You cannot hide the “tax added” breakdown (amount and description) behind a drop down because 100% of customers land on a checkout page with a general price in mind of the cost… THAT IS A FACT. So when they get there and see an amount $5 or $6 or more higher than expected, they bounce. Period. Nothing obvious that this is hidden by dropdown. It just looks like a bait and switch higher amount with NO EXPLANATION.
The part that really locks it in and makes it so impressive, is how they MADE SURE THIS IS HARDCODED so you can’t fix it. This obvious massive error they have forced onto your store. Sweet checkout bros. Best in the business, I hear.
This is almost entirely false. Everyone on the planet, especially in the US, expect to have added fees like taxes and shipping. Some don’t charge tax. Some don’t charge shipping. That is entirely up to the merchant and what their tax nexus is. There is also some things you can change like wording of labels. There is also more flexibility in the Plus Plan. There are also checkout extension apps.
I would also challenge you to check out any website. How about Lowe’s. Tax is over a hundred bucks. This is expected. I fully expect to be charged tax. This is a normal part of being a US citizen.
Shopper expectations will vary, so the surprise-cost point is worth measuring. Compare checkout start to purchase by shipping region, then look at sessions where tax first appears. If abandonment rises sharply in those regions, expectation-setting is probably contributing.
I’d make the cart explicit that tax is calculated at checkout and surface shipping costs or estimates as early as your setup allows. Keep the wording plain, then test it against the current version. Even if the tax breakdown cannot be changed in your checkout setup, narrowing the gap between the cart total shoppers remember and the final total they see should make the handoff feel less abrupt.
Hi there,
Sorry to hear about the frustration. I can see why that checkout experience would be concerning.
That said, abandoned checkouts can happen for so many reasons, including shipping costs, slow load times, and lack of payment options. It might be worth surveying your customers to pinpoint what’s actually causing the drop-off before spending time on a fix.
If you really want a fix on that:
- If you are on Shopify Plus, you can edit your checkout with code or checkout extensions.
- If you aren’t, the simplest workaround is to switch to Include sales tax in product price and shipping rate under Settings → Taxes and duties. The price customers see on the product page stays the same at checkout - no surprise jump. Tax is still collected, just built into the displayed price.
More info from Shopify here:
https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/taxes/include-exclude-taxes
Hope that helps!
Ellie | 5y+ Shopify Expert from BOGOS: Free Gift Bundle Upsell team
Thank you.. I ended up hijacking the add discount tag to add my own message.
or maybe TOTAL INCLUDES TAXES (click price to see)
Thanks for the advice I made a workaround. The point is we shouldn’t have to. We shouldn’t have to pay three grand a month to have the ability to fix what’s an obvious error they’ve committed. And yes, of course there could be multiple reasons. But anyone with any logic can see that what I said is just a? fact. How much does it contribute to the loss of sales? I guarantee you it does and that’s what matters. Anything like this that obviously hurts conversions and is fixable, but it’s made unfixable intentionally is unacceptable. Especially with that tag line in their commercials.
Craig Nowak
nobody wants to pay (how much is the plus plan? 3k/month?) to be give the ability to alter language. The fact the average merchant has no option to expand this is the point. Something that can very easily be fixed, but most likely will not be. My point is also if even ONE person out of 350k doesn’t automatically know right away that the discrepancy is OBVIOUSLY taxes, it’s one too many. No issue like this should be forced onto the average merchant with no way to directly fix it. Work arounds can almost always be figured out, sure. But why should they have to be? Or is this all pointless if there’s not a single person on the planet that would be confused by the discrepancy.
