pause on the shipping line. That moment is your evidence, and it tells you what to change first.
Questions
- Why are people adding to cart but not buying on my Shopify store?
- They stop either in the cart or in checkout. Check which with the Conversion rate breakdown report. Cart drops usually come from surprises in the cart (total, shipping, usability); checkout drops from extra costs, forced accounts, payment options or trust.
- What is a normal cart abandonment rate?
- Baymard Institute’s average across 50 studies is 70.22% (Baymard). Many abandoned carts are shoppers who were just browsing, so track your own trend and compare segments rather than chasing zero.
- Do abandoned cart emails solve this?
- They can win back some shoppers who were interrupted, but they don’t fix the reason shoppers left. Find the cause first; recovery emails work better when the cart and checkout aren’t the problem.
- Why does Shopify show more checkouts than add to carts?
- Some paths skip the cart, such as direct-to-checkout links and some landing-page builders, so Shopify can record a checkout without an add-to-cart. Read the two steps together when that happens.
Sources
- Cart abandonment rate statisticsBaymard Institute, 2025-09-22
- Behavior reports (Conversion rate breakdown)Shopify Help Center
- Reached checkout is higher than add to bagShopify Community