Auditing a Checkout Funnel in Four Hours

A funnel audit does not need a large tooling budget. It needs four uninterrupted hours, a device with a stopwatch, and the discipline to record what happens rather than what should happen.

Walk the path on a real connection

Go through the purchase yourself, on a mid-range phone over a mobile connection, with the browser’s default settings. Not on a desktop with a fast connection and a cleared cache. Record every step, the time each one takes, and anything that made you hesitate.

Count the fields on each step

Count the number of inputs required before the order is placed and note which ones could be inferred, delayed or removed. The single most common finding in this exercise is a form asking for information the business does not use.

Test the failure states

Deliberately enter a wrong postcode, an expired card detail and a declined payment. Note what the interface says, whether the entered data survives, and how many taps it takes to correct. Failure handling is where most drop-off hides and where almost no team tests.

Check the load time of the step that matters

Measure the time from the cart page to the payment step rather than the site-wide average. A fast homepage does not help if the step before payment is slow, and that step is where the decision is most fragile.

Write up three fixes, not thirty

End the session by choosing the three changes with the clearest expected effect and the least engineering effort. A long list gets postponed; a short list gets built.