What Is Checkout Conversion Rate? Formula & Example

This rate asks one thing: of the people who started checkout, how many finished? Everyone who never got that far is left out. Think of it as a close-up of the last step. It won't tell you how your whole store is doing. The steps it measures make up your checkout flow. Making them easier to finish is what checkout optimization is about.

Working Out Your Checkout Conversion Rate

You need two numbers from the same dates: checkouts started and orders placed.

Checkout conversion rate = orders ÷ checkouts started × 100

Example: a candle shop's October

Sessions: 16,000
Checkouts started: 320
Orders: 208

208 ÷ 320 = 0.65, so the checkout conversion rate is 65%. The other 112 checkouts, or 35%, were abandoned.

Now put the same 208 orders over all 16,000 sessions. You get 1.3%, the shop's overall conversion rate. Nothing changed in the month or the orders. The checkout rate is 50 times bigger only because it starts counting so much later.

We see a similar gap in our own data. Across 958 Shopify stores, 57% of shoppers who reached checkout went on to buy, while the average store-wide conversion rate was 2.2%. That's because most visits never get to checkout. Our Shopify cart abandonment statistics show how many carts stall before that point.

Finding Both Numbers in Shopify

Open the Analytics page in your Shopify admin. It shows how many sessions reached checkout and how many completed it. Divide the second number by the first and multiply by 100.

One catch: Shopify counts sessions here, not single checkouts. If a shopper opens checkout twice in one visit, that's counted once. An app that counts every checkout may show you a different rate for the same month, so pick one source and stick with it.

When a Better Checkout Rate Isn't Real Progress

It's tempting to see a rising checkout rate and decide your checkout got better. But the rate can also climb when fewer people start checkout.

Say the candle shop starts showing shipping costs in the cart in November. Some shoppers who only opened checkout to see the total now skip it. Checkouts started fall to 260, and orders stay at 208.

208 ÷ 260 = 0.8, so the rate jumps from 65% to 80%. The shop didn't make one extra sale.

The rate can move the wrong way in a good month, too. A Buy it now button on a product page sends shoppers straight to checkout, skipping the cart. If more people start checkout that way, the rate can fall even while orders go up.

That's why you should read this rate next to your order count and your overall conversion rate. If only the checkout rate moved, look at who started checkout, not just who finished. For the usual reasons shoppers quit partway, see our guide to Shopify checkout conversion drop-offs.

Related Terms

Checkout Abandonment: shoppers who start checkout but leave before paying. Its rate is simply 100% minus this one.
Conversion Rate: the share of all sessions that end in an order, not just the ones that reach checkout.
Funnel Analysis: checking each step between the first visit and the order to find where shoppers leave.
Cart Abandonment Rate: the share of carts that never become an order, counted from the cart.
Drop-off Rate: how many shoppers, as a percent, you lose between one funnel step and the next.