Anthony McGrath

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Checkout

Stop losing sales at the checkout

People who reach your checkout already want to buy. Losing them there is the most expensive leak in your store. Surprise costs, missing payment options, long forms and doubts about delivery are found and fixed, and the rest are won back with timely recovery messages.

Get your checkout reviewedWhat's included
  • 22 years in digital marketing
  • Hands-on: you work with me, not a junior
  • UK, US, Dubai and Australia

By Anthony McGrath · Updated

What does checkout optimisation and cart abandonment involve?

Checkout optimisation and cart abandonment covers costs and delivery, payments, forms, trust, recovery and measurement. The usual reasons are well known: unexpected delivery costs, being forced to create an account, not seeing their preferred way to pay, a confusing form and worries about returns. Anthony McGrath does the work himself, with 22 years in digital marketing, for businesses in the UK, the US, Dubai and Australia.

Best for
Websites and online stores that already get steady traffic
What you get
Costs and delivery, Payments, Forms, Trust, Recovery, Measurement
First step
Measure: analytics, heatmaps, recordings and a walk through your site as a customer, to find where people drop out.
Where
The UK, the US, Dubai and Australia, working remotely across time zones
Who does the work
Anthony McGrath, hands-on, with 22 years in digital marketing

Why people abandon at the checkout

The usual reasons are well known: unexpected delivery costs, being forced to create an account, not seeing their preferred way to pay, a confusing form and worries about returns. Most stores have at least two of them.

Fixing the checkout itself comes first. Recovery emails and texts then catch the people who were simply interrupted, and they work far better when the checkout they come back to is smooth.

Before and after

An example of fixing the checkout and adding recovery flows.

  • Checkout completion rate: 52% before, 64% after
  • Recovered carts per month: 18 before, 96 after
  • Payment errors per 100 checkouts: 7 before, 2 after

An example of the kind of change this work aims for, based on typical starting points. It is not a promise or a specific client result: every business starts somewhere different.

What's included

The checkout, the steps before it and the recovery after it.

Costs and delivery

  • Delivery costs shown early
  • Free delivery thresholds
  • Delivery dates at checkout
  • Clear returns information

Payments

  • Shop Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay
  • PayPal and Klarna or Afterpay
  • Local payment methods per country
  • Express checkout buttons up front

Forms

  • Guest checkout
  • Address lookup
  • Fewer fields and clearer errors
  • Mobile keyboards that fit each field

Trust

  • Security and guarantee messages
  • Reviews near the decision
  • Contact options visible
  • No surprise steps

Recovery

  • Abandoned cart and checkout emails
  • SMS and WhatsApp reminders
  • Browse abandonment flows
  • Timing and offers tested

Measurement

  • Checkout funnel by step
  • Drop-off by device and payment type
  • Recovered revenue
  • Monthly report

How it works

  1. MeasureAnalytics, heatmaps, recordings and a walk through your site as a customer, to find where people drop out.
  2. PrioritiseA ranked list of fixes and test ideas, scored on likely impact and effort.
  3. TestChanges tested properly (A/B where the traffic allows), so you know what worked and why.
  4. Roll out and repeatWinners go live, losers are learned from, and the next round starts.

Platforms and tools

  • Shopify checkout
  • Checkout extensibility
  • Shop Pay
  • Stripe
  • PayPal
  • Klarna
  • Afterpay
  • Tabby
  • Klaviyo
  • Postscript
  • GA4

Questions

What is a normal cart abandonment rate?

Around seven in ten carts are abandoned across ecommerce. Some of that is people browsing, but a good share is fixable.

Should I offer buy now, pay later?

Often, yes, especially for higher-priced products. Klarna, Afterpay or Clearpay, and Tabby in the UAE, can lift conversions noticeably.

Can you change the Shopify checkout?

Yes, within what Shopify allows. Checkout extensions add messages, fields and offers, and Shopify Plus allows much more.

Do abandoned cart emails really work?

Yes. A well-timed sequence regularly wins back a meaningful share of abandoned carts, usually for very little cost.

Anthony McGrath

About Anthony McGrath

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A UK-based freelance digital marketer with 22 years across Shopify, WordPress, WooCommerce, Magento, conversion rate optimisation, funnels, Google, Meta and TikTok ads, SEO and tracking. He works directly with businesses in the UK, the US, Dubai and Australia, so the person who plans the work is the person who does it. More about Anthony or connect with him on LinkedIn.

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