Where mobile checkouts are actually lost
Not on the product page. Measure the funnel by step and the loss is nearly always at checkout — a cost or a delivery date that appeared after the customer had already decided.
Abandonment is mostly surprise, not indecision
The story people tell about cart abandonment is that the customer was browsing and lost interest. The data usually says something narrower: they had decided, reached the last step, met a number they had not been shown, and left.
Shipping added at checkout is the commonest version. A delivery estimate longer than expected is the second. Both are facts the store knew from the beginning and chose to reveal late.
The fixes, ranked by what they cost you
- Show the shipping cost on the product page. Costs nothing. Removes the largest single surprise.
- Show the delivery date before checkout, not after. In a market where same-day is normal, this is the difference between a decision and a comparison.
- Allow a guest checkout. A forced account is a form standing between somebody and a purchase they have already agreed to.
- Support wallet payment properly. Apple Pay and Google Pay remove the step — typing card details on a phone — where the most checkouts are lost.
- A recovery email. Worth having, and it is the last line rather than the first. It addresses the symptom.
Measure before you redesign
Look at the funnel step by step, and look at mobile separately from desktop. If the drop is between product and cart it is a pricing or information problem. Between cart and checkout it is cost or delivery. Inside checkout it is friction. Redesigning the home page because conversion is low is the commonest expensive mistake in ecommerce, and it measures nothing.