Shoppers rank checkout first, and the fix that matters most is never asking for the same details twice
In March 2024 Manhattan Associates published its first Unified Commerce Benchmark for specialty retail in Europe. The research firm Incisiv assessed 50 retailers in apparel and footwear, home and DIY and luxury across France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, making real purchases and returns online and in stores. Next to the retailer scores, the findings include a set of shopper figures, and the one that drew attention was that 51% of shoppers name checkout as the first area retailers should work on. Manhattan’s own write-up links that figure to improving the in-store experience; trade coverage reported it as the shopping experience in general. Neither publication explains how the shopper figures were collected, so read them as a direction rather than a measurement. The direction is clear enough to act on, and the most useful figure in the set is not the 51%.
Asking twice is the sharpest complaint in the set
According to Manhattan, 37% of shoppers would abandon their cart if they had to re-enter payment or delivery details more than once, and 35% would leave if the checkout takes too long. InternetRetailing adds that 30% say they would abandon when the checkout has multiple steps and long text forms. The first of these is the most specific. It does not describe a long form. It describes a shop that loses what the shopper already gave it.
That happens at predictable points. A shopper on the payment step goes back to change the delivery option and finds the address fields empty. A bank payment is cancelled or fails, and the return lands on a fresh checkout instead of the order that was waiting. A validation error on one field clears the others. A separate billing address is required by default, so the same street is typed twice. The account offered after the order asks for name and email again. None of this is about storing data for future visits, which many shoppers are reluctant to allow. It is about keeping what was typed during this one purchase until the order is done.
Continuity runs across channels as well as steps
A benchmark built on unified commerce looks beyond the web form, and Manhattan’s write-up calls for continuity across channels, especially between shopping carts and wishlists. The same principle applies. A basket built on a phone should still be there on the laptop. A shopper collecting an online order in the shop should not have to repeat what they entered online. A return in the shop should start from the order, not from a blank form at the counter. In each case the shopper experiences a second checkout and judges it by the same standard.
At the payment step, the 2024 benchmark found that the European leaders made wider use of expedited guest checkout, gift cards and monthly instalments, while paying with a retailer’s own closed-loop wallet, clickable promo codes and loyalty points as payment were still rare. Manhattan’s 2026 benchmark, published in March 2026, is a different and wider study: more than 400 specialty retailers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Latin America and North America. It reports that 38% of the capabilities that set leaders apart in 2024 had become table stakes by 2026, and names digital wallets, basic real-time inventory visibility and cross-channel support as examples. More than a third of what counted as an advantage two years ago is now expected. The release does not say whether guest checkout, gift cards or instalments made that move.
The checkout does not end when the order is placed
Two further findings concern what follows the payment. 68% of shoppers want self-service options to change an order after placing it, and 54% describe refund and return processes as very time consuming. Both connect to the re-entry problem. A shopper who cannot change the delivery address or swap a size cancels and orders again, which means going through the whole checkout a second time. A return that asks for details the shop already holds is the same complaint in a different place.
Treat order changes and returns as part of the checkout design. Let the shopper open the order from the confirmation email, change what can still be changed, and start a return with the order data already filled in.
Count how often your checkout asks for the same thing
Place a test order on a phone as a new guest and keep a tally of every time you type a piece of information you have already given. Then repeat the order five times, breaking it on purpose: go back from the payment step to change delivery, cancel the bank payment and return, trigger a validation error, open the basket on a second device, and accept the account offer after paying. Each repeated field you find is a specific fix, and most of them are about keeping state rather than building something new. Do the same for a pickup and a return in the shop if you sell in both channels.
Sources: internetretailing.net, manh.com, 2024 benchmark and ir.manh.com, 2026 benchmark
