What Is Friction? The Snags That Stall a Sale

Where Shoppers Feel Friction

Most snags fall into one of four groups:

Effort: long forms, having to make an account, typing a code, tiny buttons on a phone.
Doubt: no size guide, vague delivery dates, a hard-to-find return policy.
Surprise: a shipping fee or tax that only shows up at the last step.
Waiting: slow pages, or a pop-up covering the product on a small screen.

Each one costs a little time or trust. Pile up enough and some people quit, even ones who wanted the product.

One Discount Code, Four Extra Steps

Example: a sock brand's Instagram story

A shopper sees "15% off with code COZY15" in a story. She taps through and adds $40 of socks to her cart. At checkout, the discount box is empty. To claim it, she has to:

leave checkout and go back to Instagram,
find the story again, if it's still up,
copy or remember the code,
come back and type it in.

Four extra steps to save $6. At any of them, a text message or a lost tab can end the visit.

Shopify has two fixes. An automatic discount needs no code at all, and a discount code can be shared as a link that fills it in at checkout. See our guide on how auto-applied discount codes remove friction. Our app, Growth Suite, does the same with its own offers. Each visitor gets a single-use code, already applied to their cart.

Finding Friction in Your Own Store

Start with the numbers. Shopify's analytics shows how many sessions add to cart, reach checkout and complete checkout. A steep fall between two steps marks a drop-off point worth a closer look.

Then shop your own store on a phone, from ad to order. Note every time you have to type, wait, scroll back or guess. That's your friction map. Shopify also supports express checkout buttons like Shop Pay, Apple Pay and Google Pay, which let many shoppers skip typing their address and card.

Myth: Every Bit of Friction Should Go

Some friction earns its place. Making shoppers pick a size before adding to cart is an extra step, but it heads off a wrong order and a return. Asking them to confirm an address is a step too, and it can save a lost parcel.

And not every exit is friction. Plenty of visitors are just looking. Our guide to dedicated buyers and walk-away customers explains the difference. Cutting steps mostly helps people who already want to buy. So fix what slows them down. A step that stops a mistake can stay.