The checkout leak taxonomy.

What a leak actually is.

A leak isn't always obvious. It's usually a small friction point that compounds across the experience — but together, these leaks quietly reduce conversion and revenue.

Most checkouts leak in the same places. The median Shopify flow loses 68% of shoppers between "add to cart" and "order complete." On SaaS, the median pricing-to-paid conversion sits at 2.1%. Both numbers are averages across thousands of scans — and both have the same underlying shape: a small number of leaks doing most of the damage.

The job of this guide isn't to list every possible friction point. It's to name the seven that move the dial.

The 7 leaks that account for 80%.

The same patterns show up across most checkouts. Individually, they look minor. Together, they're responsible for the majority of lost conversion and revenue.

1. Trust gap at the payment step — no recognisable card logos, no padlock, no guarantee near the primary button.
2. Discount code abandonment — an empty promo field in full view tells shoppers to leave and search.
3. Shipping surprises — totals jump at the last step because shipping was hidden until then.
4. Guest checkout friction — forced account creation gates 35–45% of one-time buyers.
5. Form field overload — 14 inputs where 6 would do.
6. Unclear total cost — tax, fees, and shipping appear in small grey copy, not in the line total.
7. No order summary at confirm — the final CTA sits alone, with nothing to reassure the buyer about what they're about to pay for.

The rest of this guide walks each one with specifics, typical lift ranges, and what to ship first.

Leak #1 — Trust gap at the payment step.

This typically kills conversion right before payment — users hesitate because something doesn't feel trustworthy or clear.

What we see on scans

• Card-network logos hidden at the bottom of the page or in the footer.
• Padlock icon absent, or rendered at 10px grey.
• Money-back guarantee mentioned on the landing page — and nowhere in the checkout.

What to ship

Put the recognisable trust elements within 200px of the primary button: Visa / Mastercard / Amex logos, a single-line guarantee, and a padlock-plus-domain badge. Typical lift: +3% to +7%.

Typical impact: high — often affects final conversion directly.

Leak #2 — Discount code abandonment.

Users leave the flow to search for a discount code — many never return, directly reducing completed checkouts.

What to ship

• Collapse the promo input behind a text link ("Have a code?").
• Auto-apply codes from landing-page URL parameters — don't make buyers re-type them.
• If you run affiliates, embed codes in the email CTA so they arrive pre-applied.

Typical lift: +2% to +5% on gross conversion. For sites with meaningful voucher leakage, closer to +8%.

Typical impact: medium to high depending on traffic source.

Leak #3 — Shipping surprises.

Unexpected shipping costs introduced late create immediate friction and drop-off at the final step.

What to ship

• Show shipping ranges on the product page ("Ships free to US, $8 international").
• Calculate the real number in the cart, not at the final step.
• Offer a free-shipping threshold and surface how close the cart is to it (progress bar, exact dollar).

Typical lift: +4% to +9% on checkout completion. Paired with a free-shipping threshold, AOV often rises as well.

Typical impact: high — especially on mobile and first-time visitors.

Leak #4 — Guest checkout friction.

Forcing account creation introduces unnecessary friction and significantly increases drop-off.

What to ship

• Make guest checkout the default. Put "Create account" as a post-purchase option.
• If you need the email, ask for it once — don't double-gate it with a password field.
• Offer "Save my info for next time" as a single checkbox at the confirm step.

Typical lift on sites that enforce account creation: +7% to +14%. Highest ROI leak for first-purchase-dominated stores.

Typical impact: medium — higher for new users.

Leak #5 — Form field overload.

Too many form fields slow users down, increase errors, and create avoidable drop-off.

What to ship

• Autofill address from postal code lookup — one field replaces four.
• Delete "Company name," "Address line 2," and phone number unless you strictly need them.
• Combine first + last name into a single "Name on card" field at payment.

Typical lift from dropping 4–6 optional fields: +3% to +8%.

Typical impact: medium — compounds with other leaks.

Leak #6 — Unclear total cost.

When total cost isn't clear early, users hesitate — uncertainty at this stage reduces conversion.

What to ship

• Show one total in the largest type on the page, in the buyer's currency.
• List line items above it, not below, so the total reads as a sum.
• Show currency conversion if the buyer is outside your domestic market.

Typical lift: +2% to +4%. Higher for international flows where FX adds cognitive load.

Typical impact: medium to high depending on pricing structure.

Leak #7 — No order summary at confirm.

Without a clear order summary, users feel unsure — leading to hesitation or drop-off before completion.

What to ship

• Keep the cart visible on confirm — with thumbnails and a compact line-item list.
• Show "Shipping to: <city>, <country>" with a discreet Change link.
• Make the final CTA echo the total in $: "Pay $127.40" — not "Confirm order."

The best confirm page feels like a receipt the buyer is about to sign — not a black box that's about to charge them.

Typical impact: low to medium — but easy to fix.

How Levri finds all of these in 60 seconds.

Levri detects these exact patterns and ranks them by revenue impact — so you know what to fix first.

You paste the URL. You wait roughly 47 seconds. You get a ranked list — each leak priced in $/mo, with a written hypothesis, a variant-B suggestion, and an expected lift range.

No install. No tracking script. No "connect your analytics." The output is identical whether you run it on your own site or a competitor's.

Fix these first.

If you want to move one metric this week, here's the order we'd ship in. Each takes hours, not sprints.

1. Move your primary CTA above the fold.
2. Reduce unnecessary form fields.
3. Show full cost earlier in the flow.
4. Add trust signals near payment.
5. Remove distractions at checkout.

Ship three of these and measure by Friday. If nothing moves in two weeks, you have the wrong leaks — which is the exact situation Levri is built to diagnose.