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?

[sss1128]

Folks, let Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke know how terrible the 1-page checkout has been.

I found his email tobi  at shopify.com https://twitter.com/tobi/status/1172641237008048129.

[22dabe22]

Our conversion RATE DROPPED TOO !!! PLEASE RETURN TO 3 PAGE CHECKOUT !!!! 

[chris1985]

Our sales have dropped drastically along with our CVR. Might be time to move to another platform since Shopify obviously doesn't care that our businesses are being destroyed. They just want to continually argue and tell us what is best for our business. It's funny that 8 and 9 figure stores are still using 3 page checkout, I wonder why that is.

[harlyjae2]

perhaps this is all part of a bigger plan to eliminate all small businesses........ LOL. I was on the chat with them again today and still the same answer. The developers don't believe this is a serious enough issue amongst customers. 

[EvaF1]

How are they STILL not getting it? I am also starting to wonder if they are trying to get rid of the small stores and just focus in on the Plus stores. 

After almost a month of messaging, explaining what I am experiencing, and borderline BEGGING for the 3 page checkout back, I only see 2 explanations.

1. They want to get rid of us.

2. It is a pride thing. Shopify advertised the new one page checkout as the world's best checkout, and are too PROUD to admit that it is a complete failure for a significant segment of the stores they have forced it on. So they digging their heels in. At our expense. 

Or what? What am I missing?

[giga667]

You are spot on in my opinion. They want us to upgrade to the Plus plan, and whoever can't afford it, well, tough luck. Suffer with the shitty one page checkout or take your business elsewhere. 

OR - they really do try to convince themselves and us that the new checkout page is much better, although the results show the complete opposite. 

We need to do something about it, all of us are losing money because of them.

[Mani_Fazeli]

Hi Chris, I've had a chance to look at your conversion rates. I saw some softness in the past week, but otherwise normal fluctuations since the one page checkout launched, ranging back 90 days.

We want to see your business, and everyone else's on Shopify, succeed. That's why we're monitoring every comment closely to see if there are systemic issues that we need to remedy. If you have seen specific issues or failures, or have details from any comments from your customers, we'd really appreciate hearing them (we'd capture them in a support ticket to easily share internally). I commit to reading them myself.

The reason that many Plus merchants are not yet using the one-page checkout is that they first need to upgrade to Checkout Extensibility. Then, they'll be eligible. There are many large brands that already use the one page checkout. The one page checkout is where the majority of our energy and attention will go for optimizing performance conversion rates.

[giga667]

Can any of your staff acknowledge what is being said here or let us know what's happening please? It's as if we're talking to ourselves.

[Darkruler]

I am having the same issue. My sales are so terrible right now and I just don't see any other reason. My traffic is still the same. Just 1 sale today when I can get anywhere from 15-20 sales a day usually. I sell toys, so sales should be picking up not dropping off a cliff

On this day last year, I sold $500 and today just $20. Yesterday wasn't great either with just $175 in sales when last year on the same day it was $800. I can go hours or even half a day without a single sale. During primetime hours at that. Then I will receive 2-3 within an hour if I am lucky. Seems odd like checkout is not working sometimes and then it works in bursts because that is how my sales come in.

This is especially interesting as I doubled my ad spend for this entire year and the numbers have shown. As July was my biggest month ever, but now this month will more than likely come in at below last years total sales for October. 

Currently I am running a sale which has resulted in add to carts and even checkout, but no conversions. My conversion rate used to be around 3% and now its down to 1%  and teetering towards less than a percent. Supposedly a 37% decline compared to last month.

Why couldn't they release this OPC during the summer instead? That way if it ruined any of us, we had time to move websites to another provider before the busy shopping season starts.

It's also a little suspect that plus accounts have the option to go back to 3 page checkout. That means the ability is there, but Shopify says no to us. 

I used to love shopify, but the first nail in the coffin was when they charged me for USPS label underpayments in July this year that they said I owed. Amounting to $800 to which they said I owed and wouldn't budge. Not until I opened a thread here did an army of people reply having the same fraudulent charges. To which shopify finally acknowledged there was an issue. Had we not banded together would our money have been gone? 

That is exactly how I feel in regards to this OPC. They are saying that there is no issue just as before with the USPS charges. 

[dylangarrod]

I run 4 stores on the Shopify network and all have had a decrease in conversion rate since swapping to OPC.

This is not imaginary, the data doesn't lie. After looking at averages over periods of months, we've gone from easily pulling 4%+ a day to now just getting over 3%.

This thread has had 3000 views, a ton of replies (and remember most people experiencing these issues won't know how to complain or where to look).

The fact that Shopify's featured brands use 3 page checkouts is eye-opening.

The fact we cannot choose is INSANE!

Customers are complaining... merchants are complaining... and Shopify just presses on.

Please do something about this. @Mani_Fazeli 

How are we just weeks away from BFCM/Q4, and dealing with this mess.

[Mani_Fazeli]

I appreciate the feedback Dylan. My entire team is taking every comment seriously. With this one, I've had a personal look at your 4 stores. I'm open to discussing the conversion trend with you to interpret what you're seeing, and to hear more about the specific issues you see with the one-page checkout that you believe result in lower conversion for your stores. My team and I will reach out early in the new week.

Many of the largest brands with Shopify Plus use the one-page checkout. Those that don't may not have yet upgraded to Checkout Extensibility for their customizations (versus our old technology of editing checkout.liquid for customizations).

[KarCon]

My conversion rates are way down too!  It’s insane.  We should be able to go back. 

[dudethatlifts]

The update in checkout has killed my conversions. We are spending anywhere from $100-300 per day in advertising and I cannot afford to do that when we aren't getting orders. We had a fantastic September with great momentum rolling into October...as soon as I got the email about my updated checkout, within a day or two I noticed a sudden decrease in conversions. We already have a million things going against us in the advertising space, we don't need our own websites working against us. We insist we get the option back to have our previous checkout options. This isn't something we should have to upgrade to do, I've had it for years already. Someone from Shopify, please respond this, and let us know what your corrective plan is.  We are rolling into the biggest season of the year, and this will cause all of us to take massive hits in Q4. If This isn't addressed, I will find a platform that is working for us.

[Mani_Fazeli]

Thanks for taking the time to share here. I want nothing more than to see your business succeed during the holidays (and beyond). I've had a chance to look at your store's conversion rates and I don't draw the same conclusions as you. I'm happy to have myself or my team connect with you directly to better appreciate what you feel is hurting your conversion rates, and if there are any specific issues you or your customers have spotted with the one-page checkout. We'll follow-up directly early in the new week.

[Natali0710]

Even a drop in conversions since the ond checkout and the customer behavior counter which goes off the rails (eg: 1 visitor, 0 active basket, 5 payments in progress). I opened tickets with Shopify support on this subject, they close them without fixing the problem, it becomes nonsense. Does anyone else have this counter that has gone wrong since the one checkout? To me this clearly shows that something is not working correctly.

[ssb123]

We too have been experiencing issues since Oct 2. It’s frustrating to trust your business to a platform like Shopify to be gaslit. I understand there being bugs to work out but not working them out and pretending there isn’t an issue is unacceptable. We continuously see support advising to open a ticket and act as if nothing is wrong. We have opened several tickets, we have sent several links of forums where many of their customers are experiencing this and still nothing. We have been with Shopify for over 12 years and have never experienced this type of response or lack there of. What can be done? Otherwise we will be leaving soon. We are loyal and don’t want to leave but this is ridiculous. At this point almost seems intentional since the complaints are being ignored! 

[Mani_Fazeli]

I assure you that we're not ignoring you, and I'm grateful for the 12 years you've spent running your business on Shopify. I've had a chance to look at your conversion rates personally. I know you're about to come into a big month. My team and I would like to speak with you about the specifics of any failures you've seen with the one page checkout. I know you've opened several tickets, and we'd like to review it all with you to see if there's anything we've missed. Please expect outreach early next week.

[monicathebeau]

I'm a florist who previously loved Shopify.  This forced one page checkout has created nothing but headaches and bad customer reviews and response.  My conversions are way down, my e-commerce store has had to hire phone support to field all the frustration and order taking because of the techinical issues with the one page checkout.  I have spent hours with my Shopify Expert (at my expense) and with Shopify support ( completely unhelpful and frustrating) with no solutions presented.  Please please allow stores to revert to the previous checkout flow.  

[Mani_Fazeli]

Monica, I'd love a chance to get more details from you. I personally checked your conversion rates and tested your site. While I don't see conversions being way down (my team and I are happy to look at this together with you), I did find something that didn't seem right. I was able to provide a valid address and get a delivery rate one time, but a valid address without a delivery rate another time. We'll need to review your support tickets / conversations, and I want to quickly determine if there's a bug here, so please expect a follow-up from my team early in the new week.

[harlyjae2]

Hi Mani,

Can you check my site and tell me about my conversion rate? I see you posting the same answer for everyone and I just don't understand what your conclusions could be? Genuinely curious. Would love to know. - Laïla

[Mani_Fazeli]

I took a look Laïla. I see softness in your conversion over the past month. It's not large, but it's present to my eye. But it began a couple of weeks before the launch of the one page checkout to everyone.

I tested your checkout to see the shipping and pickup options you offer, payment options you offer, and how you deal with cross-border sales. Nothing stood out to me. I'll have a further look in the new week, but I'll make the same ask of you: have there been any unusual or unexpected comments by your buyers in the past few weeks? Anything specific that can help us see if the one page checkout is not behaving as it should?

You'll see us continue to optimize the one page checkout based on our learnings across the millions of merchants that are using it today.

[harlyjae2]

Hi, thank for checking. I actually switched over to the one-page checkout on August 08 upon receiving an early-access email from Shopify (I tried to attached the email but it's not working). 

In terms of specific issues, we hosted a sample sale this past Friday and a few customers messaged saying they simply could not check out. That once they hit 'Pay now' nothing happened. I got on the chat with someone and nothing could be done. The thing is that most customers won't take the time to message us to say our website is not working.

[sss1128]

Shopify has the ball to try to sell me the plus plan while my store is suffering like everyone else:

If Shopify isn't fixing the issue soon, they probably won't do it because it's getting too close to Black Friday.

Email Shopify CEO tobi lutke and let him know your feedback.

I found his email tobi at shopify.com from https://twitter.com/tobi/status/1172641237008048129.

[Lubo18]

Dear Shopify staff @Mani_Fazeli @Don I am really sorry for you, that you still don't get it. We just want the option to choose between onepage or 3-page checkout. That's it. Nothing less, nothing more. Thank you

[chris1985]

exactly! They just don't get it. Instead they just continue to tell us pretty much we are imagining it when I know for a fact what our sales were before this and what they are now. Also had this issue when we switched early to the one page checkout previously and once we realized it was the checkout we switched back to the 3 page because at that time we actually had an option to do that and like magic everything got better. But sure it's not the checkout Shopify.

[EvaF1]

It is so shocking. I was the biggest Shopify fan before. Literally telling everyone they should choose Shopify, but since the way this whole situation is going down, there is no way I am recommending it. It is leaving a bad taste in my mouth. 

I have had to pull out ALL my tricks this month - sale, promos etc to get through. And the shocking result is that it took ALL of these tricks to do what I would normally do without any of it. 

All I can say is thank God for my POS business this past month.

And still, no movement from Shopify on this. Still being gaslit. Still being told we imagining it.

What they cannot see is what I have had to do to get to my average conversion rate this month - everything short of dancing on a table.

[BLeather]

Shopify Dev & Support Teams,

Just some feedback for you regarding this roll-out. As small business owners, we take pride in having control of all aspects of our businesses. I think a big part of this pushback stems from Shopify taking action on our shops on our behalf. In the future, it may be better for everyone if Shopify Dev provides more flexibility, such as an on-off switch for a 12 month period. I know there may be some technical difficulties with supporting two checkout solutions, but it would allow us as business owners to decide on our own time when to flip that switch. Not only do we take pride in having control of the businesses we started from scratch, but each business is different. For some shops (like mine) early October was the worst time to make this change.

That's all. I just wanted to get that point across. I hope this feedback will be received. For the record, I am a former software developer who worked on checkout systems for most of my career, so...believe me...I know you guys have some technical hurdles with supporting two flows. Good luck and I still hope for a future update for the non-Plus customers.

[Sorta]

I am very curious if others are seeing a substantial drop off in conversions after one page checkout. It’s at the point we thought it was bugged. 

Looking at analytics our advertising is sending the same traffic and people are reaching checkout at the same rate, but conversions dropped off a cliff after Shopify implemented one page checkout for us. Down over 80% currently, increasing as more days go by. 

Looking at the checkout page I’m not sure why this would be the case, so I’m hoping someone may have some insight. 

[David28]

Shopify have forced merchants to have the one-page checkout, whether they want it or not. It seems quite a few merchants have experienced less conversions with it, so we should have a choice.

[Sorta]

Agreed. I’ve been banging my head against this wall for a couple days now and can’t figure out why one page checkout is so much worse for us for conversions. It’s extremely frustrating that we can’t simply swap to the old method. This is a huge revenue hit for our business and we have no control except to switch platforms possibly.

[David28]

Do you charge for shipping? (my site does). I think one huge problem now is that when a customer gets to the checkout page, all they need to do is type their postcode/zipcode in the relevant box and it instantly displays the shipping cost (without entering any other details). They don't even need to type their email address, so we are no longer capturing the email addresses of many customers who abandon the checkout. Therefore, there is no way to send them an abandoned checkout email or discount code. 

[AntZoo]

We do charge for shipping, several rates to choose from.

We force customers to log in using an email address (set in admin settings) before they can checkout. We do this for age verification. Ideally, the Guest, no email checkout experience is better for the customer, but too much of a headache for us.

[Sorta]

We charge a flat shipping rate for the main product we sell of $2, which I tested previously and worked well. I might play with that though. If Shopify isn’t going to give people options our only realistic path forward is to go back to the drawing board and start over with CRO as much as possible.

[AntZoo]

Yes, it's a terrible design checkout page, causing lots of customer issues with wrong shipping methods, and addresses.  I cant believe Shopify came out with such a dysfunctional update

[quangnnvv]

I also have the same problem and send an email to the team support to switch back to 3 3-page checkout. Hope they let us to do it

[David28]

Did you get a response from Shopify?  I presume they said 'no'!

[EvaF1]

Please share your concerns and experiences on 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-...

A Shopify team member has flagged it for internal follow up. Hopefully we get help faster is we have the conversation in one place

[SuzChalan]

They have no intention of switching back "this is what we are going with moving forward"  They could care less about those of us that aren't PLUS ($2000 a month) subscribers.

[EvaF1]

I have been in contact with them too, and they said no to me as well. I cannot comprehend how we can be forced into a change that is so negatively affecting our businesses?

[SuzChalan]

I can't believe the "bait and switch" of changing something so fundamental to our business that we have come to know, rely on, and plan around.

[igorlevashov]

We have same issue!!!

[MOCHILOCO]

We were frustrated with this too. We had every hope that it was improve conversion rates, but the beginning of october is shaping up to be ugly. Its 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.

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. 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. So far it seems to be working!

1. What's your email?

2. Where are we sending it?

3. 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.

[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.

[AntZoo]

Thanks for the suggestions; I will give them a go.

Now I have to figure out why the titles have different font sizes, without any access to CSS, as shown below.

[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?

[Sorta]

That may help, but also the people who already input their info would see the same messaging right?  That may lead them to think they’ve done something wrong if it still says they should input their details above, even if it is showing shipping details. 

[David28]

Once the customer has entered their address, that message ("Enter email and full shipping address (above) to view available shipping methods") goes away as it is instantly replaced by the actual shipping cost at that moment. So hopefully that won't be a problem. Whether it helps or not, I don't know, but I'm looking at any way I can think of of at least capturing email address on abandonments.

[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-...

[ryanbarthel]

You can switch back to the 3 page ONLY IF you are on Shopify Plus, it's in the checkout settings, scroll to the bottom where you change the colors and font for the checkout.