CHECKOUT ABANDONMENT
Reduce checkout abandonment by answering the question, not chasing the cart.
On a considered purchase, someone who reaches checkout and stops is rarely undecided about wanting it. They have hit a specific, usually answerable doubt — and a recovery email tomorrow arrives after they have already bought elsewhere.
Detect which of the five frictions is stalling the session, resolve it in the page with the smallest response that will do, and withhold that response from a permanent holdout so you can tell whether it helped. Most stalled checkouts still get nothing — because most of them recover on their own.
WHY IT HAPPENS
Four causes, and only three of them are yours to fix.
The total became unclear
Setup fee, delivery, deposit, first-month difference. The number they had in their head stopped matching the screen.
The commitment got real
Twenty-four months, a cancellation clause, a direct debit. Fine in the abstract, heavier at the point of signing.
A promise was missing
What happens if it doesn't work, doesn't arrive, doesn't fit. Absence of the answer reads as an unfavourable answer.
Life happened
A phone call, a meeting, a child. Nothing is wrong and nothing needs fixing. Speaking here is pure cost.
CORRECT RESPONSE: SILENCE
THE USUAL PLAYBOOK
Three tactics that raise conversion rate and lower profit.
Exit-intent overlay with 10% off
Pays a discount to everyone who moved their cursor, including the buyers who were about to pay full price.
“Only 2 left at this price!”
On a two-year contract, urgency reads as pressure. It is also forbidden at render time in our engine.
Recovery email 45 minutes later
Useful, and far too late for a decision that gets made in a comparison tab that is still open.
WHAT YESWARD DOES INSTEAD
Resolve the blocker in the session, or leave it alone.
Name the friction while the tab is still open
Term toggles, fee FAQ, terms-page detour and stall duration produce a scored hypothesis inside the session.
Answer it at the lowest level that works
Usually a line of information in page flow. Occasionally one question. Never a discount unless you switched discounts on.
Withhold it from a permanent holdout
So “abandonment fell” can be separated from “abandonment fell in the treated group specifically”.
Charge yourself for the interruption
Dismissals and rage clicks appear beside the lift. A treatment that annoys more than it recovers retires itself in 14 days.
HOW YOU WILL KNOW IT WORKED
One number, one interval, one honest denominator.
Every problem on this page is measured the same way: eligible sessions randomised before treatment, a share permanently withheld, and the difference reported in contribution margin with its confidence interval and its data-quality notes.
95% CI €6.8K–€15.7K · ILLUSTRATIVE DETERMINISTIC DATA · NO LIFT CLAIMED
Bring us the journey that leaks the most.
Two weeks in shadow mode, one journey, one outcome. Every decision recorded, nothing rendered.