Checkout is the part of an e-commerce flow where the customer reviews their cart, enters shipping and billing details, chooses a payment method, and confirms the order.
It’s the highest-friction moment in the store: every extra field, surprise fee, or forced account can trigger cart abandonment. A clear checkout shows progress, totals shipping early, allows guest purchase when possible, and hands payment to a trusted payment gateway (backed by a payment processor). Security via HTTPS / SSL is non-negotiable — and a passkey login can beat a “forgot password” dead end. An in-app purchase is a different till: the app store charges for a digital unlock, not your cart page.
A real-life example of checkout
You pick three items, open the cart, and land on a short path: address → shipping → pay. Shipping cost is visible before the final click, Apple Pay is an option, and you never had to create an account. That’s a healthy checkout. Hide the delivery fee until the last screen, and many buyers leave. If the cart is empty, treat it as an empty state: say why, then point to products — don’t leave a blank table. If the card is declined, treat it as an error state: say what failed and how to retry. If the address is incomplete, say so with form validation. A biometric authentication prompt can finish pay when a password would stall it.
Platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce ship checkout out of the box; the craft is reducing friction. For recovery when people still bail, see cart abandonment recovery strategies and earlier-funnel tips in Beyond Add to Cart.