An Inside Retail piece spotlights the most overlooked moment in retail, the checkout. It is the cheapest revenue in the business and almost nobody measures it properly.
An Inside Retail piece this week put a spotlight on the most overlooked moment in retail. The checkout. It argues that in a tight market, every touchpoint matters, but none carries more weight than the last one, and most retailers treat it as an afterthought.
They are right. The checkout is where intent either becomes a sale or dies. A customer who has done everything, browsed, chosen, decided, will still walk if the final step is slow, confusing or asks for too much. It is the digital equivalent of a great shop with a queue out the door and one register open.
Why it matters
This is the cheapest revenue in your business and almost nobody measures it properly. Fixing your checkout does not cost you a single extra visitor. The people are already there, already wanting to buy. Every point of friction you remove at the final step falls straight to the bottom line. Yet most businesses obsess over getting more people in and ignore the ones leaking out at the last moment.
The average online shopping cart is abandoned roughly 70% of the time, much of it at the checkout. Source: Baymard Institute.
What to do about it
You have paid to bring the customer this far. Do not lose them at the till because the last step was clumsy.