Troubleshoot: Checkout Delivery Drop-off

When to use

Use this diagnostic tree when analyzing checkout funnel performance and the delivery step shows elevated abandonment. The delivery step is where customers choose their shipping method — drop-off here directly indicates shipping-related friction.

Step 1: Check delivery step conversion rate

Compare delivery_step_cvr against the benchmark of 65%.

Interpretation

Important: If the CVR is at or above benchmark, do not frame recommendations as fixing a conversion problem. Only cite CVR gap when the data supports it.

Step 2: Calculate revenue impact

Use this formula to quantify the business impact of the delivery step drop-off:

Example: If benchmark is 65%, current CVR is 55%, with 2,000 checkouts/month and $80 AOV:

• (65 - 55) / 100 × 2000 × 80 = $16,000/month in potential lost revenue.

High traffic amplifier

If visitors > 30,000 (approximately 1,000+ per day) AND a HIGH-severity shipping issue is detected, include a daily revenue impact estimate to emphasize urgency:

Step 3: Assign priority

Based on the gap between current CVR and benchmark:

Step 4: Identify common causes

Check for these known shipping issues that correlate with delivery step drop-off:

1. No free shipping option: Stores without any free shipping option see higher delivery-step abandonment. Customers expect at least a conditional free shipping tier.

2. Missing delivery estimates: Shipping options without estimated delivery times create uncertainty. Customers abandon when they don't know when their order will arrive.

3. Per-item pricing (multiplyByQuantity): Customers adding multiple items see shipping costs spike unexpectedly at checkout.

4. Coverage gaps: Customer's delivery address falls outside configured shipping regions. The checkout shows no available shipping methods.

5. Inactive backup rates: When the primary carrier can't fulfill and no backup rate is configured, the customer sees no shipping options.

6. Options on inactive regions: Shipping options configured for regions that are set to active: false are not available at checkout.

Step 5: Run diagnostic sequence

Follow this sequence to systematically identify the root cause:

5.1 Check configuration completeness

• Are delivery profiles configured?
• Are regions active?
• Are shipping options assigned to active regions?

5.2 Check coverage gaps

• Do the configured regions cover the store's primary customer geographies?
• Are there common destination countries/states missing from region definitions?

5.3 Check free shipping presence

• Is there at least one free shipping option (unconditional or threshold-based)?
• If threshold-based, is the threshold achievable relative to AOV?

5.4 Check rate pricing sanity

• Are any rates exceeding 15% of AOV?
• Is multiplyByQuantity enabled on any rate?
• See the Guardrail: Rate Pricing Sanity skill for detailed checks.

5.5 Check backup rates

• Are backup rates configured on carriers?
• Are backup rate amounts reasonable (5-10% of AOV)?

5.6 Correlate findings with CVR impact

• For each issue found, estimate its contribution to the CVR gap.
• Prioritize fixes by expected conversion recovery.
• Present findings in order of impact, with revenue estimates where possible.

Summary: Diagnostic checklist