Checkout completion

Benchmarks

Every benchmark carries its year and a confidence grade for its source. Use them to calibrate, not as targets.

• Metric

  Average order value with revenue quality

  order value net of discounts and refunds

  Average order value after discounts and refunds, read with discount dependence and refund rate as its quality checks. The Pay health metric for stores.

• Metric

  Cancellations within 30 days

  early cancels after starting to pay

  Share of new subscribers who cancel within 30 days. A revenue-quality guardrail that catches conversions bought with pressure; it can't be judged before it matures.

• Metric

  Conversion by tenure (the smile graph)

  share paying by months since sign-up

  Share of each sign-up cohort paying at month 0, 1, 2 and later. When habits form, the paying share rises with tenure; a flat line suggests pressure arrived before value or that devoted users have nothing deeper to buy.

• Metric

  Discount dependence

  share of orders that needed a discount

  Share of orders (or first payments) that used a discount code. Rising dependence means discounts are buying orders that full price wouldn't, and those buyers tend to leave when the discount ends.

• Metric

  First-seen vs final price gap

  does the final price match the first one shown

  Final checkout total divided by the first price shown for the same item or plan, plus the share of sessions where the final price is higher. Target: a ratio of 1 and no sessions worsening. The default guardrail on pricing pages and at checkout.

• Metric

  Freemium to paid within six months

  free accounts that start paying

  Share of free (freemium) accounts that start paying within six months. Self-serve B2B freemium medians sit around 3-5%; sales assistance roughly doubles it. Gate depth, never the core loop.

Sources

• Shopify store conversion benchmarks (about 2,800 stores) · Littledata, 2023

  CSecondaryBenchmark confidence C. A secondary source.

Book content is paraphrased, never quoted at length. Last verified October 24, 2026.