Online Retailer Doubles Checkout Conversion With Baymard

An ecommerce business with a portfolio of specialist online stores serving different product categories doubled its conversions after implementing Baymard’s checkout usability guidelines.

The context: a portfolio of online stores

The retailer operates specialist online stores across a range of shopping needs. Although the product categories vary, each storefront has the same essential final task: helping a shopper turn a product choice into a completed order.

That makes checkout a relevant focus across the portfolio. A clear purchase flow can help customers understand what to do next and complete the information needed to place their order.

The approach: apply the guide across the stores

The retailer put Baymard's Ecommerce Checkout Usability guide into practice across all its stores.

• Applying the guide at that scope meant using the same body of checkout research across different storefronts
• The work brought usability guidance into the purchase journey at the point where customers were completing their orders

From implementation to outcome

The result: checkout conversion doubled

After implementing the guide, the retailer reported a 100% increase in checkout conversion rates.

The improvement was reported at the checkout stage, where shoppers enter the details needed to complete a purchase.

For an online retailer, checkout conversion connects the usability of the purchase flow to successful order completion. The company's feedback directly linked the reported improvement with its implementation of Baymard's guide.

The research behind the guide

Baymard's original checkout research followed shoppers from their cart through to a completed order, observing the difficulties they encountered along the way.

Those observations became practical usability guidance for ecommerce teams.

The broader research examines the sequence of checkout steps, form labels, button wording, payment confidence, and recovery from errors.

Its focus is the practical experience of completing an order:

• What customers need to understand
• The information they must enter
• How they can continue when something goes wrong

The next step: build on the checkout work

Alongside the reported result, the retailer said it planned to implement additional usability guidelines.

For other ecommerce teams, this approach shows the benefit of choosing a defined part of the shopping journey, using relevant guidance to inform changes, and evaluating performance at that stage. That experience can then inform further usability work.