Cart abandonment gets blamed on price more than it deserves to be. In practice, a large share of it comes down to friction in the checkout itself — problems that are entirely fixable.
1. Forcing account creation before checkout. Requiring a full signup before someone can complete a purchase is one of the most reliable ways to lose a sale. A guest checkout option should always exist.
2. Hiding shipping costs until the last step. Surprise costs at the final screen are a top reason for abandonment. Show shipping estimates as early as the cart page.
3. Too few payment options. UPI, cards, and net banking should all be available — assuming everyone prefers one method the way you do is a quiet way to lose customers.
4. A checkout that isn't obviously secure. Trust signals — a visible SSL padlock, recognisable payment logos — matter more than they get credit for, especially for first-time buyers.
5. No mobile optimisation for the checkout flow specifically. A site can be mobile-responsive everywhere else and still have a checkout form that's painful to fill in on a phone keyboard. Test this path specifically, not just the homepage.
Most of these are a day or two of focused work, not a rebuild — but the impact on completed orders is usually immediate. This audit is built into every E-commerce Website Development project we run.