How to Create a Perfect Mobile Checkout Design – Best Practices and Real-World Examples

Ensuring the mobile-friendliness of your checkout page is a key point in your website’s overall optimization strategy. Some of the best practices here are the same as for the rest of your web pages, such as thumb-friendly buttons to simplify interaction from mobile devices and a single-column layout for easy scrolling. However, checkouts are special for two main reasons.

The first one is that a checkout page is the final step in a customer journey and requires close attention to avoid losing a customer here. The second reason is that checkout has a specific structure and elements, such as fill-in forms for payment and shipping details, which you should focus on. This article gives you a list of dos and don'ts when it comes to mobile checkout design. Here, you will also find real-world mobile checkout examples that illustrate the best practices compiled in the article.

TL;DR: How to create a mobile checkout page design that improves conversion rates

• Best practices to create efficient mobile checkout in ecommerce include adding trust badges, showing order summaries, enabling guest checkout, reducing the number of checkout steps and typing efforts, following accessibility guidelines, and providing flexible payment and shipping options.

• Typical checkout flow consists of 3-4 steps: adding contact and shipping information, entering payment details, and processing payment.

• The most common still not obvious mobile checkout UI and UX mistakes to avoid are making guest checkout options poorly visible, using too complex password creation rules, having no marks for optional and required fields, not using Luhn validation for numeric fields, and providing unclear or incomplete error messages.

Best practices on how to design a mobile checkout page

It could be hard to believe, but the average cart and checkout abandonment rate is around 60-80%. The reasons why people drop checkouts so often vary from the lack of trust in the website to errors and an insufficient number of payment methods. At the top of this chart are the excessive extra costs and the need to create an account to proceed with checkout.

Based on the list of these reasons and mobile checkout design principles, we compiled practices that could significantly improve your checkout experience and prevent customers from abandoning your website at the final buyer journey step.

#1 Build trust

The lack of trust in your website safety measures may stop a customer from sharing their card information, especially if they’re purchasing from you for the first time. Trust signals like security badges and SSL certificates can smooth their decision-making process. However, avoid overusing badges to prevent cluttering your checkout to keep it clean and professional.

#2 Be transparent

Another big issue that may prevent customers from completing the purchase is additional shipping fees or taxes at checkout. To lower the risk of losing customers, display shipping costs and taxes upfront. If this option is unavailable, offer multiple shipping options to allow customers to cut their expenses.

Also, place the order summary at the top of your checkout page so customers can easily review the total cost before purchasing.

#3 Simplify the checkout flow

Keep your flow as simple as possible, minimizing the number of required steps. To do this, add only the most important fields, such as name, payment, and shipping information. Which is better – using single or multiple pages for mobile checkouts? Progressive multi-page checkouts showed better performance than single-page checkouts that require scrolling.

So, single-page checkout is preferable on mobile for short forms without the need to scroll. However, if your checkout requires scrolling, then consider multi-page progressive checkout with no more than 3-4 steps, with a pinned progress bar at the top of your pages.

#4 Allow guest checkout

To streamline the process, allow guest checkout, which is completing the purchase without creating an account. Doing this will reduce the friction caused by forced registration for new customers. Your existing customers will also appreciate this option if they forget their password. To simplify account access for existing buyers, you can offer social logins. At the same time, to motivate users to sign up, you can offer some bonuses for member checkout, such as free shipping.

#5 Minimize distraction

Remove unnecessary popups, ads, or links that could pull users away from checkout. Keep your checkout as clear and concise as possible and focus customer attention on the most important call-to-action buttons per step (e.g. “Pay Now”). Make secondary actions (e.g. “Back”) less prominent, using other colors, sizes, and shapes.

#6 Speed up checkout load

Improve your checkout page loading speed by reducing page size, compressing images, and ensuring page adaptability to different screen sizes. Keep in mind that 47% of users are likely to leave pages that load longer than two seconds. Check our article featuring the list of key tips for Shopify speed optimization to keep your checkout fast and frictionless.

#7 Reduce typing effort

You can also speed up the checkout process on the user end by simplifying the filling-in workflow. Which techniques can you use?

Set up numeric keyboards for fields like phone numbers while displaying text keyboards for fields like email addresses.

• Leverage geolocation to autofill the address field or add a drop-down addresses list that responds to the first letters a customer types.

• Use autofill options for the postal code field and others, which can be automatically specified after adding the address.

• Allow the shipping address to be used for billing details to avoid entering the same information.

#8 Follow accessibility standards

Make your checkout seamless for everyone, including users with disabilities. To comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act and European Accessibility Act and make your website easy to use for everyone, you should stick to the required practices, including the following points.

• Buttons should be at least 44x44 pixels and accessible via the Tab key.
• Forms should have clear labels, instructions, and error messages.
• Texts should have sufficient contrast, and fonts should be easy to read.
• Images and icons should have alternative texts (alt).
• Use indicators for each interactive element for easy keyboard navigation.

#9 Provide flexible payment options

Express checkout is the easiest way to complete the purchase without having to deal with all the checkout forms. Make this option clearly visible and include all the available payment methods, such as PayPal and Google Pay.

For the standard checkout process, add payment options available for a customer based on their location. In addition to common payment methods with Visa, MasterCard, or Google Pay, you can activate the Buy Now Pay Later option available in different regions. For example, you can add Afterpay for the US customers and Klarna for the EU zone.

#10 Offer upsells and cross-sells

You can offer supplement products or accessories at the bottom of your checkout page. Such offers have the potential to increase your AOV. However, make sure that you place the products really necessary or highly valuable for a customer, focusing on rather improving their buying experience than distracting them from the main purchase. Upsell sections are optional and depend on your overall mobile checkout design. If they make your pages cluttered, it’s best to skip them.

#11 Provide error handling and confirmation

Highlight errors like invalid ZIP codes or incorrect payment information in real-time to prevent customer frustration when failing form submission. After successful payment, notify users of a completed transaction through a confirmation page or email.

How should a mobile checkout page look like – examples for inspiration

To show you how different companies design their mobile checkouts, we provide cases of three DigitalSuits’ clients. All of them use Shopify as their ecommerce platform since it offers many robust out-of-the-box features and ensures a seamless checkout experience.

Luma Nutrition

Luma Nutrition specializes in selling nutrition supplements. The company provides a single-page checkout with scrolling. However, their process is well structured and designed. How does their checkout stand out?

• They have visible trust badges at the top of the page, the order summary, and the express checkout button.

• The company repeats the order summary section at the bottom of the page to let customers recheck the total price with shipping. In this section, they also added a field for entering a discount code.

• On the last checkout screen, you will find additional trust badges with information about the money-back guarantee, country of production, and product safety. Since the company offers products related to healthcare, such badges are crucial.

To summarize, Luma Nutrition’s checkout follows the best mobile checkout practices, providing an order summary at the top and the bottom of the page, security and trust badges, and a structured overall checkout process.

See how DigitalSuits helped Luma Nutrition enhance user experience in their store.

Lunchbox Packs

Lunchbox Packs offers hydration and snack packs for ravers. They have a multi-page checkout with a progress bar with four steps: Cart → Information → Shipping → Payment. Let’s see the details.

• At the top of the Information page are order summary, progress indicator, and two express checkout options for the US. Depending on the customer's country, payment options change. At this step, if not using express checkout, customers have to add their contact information and shipping address.

• Order summary includes selected products with images and total cost. You can also choose last-minute pickups and enter a discount code here.

• At the Shipping step, you can change your shipping address and select a delivery method, including shipping protection. The order summary and progress bar are still at the top of this second page and will continue to be there.

• After clicking ‘Continue to Payment’, a customer needs to check all the prior information, select their payment method, and specify their billing address, which can be the same as the shipping address. At this stage, the company also offers last-minute pickups for upselling.

The Lunchbox site uses the best mobile checkout practices – multi-page checkout with the progress bar, order summary with upsell options, and multiple express checkout buttons. Plus, the company leverages techniques that reduce typing effort, autofilling ZIP codes, allowing the same billing and shipping addresses, and displaying numeric and text keyboards for the corresponding fields.

Check the Lunchbox Packs case study for details about their Shopify web development process.

Understatement Underwear

Understatement Underwear offers bras and panties for women. Their mobile checkout page design represents minimalistic principles and includes only the most essential parts – Order summary, Express checkout, Contact and Delivery information fields, Shipping methods, and Payment section. The company also duplicated the order summary at the bottom of the page and added a small upsell offer. Let’s explore the company's checkout a bit closer.

• The order summary can be expanded to view its details or collapsed for a cleaner layout. A customer can check selected items and their prices, enter a discount code, and see the total cost with estimated delivery.

• Express checkout options depend on the customer's country. The company added text below the buttons to help customers proceed with the following steps if they prefer paying by credit card or other payment methods like Klarna or local options. The next fields are for adding email addresses and shipping addresses.

• The company uses text to urge customers to recheck selected items, sizes, and delivery details before placing an order. Then, it provides multiple shipping options, specifying the cost and time of delivery. In the payment section, customers can choose between two options: using the shipping address as the billing address or entering information manually. Note that the company added a statement about transaction security instead of using badges.

• At the final checkout step, the order summary remains in the same place as before. Below the 'Pay' button, customers can opt for a gift box if they buy gifts for others.

Check the detailed case of Understatement Underwear to learn how the company leverages Shopify retainer services for their store.

Common mobile checkout UI and UX mistakes to avoid

To help you design the perfect mobile checkout UI and UX, we compiled some common mistakes that are not obvious. By using this list, you can check your current flow and elements to identify and correct errors in line with the best checkout practices.

#1 Guest checkout option is not clearly visible

If a user fails to find out how to proceed with a purchase without registering, they’re likely to quit. Make sure that the ‘Guest Checkout’ button is prominently displayed and has a clear message, such as ‘Continue as a guest.’

#2 Using overly complex password requirements

Extensive and strict rules for password creation, such as at least eight characters, one lowercase and uppercase letter, and a number, may cause checkout abandonment. If you’re selling regular products, stick to just one requirement – using 6-8 characters for a password.

#3 Not using Luhn validation for card information

The Luhn algorithm helps validate card numbers. If you don’t use it for payment forms, your customers may encounter difficulties and make mistakes when typing 15- or 16-digit card numbers manually. Instead, with Luhn validation, the system automatically checks the string for errors.

#4 Having unclear validation error messages

Overly general error messages, such as ‘Phone number is required’ when a customer enters their phone number without a country code, are insufficient for fast correction. The better option is to provide a message that helps resolve the problem, such as ‘Your card number is incomplete’.

#5 Not marking optional and required fields

When no fields are marked, customers may leave some of them empty, assuming they are optional. To simplify the checkout flow, mark every field as required or optional, using asterisks ‘*’ or corresponding words.

Conclusions

To sum up, let’s look at the checkout process from the perspective of its stages. Which elements should you include, and how should you design them to provide a smooth shopping experience?

• Order summary. Pin it at the top of your checkout pages and provide a collapse/expand option to see the list of selected items and final cost. Add security and trust badges if needed.

• Express checkout. Add express payment methods available in the customer’s region. Make express checkout buttons clearly visible and place them at the top of your pages.

• Contact information. Allow guest checkout and minimize the number of fields to fill in. Reduce customer typing efforts as much as possible, using autofill and geolocation options, displaying numeric and text keyboards, and offering error handling.

• Delivery. Offer multiple shipping options and show the estimated delivery time or date with the cost for each option.

• Payment. Provide multiple payment options, including Buy Now Pay Later, available for the customer region, and allow the use of the shipping address for billing. Offer upsells and cross-sells and notify customers when their payment is successful.

On top of that, stick to no more than 3-4 checkout steps, speed up your checkout page, and ensure accessibility, clarity, and consistency, focusing customer attention on what matters – target actions for each checkout stage.

If you need help in mobile checkout UI design or store development, don’t hesitate to contact the DigitalSuits team. We have hands-on experience building high-converting and responsive mobile checkouts for different platforms and industries.