Show shipping and tax before the checkout step
Surfacing the full landed cost in the cart, rather than revealing shipping and tax at the final checkout step, means the number the shopper commits to is the number they actually pay.
What it is
The cart shows an itemized summary that includes shipping and estimated tax, either resolved from a default location or from a postcode field, so the number the shopper sees in the cart is the number they will pay.
Why it works
Unexpected extra cost at checkout is the most cited reason shoppers abandon a cart.1 The damage is not only the amount. A total that moves after the shopper has committed reads as something that was being withheld, and that reframes every other claim on the page. Presenting the full cost earlier trades a slightly lower cart-to-checkout rate for a materially higher completion rate, which is usually the better side of the trade.
How to test it
- Hypothesis
- Showing estimated shipping and tax in the cart will lift checkout completion rate, because shoppers who reach the payment step have already accepted the real total and have nothing left to be surprised by.
- Primary metric
- Checkout completion rate (sessions reaching checkout that place an order)
- Guardrail metric
- Cart-to-checkout rate, which may fall slightly and is acceptable if completion rises more
References
- 1.Baymard Institute (2026). Cart Abandonment Rate Statistics. Baymard Institute. https://baymard.com/lists/cart-abandonment-rate
Related ideas
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