Baymard's research puts the average checkout at 5.1 steps and 11.3 form fields, against a practical minimum of 8. Every field above that number is a decision someone has to make before you get paid.
The Baymard Institute has tracked checkout flows for over a decade. The current picture: 5.1 steps and 11.3 form fields on average, improved from 11.8 in 2021 and 12.7 in 2019, against a practical minimum of 8 fields for a standard purchase.
Field count is not a vanity metric. Seventeen per cent of shoppers abandon a purchase specifically because the checkout was too long or too complicated, and eighteen per cent abandon because they were forced to create an account.
The fields to remove first
- Company name, unless you sell B2B and need it for invoicing. Make it optional at most.
- Address line 2. Merge it into a single address field, or reveal it only when the user asks for it.
- Confirm email and confirm password. Both are solved better by an unmask toggle and inline validation.
- Title or salutation. Rarely used, occasionally offensive, never necessary to fulfil an order.
- Separate first and last name, where your fulfilment does not require them apart.
- Phone number, unless the courier genuinely requires it — in which case say so beside the field, because unexplained phone fields read as a sales call waiting to happen.
- Account creation, which should never be a prerequisite. Offer it after the order is placed, when you already have everything you need to create the account for them.
Fewer fields is not the same as fewer steps
The research is clear that field count matters more than step count. A single long page is not automatically better than three short ones — what matters is the total number of decisions and how clearly the flow signals progress.
What to do instead of removing a field
Some fields have to stay. Make them cheaper: address autocomplete, correct autocomplete attributes so browsers can fill the form, the right mobile keyboard for each input type, inline validation that resolves errors as they happen rather than on submit, and a saved cart if the session breaks.
The check worth running this week
Count the fields in your own checkout. If the number is above eight, list each one above that and name the person who needs the data and what they do with it. Most lists lose two or three fields at that question alone.
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