Shopify cart abandonment rate: what is normal, and why sources disagree
Short answer
The median Shopify store loses 79% of its carts: of the sessions that add to cart, 79% do not buy (Littledata, 433 Shopify stores, GA4 data, July 27 to October 24, 2026). The often-quoted 70.22% from Baymard Institute is a different number: a simple average of 50 studies published between 2006 and 2025. Littledata calls a rate below 65% good, because it puts a store in the best 20% of the stores it tracks.
Neither number is a target. Both describe carts that did not turn into orders, and Baymard notes that many shoppers who abandon were only browsing. Your own rate, measured the same way each month, tells you more.
Two numbers, side by side
Both numbers get cited as "the" cart abandonment rate. They answer different questions, so they should not be swapped for each other.
| Source | Number | What it is | Sample and period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baymard Institute | 70.22% | Simple average of 50 published studies. Individual values range from 55.00% to 84.27%. No single definition of abandonment. | Studies from 2006 to 2025. List last updated September 22, 2025. |
| Littledata | 79% | Median of Shopify stores. Share of sessions that added to cart and did not purchase, from GA4 data. | 433 stores with at least 1,000 sessions and 90 purchases in 90 days. July 27 to October 24, 2026. |
| Shopify admin | A count, not a rate | Abandoned checkouts: the shopper entered an email address and the checkout stayed incomplete for more than ten minutes. Cart contents are not saved. | Your own store. Entries older than three months are deleted. |
Sources: Baymard Institute, Littledata and Shopify Help Center, accessed October 31, 2026.
The Shopify admin list is useful for follow-up, but it counts a different event. It starts at the email address, not at the cart. You cannot compare its count with either rate above.
Why the numbers disagree
The gap is 8.8 points (79% minus 70.22%). Five differences can help explain it. Neither source compares itself with the other, so we cannot say how much each one matters.
- Definition and unit. Littledata counts sessions that added to cart and did not purchase, using one tracking setup for every store. Baymard lists 50 studies and does not define how each one measured abandonment. It says it built the list because it found articles citing the same sources and large swings between rates.
- Mean versus median. 70.22% is a mean. Our own calculation from Baymard's 50 listed values puts their median at about 71.2%. Littledata uses the median because ecommerce metrics are skewed.
- Who is measured. Littledata covers Shopify stores that send data to GA4 through its tracking and clear a traffic floor. Baymard's list combines studies from many different companies, and it does not say which stores or sites each study covered.
- When. Baymard's studies run from 2006 to 2025. Littledata's figure is one 90-day window ending October 24, 2026.
- Counting rules change. Shopify has changed how it counts when a shopper reaches checkout, and it changed how it measures sessions from September 21 to 23, 2026. Your Shopify Analytics numbers can move even if nothing on your store changed.
The rule of thumb: compare like with like. Sessions with sessions, the same dates, the same category.
Shopify cart abandonment rate by category
Lower is better. "Best 20%" is the rate that the best-performing fifth of stores are below. The spread is wide: across all 433 stores, the best 10% are below 56% and the worst 20% are above 90%.
| Category | Median | Best 20% | Stores |
|---|---|---|---|
| All Shopify stores | 79% | 65% | 433 |
| Fashion & Apparel | 81% | 73% | 76 |
| Home & Furniture | 80% | 68% | 62 |
| Beauty & Skincare | 75% | 63% | 39 |
| Health & Supplements | 70% | 52% | 35 |
| Food & Beverage | 77% | 61% | 31 |
Source: Littledata, cart abandonment rate benchmarks, Shopify stores using Littledata with GA4, 90 days from July 27 to October 24, 2026, accessed October 31, 2026.
Read the table with these limits in mind:
- Category samples are small, from 31 to 76 stores.
- Littledata publishes a group only when it has at least 30 stores. Jewelry & Accessories, Sports & Outdoor, Pet Supplies, Baby & Kids and Electronics & Gadgets are not published yet.
- Its cart abandonment page does not show a mobile versus desktop split, so this page does not either.
- Littledata is a Shopify tracking vendor, and its page also promotes its own abandoned-cart features. Treat these as published benchmarks, not independent research.
Why one abandonment number is not enough
A cart abandonment rate hides two different exits. Shoppers leave before checkout (cart to checkout), or they leave during checkout (checkout to order). The fixes for each are different. Two stores can post the same rate and need different work.
| Step | Store A | Store B |
|---|---|---|
| Sessions with cart additions | 10,000 | 10,000 |
| Sessions that reached checkout | 3,000 | 6,000 |
| Sessions that completed checkout | 2,100 | 2,100 |
| Left before checkout | 7,000 | 4,000 |
| Left during checkout | 900 | 3,900 |
| Cart abandonment rate | 79% | 79% |
Made-up numbers to show the arithmetic. They are not benchmarks.
Shopify Analytics gives you the steps. In the Conversion rate breakdown report, Shopify defines sessions with cart additions, sessions that reached checkout and sessions that completed checkout (a customer purchased). That page describes reaching checkout as user input during checkout, but Shopify's analytics updates page says that since October 2024 a session counts when checkout starts loading. Shopify does not define "cart abandonment" there, so you work it out from those counts.
GA4 funnel exploration works differently. Google's documentation describes it in users, and a user can enter the funnel only once in the date range. A user-based rate will not match a session-based benchmark exactly. The GA4 funnel exploration guide has the menu steps and a session-based method. For the stages on their own, see the add-to-cart rate and checkout completion rate benchmarks.
How to calculate your own rate in 3 steps
- In Shopify admin, open Analytics, then Reports, then Conversion rate breakdown. Pick one date range, for example the last 30 days.
- Write down sessions with cart additions and sessions that completed checkout for those dates. Abandonment is 1 minus (completed divided by with cart additions). In the illustration above, 2,100 / 10,000 = 21%, so abandonment is 79%.
- Compare the result with your category's median in the table. The benchmark covers July 27 to October 24, 2026, so use a recent period. Shopify Analytics and Littledata's GA4 data are separate measurements, so expect some difference.
A small store can swing a lot from week to week, so a gap needs enough sessions behind it to be real. The free Checkout Leak Calculator compares your cart, checkout and order rates with the typical Shopify store. It runs in your browser, and nothing you enter is sent or stored.
Why shoppers abandon, and what to check
Baymard says a large share of abandonments are a natural result of how people browse: window shopping, comparing prices, saving items for later, exploring gift options. It calls these largely unavoidable. In its latest quantitative study of reasons, 42% of US online shoppers said they had abandoned a cart because they were just browsing.
The other reasons are different. Baymard says many of them can be resolved, many purely through design changes. Here is its ranked list, with what a store owner can check. The "what to check" column is our editorial suggestion, not Baymard's data.
| Reason | Share | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Extra costs too high (shipping, tax, fees) | 40% | Show shipping and tax estimates before checkout starts. |
| Delivery was too slow | 20% | Show delivery dates and options early. |
| Did not trust the site with card information | 19% | Show familiar payment options and easy-to-find policy and contact links. |
| Site wanted me to create an account | 18% | Offer guest checkout. |
| Too long or complicated checkout | 17% | Remove form fields you do not need. |
| Website had errors or crashed | 17% | Test checkout on a phone and watch for error messages. |
| Returns policy was not satisfactory | 13% | Make the returns policy visible before payment. |
| Could not see or calculate total cost up front | 12% | Show the full total in the cart. |
| Credit card was declined | 10% | Make declines easy to retry, with a clear message and another payment option. |
| Not enough payment methods | 9% | Add express wallets and the methods your shoppers use. |
Source: Baymard Institute, 50 Cart Abandonment Rate Statistics, shares of US online shoppers as listed by Baymard (a further 7% answered "I don't know"). Sample size and fieldwork date are not stated on the page. Accessed October 31, 2026.
On checkout length, Baymard says its usability testing shows an ideal flow can be as short as 12 to 14 form elements. Its checkout benchmark database shows the average US checkout displays 23.48 form elements by default. Baymard says most checkouts could cut 20% to 60% of the elements shown by default.
Recover or prevent
Reminders and fixes do different jobs. A reminder email or text can bring back a shopper who left. Fixing the step means fewer shoppers leave in the first place. Most stores need both.
Shopify can email a recovery link for abandoned checkouts on the Online Store and Buy Button channels. It only reaches shoppers who entered an email address. We do not quote recovery rates here because we have no sourced figure.
Where Oran fits
Oran does not stop at one cart abandonment number. It looks at the two halves above separately: cart to checkout, and checkout to order. It compares each stage with the typical Shopify store in your category, counts a gap only when your own data shows it is not random noise, and puts a monthly dollar value on it.
Today you type in or paste 30 days of funnel counts by device, with the Shopify and GA4 steps built in. Live GA4 and Shopify connections are coming, not live. Benchmarks are Shopify medians from Littledata. Oran's calculator and app use the same Littledata release as this page (July 27 to October 24, 2026). Littledata publishes no cart abandonment by device, so the device values for the derived cart-to-checkout step still come from its earlier release. Oran has no public customer results yet, so we make no claims about outcomes. Start the 14-day free trial, no credit card required.
Frequently asked questions
What is the average cart abandonment rate for Shopify stores?
Why does Baymard say 70.22% and Littledata say 79%?
What is a good cart abandonment rate?
How do I calculate my cart abandonment rate in Shopify?
What is the top reason shoppers abandon their carts?
Sources
- Baymard Institute: 50 Cart Abandonment Rate Statistics. Used for the 70.22% average, the range of studies, the reasons for abandonment and the checkout form element counts. Page last updated September 22, 2025. Accessed October 31, 2026.
- Littledata: Cart abandonment rate benchmarks. Used for the 79% median, the percentiles, the category table, the method and the inclusion rules. Data for 90 days from July 27 to October 24, 2026. Accessed October 31, 2026.
- Shopify Help Center: Abandoned checkouts. Used for the definition of an abandoned checkout, the three-month retention and recovery emails. Accessed October 31, 2026.
- Shopify Help Center: Behaviour reports. Used for the Conversion rate breakdown report and its metric definitions. Accessed October 31, 2026.
- Shopify Help Center: Analytics updates. Used for the change in how checkout starts are counted and the September 2026 session measurement change. Accessed October 31, 2026.
- Google Analytics Help: Funnel exploration. Used for how funnel exploration counts users. Accessed October 31, 2026.
Method. Every outside number links to the page where we read it. The 71.2% median of Baymard's values and the example in the two-store table are our own arithmetic. We refresh the benchmarks every quarter, on the same day as the benchmarks inside Oran. See also the resources hub and the Oran homepage.