Ecommerce UX Audit Checklist: Find What Stops Shoppers From Buying

An ecommerce UX audit finds the points where shoppers get stuck or give up, from search and product pages to cart and checkout. It combines analytics, real user behaviour and an expert review against proven usability rules. The goal is a short, prioritised list of fixes that remove friction and recover lost sales. The Baymard Institute’s research puts the average documented cart abandonment rate at about 70%, so even small checkout improvements can matter (Baymard Institute).

Quick answer: review your funnel data, watch session recordings, test the store on mobile, then check navigation, product pages, cart and checkout against the checklist below and fix the biggest drop-offs first.

Data to review before the audit

• Funnel drop-off in Google Analytics: product view, add to cart, begin checkout, purchase.
• Device split: compare conversion on mobile vs desktop.
• Site search reports: what people search for and what returns no results.
• Session recordings and heatmaps from tools such as Microsoft Clarity or Hotjar.
• Customer feedback: support tickets, reviews and returns reasons.

Ecommerce UX audit checklist

Navigation and search

• Main categories are clear and match how customers think.
• Search handles typos, synonyms and product codes.
• Filters match what shoppers compare, such as size, colour, price and availability.
• Breadcrumbs help shoppers move back to categories.

Product pages

• Large, zoomable images from several angles, plus video where useful.
• Price, delivery cost and delivery date are visible near the add to cart button.
• Size guides, specifications and materials are easy to find.
• Reviews and ratings are shown, including negative ones.
• Stock levels and variant choices are clear, with no dead ends.
• The add to cart button stands out on mobile without scrolling.

Cart

• Totals include shipping and taxes as early as possible.
• Shoppers can edit quantities and remove items easily.
• Trust signals such as returns policy and secure payment are visible.
• Discount code fields do not distract or send people away searching for codes.

Checkout

• Guest checkout is available.
• Forms ask only for what is needed, with autofill and address lookup.
• Express payments such as Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal are offered.
• Errors are explained clearly next to the field.
• The number of steps is clear and progress is shown.
• No surprise costs appear at the final step.

Mobile and speed

• Tap targets are large enough and inputs open the right keyboard.
• Pages pass Core Web Vitals on mobile.
• Pop-ups do not block the page on small screens.

Common reasons shoppers abandon checkout

Reason	Typical fix
Extra costs revealed late	Show shipping and tax estimates on product and cart pages
Forced account creation	Offer guest checkout
Long or confusing forms	Remove fields, add autofill and address lookup
Slow delivery or unclear dates	Show delivery dates early
Payment worries	Show trusted payment options and security signals
Slow pages	Optimise images, scripts and hosting

How to prioritise fixes

Score each issue on impact, confidence and effort. Fix high-impact, low-effort issues first, such as showing delivery costs earlier or adding express payment. Test larger changes, such as a new product page layout, with an A/B test where traffic allows.

Get an expert ecommerce UX audit

Our UX audit reviews your store’s key flows and delivers fixes in priority order for $199. To implement changes, see our ecommerce development services. If speed is a factor, our website speed optimization covers stores too.

From our projects: In our grocery store redesign, the audit pointed straight at catalogue navigation and the mobile shopping experience, which became the core of the new design.

What the research says: The average cart abandonment rate is 70.22% across 50 studies. The top checkout reasons are extra costs (40%), slow delivery (20%) and not trusting the site with card details (19%). (Source: Baymard Institute.)