Motta Industries Blog

Most store owners have not bought anything from their own website in months. They know the catalog, they know the shipping rules and they know which button leads where, so the checkout feels obvious to them. A first-time buyer arrives with none of that knowledge. They are on a phone, and every small question the page fails to answer becomes a reason to leave.

A checkout usability audit closes that gap. It is a structured walk through your own purchase flow, done with fresh eyes and a notebook, that records each moment where a real customer would hesitate, retype, guess or give up. It costs an afternoon and usually produces a short list of fixes that matter more than another round of product photos.

This guide explains how to run that walk, what to look for at each step and how to sort the findings into work you can actually schedule.

Set up the walk like a stranger would

The audit only works if you remove your own shortcuts. Before you start, open a private browser window on a phone so you are not signed in and no saved details fill the forms for you. Use mobile data rather than the office network if you can, since many buyers will. Pick a product that a new customer is likely to buy, not the one you test most often.

Then decide what you will record. A simple sheet with four columns is enough: the step, what you expected, what actually happened and how much it would bother a buyer on a scale of one to three. A label that made you pause for two seconds is worth noting, because a stranger will pause longer.

If you can, recruit someone who has never used the store and ask them to think out loud while you stay quiet. Their confusion is the data.

Finally, plan to complete a real purchase. Many problems only appear after the payment step: a confirmation page that does not say what happens next, an email that arrives late or a receipt with the wrong total. Refund the order after you finish.

Walk from product page to cart

Friction often starts before checkout. On the product page, check whether the buyer can see the full price, available options and an honest sense of delivery time without scrolling through the whole page. If sizes or colors are chosen with small swatches, try tapping them with your thumb rather than a fingertip.

The World Wide Web Consortium’s WCAG 2.2 Recommendation, published October 5, 2023, gives a useful benchmark here. Its new Target Size (Minimum) criterion sets 24 by 24 CSS pixels as the floor for pointer targets, while allowing smaller controls that have enough clear space around them. Quantity steppers, close icons on pop-ups and little remove links in the cart are frequent offenders.

Add the item to the cart and watch what happens. Does the page confirm the addition clearly, or does a drawer slide in and cover the button the buyer meant to tap next? Can they change quantity or remove the item without hunting? Is there anything in the cart they did not put there, such as an add-on or protection plan that was selected by default?

That last point deserves attention. The Federal Trade Commission’s September 2022 staff report, Bringing Dark Patterns to Light, describes “sneak-into-basket” as automatically adding items to the shopping cart without the consumer’s consent. Even a cheap, well-meant add-on makes a buyer wonder what else they missed.

Check how the price is revealed

Price surprises are one of the most common reasons buyers stall. Walk through the cart and every checkout step and write down the total at each point. Note when shipping, taxes, handling charges or service fees first appear.

The same FTC report describes drip pricing as advertising only part of a product’s total price and leaving other mandatory charges until late in the buying process. It cites a study of a ticketing website in which users who were not shown fees upfront spent about 20 percent more and were 14 percent more likely to complete the transaction. A short-term lift built on surprise is not a foundation most small stores want, and the report frames the practice as something that can harm consumers and honest competitors alike.

For your audit, the practical questions are simple. Can a buyer estimate the full cost, including delivery, before they type an address? If shipping depends on location, is there a calculator or a clear range on the cart page? Are mandatory fees named plainly instead of folded into a vague “other” line? If you offer free shipping above a threshold, is the threshold visible before checkout rather than only after the buyer qualifies or misses it?

Fill in every form field as a newcomer

The information steps are where most friction hides, because each field is a small task and the tasks add up. Count the fields between the cart and the payment button. For each one, ask whether you truly need it to fulfill the order. A company name, a second phone number or a birthday rarely earns its place.

Then test the fields themselves. Check whether each has a visible label, not just hint text that vanishes once typing begins. WCAG 2.2 requires that labels or instructions are provided when content requires user input, and that when an input error is automatically detected, the item in error is identified and the error is described to the user in text. Make deliberate mistakes: leave a required field empty, type a postal code with a space, enter a phone number with dashes. Does the form tell you what went wrong and where, or does it simply refuse to continue?

Look for repetition too. WCAG 2.2 added Redundant Entry, which says information a user already entered in the same process should be either auto-populated or available to select, with limited exceptions. If your checkout asks for a shipping address and then asks again for billing, a “same as shipping” option is the minimum. If it asks for an email on the first step and again before payment, that is a fix.

Look hard at account creation and sign-in

Forced account creation is a classic checkout hurdle. During the walk, note whether a first-time buyer can purchase as a guest, and whether that option is as visible as the sign-in form. Offering to save details after the order is complete tends to feel more like a favor than a toll.

If the store does require sign-in for some purchases, test the experience of a returning buyer who has forgotten their password. WCAG 2.2’s Accessible Authentication (Minimum) criterion treats recalling a password or working out a puzzle as a cognitive function test, and it asks that sign-in not depend on one unless another method or some assistance is offered instead. In practice that means letting password managers paste into the field, supporting copy and paste for one-time codes and avoiding puzzles that block people from paying.

Review payment and the trust signals around it

At the payment step, buyers are deciding whether to hand over card details. The page should feel stable and familiar. Note whether accepted payment methods are shown before this step, whether the total is visible next to the pay button and whether anything unexpected loads or redirects without explanation.

Behind the page, payment security standards keep moving. The PCI Security Standards Council’s February 2022 post Countdown to PCI DSS v4.0 explained that version 3.2.1 would be retired on 31 March 2024, leaving v4.0 as the only active version, and that new requirements initially identified as best practices would become effective after 31 March 2025. A usability audit is not a compliance assessment, but it is a good moment to ask your payment provider or developer which of those future-dated requirements apply to your setup and whether anything on the checkout page will need to change.

Also check what happens when payment fails. Use a card your provider supplies for testing, or ask your developer to simulate a decline. Does the buyer see a plain explanation and keep the information they already entered? Or are they sent back to an empty form?

Finish the purchase and read what follows

After paying, read the confirmation page slowly. It should restate what was ordered, the total charged, where it is going and when to expect it. It should explain what the buyer will receive next, such as a confirmation email or tracking message, and how to reach you if something is wrong.

Then check the email itself. Did it arrive within a few minutes? Does it match the confirmation page? Is the reply address monitored?

Finally, try the return or cancellation path from the buyer’s side. The FTC report devotes considerable attention to cancellation paths that are confusing or hard to find. Even for a store without subscriptions, a buyer who cannot locate the return policy before purchase may simply not buy.

Sort the findings into a fix list

When the walk is done, you will have a page or two of notes. Sort them into three groups.

The first group is broken: anything that stopped the purchase or produced a wrong result, such as an error message that did not explain the problem or a total that changed without warning. Fix these first.

The second group is friction: steps that worked but cost time or attention, such as extra fields, repeated entry, tiny targets or a late shipping charge. Rank them by how many buyers they touch. A problem on the shipping form affects every order; a problem with gift wrapping affects a few.

The third group is polish: wording, spacing and reassurance that could be clearer. These are often the cheapest fixes and can be bundled into a single update.

Some items will be quick edits in your store settings. Others will need development work, such as restructuring the form or changing how fees are calculated and displayed. If your findings point to deeper problems in how the store is built, Motta’s e-commerce development team can rebuild the flow, and our work on storefront customization covers checkout changes on hosted platforms.

Make the audit a habit

A checkout changes quietly over time. A new app adds a field, a shipping rule is edited, a theme update moves a button. Repeat the walk every quarter and after any significant change, and keep the notes so you can see whether fixes held.

Pair the audit with what customers tell you. Support emails, abandoned carts and reviews that mention delivery or payment often point straight at the step that needs attention. If you want help connecting those signals to a broader plan for growth, our e-commerce strategies work starts with exactly this kind of first-time-buyer walk.