Show the Full Total Before the Card Number
Baymard Institute compiles cart abandonment research across dozens of studies, and the average documented abandonment rate is 70.22 percent. When shoppers say why they left, the most common fixable reason is extra costs: shipping, tax, or fees appearing for the first time at the final step. Forty percent of US online shoppers name it.
That number is not about price. It is about timing. The same shipping cost shown at the cart would have been accepted, and shown at the final step it feels like a trick. The shopper does not leave because the total is too high. They leave because the total changed after they decided to buy.
The top abandonment reason is a surprise
In March 2026, Abercrombie and Fitch was hit with a class-action lawsuit, Heilman v. Abercrombie and Fitch Co., alleging the company concealed a mandatory 7 dollar handling fee on its Abercrombie and Hollister sites until the final step of checkout. The allegation is about California consumer protection law, and the fee was seven dollars.
Seven dollars is not the point. The point is that a fee revealed at the last step is now a legal question as well as a conversion question. Fourteen percent of shoppers leave when they cannot see the total cost upfront, and twelve percent leave because they cannot see the total at all. The lawsuit only raises the price of a practice that was already losing orders.
Drip pricing is now a lawsuit risk
The total belongs on the cart page, on every checkout step, and on the payment step before the card fields. Not in a summary that collapses on mobile, and not behind a link that says 'see details'. The average US checkout shows 23.48 form elements by default, per Baymard, and an ideal flow can be as short as 12 to 14. The total is not one of the elements to cut.
Show the parts as well as the sum: subtotal, shipping, tax, and any fee, each on its own line. A shopper who can see the parts trusts the sum. A shopper who sees only a sum has to take it on faith, and a checkout is the wrong place to ask for faith.
Where the total belongs
Sometimes the shipping cost genuinely depends on the address, and the address comes late in the flow. The answer is not to hide the total. It is to estimate early and correct precisely: show a shipping range at the cart, update it the moment the address is entered, and never let the final total be the first time the shopper sees a number they did not expect.
Keep reading: Guest checkout first: the account prompt that costs the sale, Checkout trust badges: where they help and where they cost you.
What to do when shipping cannot be exact yet
Baymard's research puts the conversion lift from better checkout design at 35.26 percent for the average large ecommerce site. That is not a redesign. It is mostly showing the numbers earlier, asking for fewer facts, and letting guests finish without an account. The total upfront is the cheapest part of it.
Frequently asked questions
What is the top reason shoppers abandon checkout?
Extra costs appearing for the first time at the final step. Baymard's data puts it at 40 percent of US online shoppers, ahead of account creation at 18 percent and a checkout that felt too long at 17 percent.
What is drip pricing?
Showing a low price first and revealing fees, shipping, or handling charges step by step, so the final total is higher than the price that won the click. It is also now a legal risk: a March 2026 class action alleges a 7 dollar handling fee was concealed until the final step.
How many form elements should a checkout have?
Baymard finds an ideal flow can be as short as 12 to 14 elements, or 7 to 8 if you count only the fields. The average US checkout shows 23.48 elements by default, and most can shed 20 to 60 percent of them without losing anything needed.
Should the total appear on every checkout step?
Yes, with its parts: subtotal, shipping, tax, and any fee, each on its own line. A shopper who sees the parts trusts the sum. A shopper who sees the total for the first time at payment feels ambushed, whatever the number is.