revert one-page checkout back to 3-step checkout, and abandoned email flows for one-page checkout

[ptoxa]

Hi,

I have a shopify plus account.

How can I revert one-page checkout back to 3-step checkout?

For the conversion report attached, will there be any change to the definition of 'Reached checkout' column between these 2 styles of checkouts?

Is my understanding correct?

With the one-page checkout follow, the system won't be able to get any user information until they finish the checkout(unless there are any payment errors).  So I won't be able to get any user information to recover abandoned carts via emails?

[EvaF1]

Same here!! My conversion rate has TANKED since the change to one page checkout!! In the 3 years I have been on Shopify, I have NEVER seen anything like this. EVER. 

If it is not changed back soon, I have no choice but to change to a different platform. My business (which was thriving for the 3 years up until the change) will not survive at this rate.

We should have the option to use the checkout we had before.

[emmalovell]

We are the same! i'm totally freaking out. SHOPIFY - please look at this!

[EvaF1]

Please post your experience on the following chat. There are some Shopify team members there who I am hoping will help us.

https://community.shopify.com/c/shopify-discussions/petition-to-return-to-3-page-checkout-abysmal-1-...

[EvaF1]

Please post your experience and concerns to this thread: 

Re: Petition to Return to 3 Page Checkout - Abysmal 1 Page Checkout Conversion Rate
https://community.shopify.com/c/shopify-discussions/petition-to-return-to-3-page-checkout-abysmal-1-...

There is a Shopify team member called Don in the above thread, who seems to be on it. It could be helpful to have the conversation in one place. It needs to get sorted soon

[gfc]

Conversions down 100% after one-page checkout.

Our conversions for this week (10/16/23 to 10/20/23)

- Mon 10/16: 8 orders

- Tue 10/17: 8 orders

- Wed 10/18: 3 orders

- Thu 10/19: 4 orders

* Thur evening: Shopify changed us over to one-page checkout

- Fri 10/20: 0 orders

We have a large AdWords budget and traffic for Friday was close to 1,000 visitors. So we know that the traffic is strong and sales were climbing week-over-week, but now nothing... Coincidence?

I guess we can call this the "Fall of 2023", right Shopify?

[EvaF1]

After the change to one page checkout I had 4 days with ZERO sales, 2 days with just two sales and then 5 straight days with ZERO sales. At that point, I started my (first ever) emergency sale to get through. 

I have NEVER experienced anything like it! Even the emergency sale I am running is the worst performing sale in the history of my store. By a LONG shot!

[gfc]

I just chatted with Shopify support, and they will not allow anyone to revert back to the previous checkout.

I will be moving to BigCommerce next week, they are very eager to help new customers to get up and running and understand the chaos Shopify has caused their customers this year.

[Meetjp35]

I was checking the checkout page recently and found the empty space below the logo on all my stores. 

I think that's causing the low conversion rate as well.

[Mani_Fazeli]

Apologies for this. It was a bug introduced on Oct 20 and fixed on Oct 23.

[PitViperLights]

Yes our conversions are way down.  Way out of statistical control.  Do not know what the problem is.  Help...

Costing us thousands.

[EvaF1]

Why does it still feel like Shopify is not hearing us or taking us seriously? 

The loss of revenue this month has been dramatic!

How is a small business suppossed to survive this, while they keep trying to tell us this checkout is better for us, all the while we are the ones taking the hit!

[Saithx]

We were just migrated to one-step a couple of days ago and conversions have almost completely stopped. When I went to investigate I found this thread, in addition to many others on Reddit and X. Judging by all of the responses from Shopify it feels as though people with this issue are being gaslit. Numbers don't lie - check our stats. They are actively destroying my business and life with this. Absolutely shocking.

[Sorta]

Shopify has blocked everyone except Plus stores from changing the checkout experience, so most of your suggestions are impossible.  If I could swap back to three page checkout we wouldn’t be having this discussion, so A/B testing the checkout or trying different things with the checkout experience are not relevant suggestions. 

We are going longer and longer, and the data is there. We’re paying double now for advertising conversions, and people are reaching checkout at the same rate as before. We’ve had to increase sales and email campaigns to try and make up for the lost revenue this month. However our main product we advertise is top of the funnel for us, so we’re losing significant repeat business down the line from this change!  The ONLY thing that changed is Shopify unilaterally changed our checkout experience and is not letting anyone but stores that pay $2,000+ a month do anything about it. 

I recognize the decision makers have no idea what it’s like to see your livelihood taking a huge hit for something completely out of your control, which is why we should have the control over our own stores!

Ive already explored all the suggestions you made that we could do anything about and gotten nowhere.  I don’t see why Shopify won’t simply allow stores to choose what works best for their store. 

[nguyendq]

The reason I posted this IMG is because I am sick.

[Darkruler]

Hi all,

For the entirety of this month my sales have been less than stellar. On a normal day, I will average 10-15 sales.

Lately, I will go the entire day with just 1-2 sales which is unheard of as I normally have return customers every day that will account for about 3-4 orders.

I am getting anywhere from 500-700 visitors a day with add to carts and reaching checkouts. They don't result in a sale however. In fact, most days I will have a a couple sales within 1 hour of each other then nothing for the rest of the day. I am talking prime time hours too between 12pm- 7pm.

It just seems odd to me that my sales have taken such a hard decline. Compared to last month, my total orders are down 25% for October. I sell low priced collectible toys, so the holiday months are extremely busy for me. Usually 40% of the entire years sales are in 4th quarter.

Looking at the website downdetector for shopify website there are quite a few people experiencing the same thing.

Anyone else having this issue?

[EvaF1]

Yes!!! There are so many of us who are experiencing the same. We have been borderline begging Shopify for the 3 page checkout back, and no luck yet. 

Please check out this thread, and post your experience there as well!

Re: Petition to Return to 3 Page Checkout - Abysmal 1 Page Checkout Conversion Rate
https://community.shopify.com/c/shopify-discussions/petition-to-return-to-3-page-checkout-abysmal-1-...

[relouleco98]

hello! I just got upgraded to one page checkout (by force) and so far the numbers are not looking good. 

It's still early but curious what other people have seen so far. 

My conversion rate is definitely looking worse by half (or more) compared to previous days/weeks. In fact this is the worst start of the day I've had in ever. 

Would love to get a conversation started! thank you!

[Pbmauk]

I think they are having serious issues in their processing. I had clients who paid, card was charged multiple times, and no order was generated. Luckily, I know most my clients so they sent me screen shots and have been refunded on their cards. I then invoice them through other services. This has been a nightmare. I also have clients who just couldn’t pay through Shopify, and I could not get cards to go through entering them manually. 

I think it is now fixed for my store, but it seemed to start sometime between Friday and Saturday afternoon and go through Sunday. Clients were refunded Monday evening either through their provider or Shopify. Since there was nothing on my end, it was pretty difficult to deal with. Luckily, I have established relationships with most so was able to handle it. I did have a few new customers where it was very awkward. We sell one-of-a-kind, so I just put their items on hold and spent a lot of time on the phone with them and online with support. 

I have two open tickets- and my last response (from yesterday) was ‘we appreciate your patience’. 

I have been checking other Shopify groups and I am seeing a lot of complaints in a huge drop in conversions, and I assume it is because people can’t pay- or pay, but the order doesn’t show up on the merchant end. 

[Lubo18]

Same issue here. My conversion % decreased much ... I am not satisfied with the one-page checkout. A lot of abandoned checkouts, while the customers think they placed an order..Example : 30 add to cart, 28 reached checkout, only 10 orders placed... Before it would be definitely about 20 orders from this.

[EvaF1]

Please message your concerns on this post

Re: Petition to Return to 3 Page Checkout - Abysmal 1 Page Checkout Conversion Rate
https://community.shopify.com/c/shopify-discussions/petition-to-return-to-3-page-checkout-abysmal-1-...

There is a Shopify person called Don who flagged it for followup. I hope if we have the conversation in one place it may be resolved faster

[55trexodore]

Definitely have seen a decrease in conversion rates by a very significant margin. ~25% decrease. Actually quite surprising at how bad it has been since switching.

[David28]

Other merchants are reporting the same problem on this thread:  https://community.shopify.com/c/shopify-discussions/conversions-down-80-after-one-page-checkout/m-p/... 

[Eban]

We are having this issue, has anyone been able to revert back to the old checkout? 

[MOCHILOCO]

We were frustrated with this too. We had every hope that it would improve conversion rates, but October was shaping up to be ugly. However, it's also important to keep in mind that the busy holiday season is coming up, so there are probably a lot of customers simply holding out on their purchases until all the seasonal deals come along. That is important. Remember to reward the waiters with good deals or they'll spend their money elsewhere.

However, we did find that by making a few adjustments to the translations, we were able to get more sales. When all of the fields are on one page, we think that sometimes customers may feel overwhelmed and end up leaving the site. Or maybe they're lazy. Who knows, it is probably a combination of both along with a myriad of other factors, but in the end, it's simple psychology.

So all we did was add numbering to the sections (as if they were steps) which makes the checkout process look more organized and simple. Just 3 steps. And instead of using standard section titles like "DELIVERY ADDRESS" and "CONTACT METHOD" we presented them in the form of questions to customers, which we believe allows them to feel like they're giving their info and making a purchase on a more personal, informal level. So far it seems to be working really well!

1. For email section: What's your email?

2. For delivery address section: Where are we sending it?

3. For payment section: How are you going to pay?

And when customers are presented with these numbered steps we find that even if they don't complete the purchase, they now usually leave at least their email address because it's the first/easiest step and this allows us to send them abandoned cart emails, offers, etc. Try it out. If your conversion rates are already in the garbage because of the one page checkout, you've got nothing to lose. Below I've included a screenshot of what our checkout looks like.

If you've found this info helpful, I would appreciate if you could mark my response as a solution so that others who come along with the same issue can easily find it and see if it works for them. It also lets me know if this idea actually works for others or just me.

EXTRA TIP: In the shipping section, before a customer enters in a shipping address it will say something like "Enter an address to see the shipping times" or something. Just get rid of that completely. If you offer free shipping, change the translation to that. If you have standardized shipping that is really fast (like 1-2 day shipping or delivery in 24 hours or something) change the translation to that. If you have long shipping times, variable shipping times, or if you charge for shipping, just change the translation to a (-) symbol or blank space. That way the customer won't be discouraged upon entry to the checkout page and is more likely to leave their info so that you can reel them back in with retargeting.

[KatieK2]

Seems like a very sensible approach to the problem. Could I ask what % increase you saw on your conversion rate when you implemented this? Are you seeing similar conversion rates to the 3 page checkout with this 'fix'?

[David28]

Your 1-2-3 idea definitely seems like a good one. Well worth a try. I have also changed the wording in the shipping method section to "Enter email and full shipping address (above) to view available shipping methods".  I am hoping this means an increased chance of the customer of providing their details rather than just entering their postcode/zipcode straight away to see shipping costs. And that should mean a better chance of capturing their email address to send abandoned checkout emails to.  It's just an idea, I don't know if it will work or not. What does everyone else think?

[David28]

anyone?

[55trexodore]

If 1 to 1 emails with their support team won't work, let's start a petition!

https://community.shopify.com/c/shopify-discussions/petition-to-return-to-3-page-checkout-abysmal-1-...

[EvaF1]

You are not alone! I am seeing the same here! Since the forced change to one page checkout, my conversion rate has TANKED. I have never every EVER seen anything like this.

From what I am reading, seems like there are many of us who are experiencing the same. Perhaps it is working for some stores, but it is glaringly clear that it is a building catastrophe for many others.

We need the choice to continue with the checkout we had before

[EvaF1]

Hi! 

Please check out this post and post your concerns there. There is a Shopify team member called Don, who has flagged it for followup. 

I hope if we have the conversation in one place there is a better chance that Shopify will attend to it 

Re: Petition to Return to 3 Page Checkout - Abysmal 1 Page Checkout Conversion Rate
https://community.shopify.com/c/shopify-discussions/petition-to-return-to-3-page-checkout-abysmal-1-...

[MikevPD]

So I've been using the new one page checkout recently on my store however I'm noticing a big drop off from reached checkouts to converted. It was never like this with 3 page checkout.

I watch google analytics real time and most people are dropping off from /checkout/contact_information which means that they are not even putting their email/phone in the field and they don't show up within the abandoned checkouts page in admin.

[Josh_Uebergang]

Is it statistically significant though? A drop off in a few days or not enough transactions means nothing as it could be something like the traffic source.

Note the date of the change. Swap back. Repeat for at least a few hundred transactions so you get statistical significance. If it happens twice and the standard checkout performs as expected, you know what to do—no point using something that hurts performance. It's surprising.

[John58]

Did you get this fixed? I just upgraded to one page checkout and have the same problem now. Google isn't seeing sales.

[Moss44]

Me too, it seems like i still have the same number of sales if not better, but unfortunately google ads dashboard don't seem to report accurately the sales

[Partsseller1]

Same here, huge drop since activating over a month ago, massive reduction in conversions. Cant switch off 1 page either? We have high shipping costs so we think its becuase people are now seeing shipping before having to put email in and dropping off then. Help please.

[emmalovell]

Have your sales recovered? Ours dropped to a single sale for two days running which is most unusual?

[Partsseller1]

Not really, we sell high value items with big shipping costs, our thoughts
are seeing it all on the one page scares people. No doubt shopify tested it
on normal scenerios and got good results so rolled it out, insane we cant
switch it off! Shopify add a button to switch off please!

[John58]

We are doing ok, but I still wonder about it. I think it has caused
problems with conversion tracking, but....

[EvaF1]

Just looking around the forum to see when issues with the one page checkout started being raised, and finding it hard to understand that it has been forced on us now, without any option to stick what works for our customer bases.

So many stores are struggling with it now. Check it out

Re: Petition to Return to 3 Page Checkout - Abysmal 1 Page Checkout Conversion Rate
https://community.shopify.com/c/shopify-discussions/petition-to-return-to-3-page-checkout-abysmal-1-...

[harshshah9720]

Did someone else realise or see this drastic fall in sales after 1 page checkout has been executed by shopify????

[PaulNewton]

What are you demographics like.

Are you dealing with new customer conversions, or returning customers?

Younger audience or older.

Have you tested the checkout as a new customer would encounter it (in a private browsing tab) , on different browsers, hardware, etc.

One page checkout collects that same amount of info as a three page checkout.

This means customers can be overwhelmed with excess noise now being crammed onto a single long page.

If you are primarily only getting new customers that you should probably stick to three page checkout.  Bit of a tossup about which is better for different age brackets.

[emmalovell]

There is no choice to stick to 3 page checkout. This option has now been taken away from Shopify. Our sales have reduced dramatically also

[paulhanekom]

We also saw about a 60% drop in sales after the 1 page checkout was activated in our store. I do not see an option to go back to previous checkout setting to test 

[emmalovell]

Have your sales recovered? Ours dropped to a single sale for two days running which is most unusual?

[emmalovell]

Have your sales recovered? Ours dropped to a single sale for two days running which is most unusual?

[graceandfree]

Hey! Did you sales recover? I was excited about 1 page checkout but ever since my store was tested and converted over my Facebook Ads and sales have been off. I’m wondering if the 1 page checkout is somehow skewing the data. 

[Saithx]

Two days ago we were moved to OPC, and ever since sales have stopped. Checkout completion rate numbers are in the garbage. This has been reported by many users across this forum, Reddit, X, etc. We have been in business 8 years and have not once encountered anything like this. Official responses seem to be dismissive and borderline gaslighting.

What is going on here? I am genuinly shocked by what has happened over the past two days. At least let us go back to 3 page checkout. At this pace our business will not survive into next year. 

We need some answers and action on this.

[Shay]

Hi @Saithx 

I appreciate you reaching out to share your concern here and I definitely recognize how important this situation is to resolve. I am sorry to hear that you have felt our support team has been dismissive of your concerns, that should never be the case. We take reports of the checkout not working very seriously, this is obviously an integral part of your online store! 

Have you connected with our authenticated support team to report these issues? If you have not, please reach out and share any details you may have. Including if you are able to replicate any problems on the checkout yourself, or any screenshots showing the issues customers are experiencing. To access our authenticated support, please follow this link: Shopify Help Center. 

[EvaF1]

Hi Shay, there are so many of us having the same problem with the one page checkout. We have been reaching out to the support team, but nothing has been changed yet. 

Look at what we are facing!

Re: Petition to Return to 3 Page Checkout - Abysmal 1 Page Checkout Conversion Rate
https://community.shopify.com/c/shopify-discussions/petition-to-return-to-3-page-checkout-abysmal-1-...

[EvaF1]

There are so many of us in the same boat. And the response from Shopify so far has been disappointing. 

There is a petition thread to have the option to revert back to 3 page checkout. Please post your experience there as well!

Re: Petition to Return to 3 Page Checkout - Abysmal 1 Page Checkout Conversion Rate
https://community.shopify.com/c/shopify-discussions/petition-to-return-to-3-page-checkout-abysmal-1-...