Checkout That Converts: Offline Payments, COD and Custom Gateways

Getting a shopper to add something to their cart is hard work. Losing them at checkout is painfully easy. A surprise delivery fee, a forced account sign-up or a missing payment option, and the sale is gone.

This guide covers the two halves of a checkout that converts: the experience (fewer steps, no surprises, more trust) and the payment options (offering the methods your customers actually want, from cash on delivery and bank transfer to online gateways), and how to run each one without losing money.

• Offer guest checkout, show the full price early and keep forms short.

• Offline payments such as cash on delivery and bank transfer build trust, but need rules to stay profitable.

• Online gateways add instant, low-friction payment for shoppers who prefer UPI, cards or wallets.

• Measure checkout like a funnel, and review results by payment method.

Why Shoppers Abandon Checkout

70.22% average documented online cart 48% of US shoppers who abandoned did so because abandonment rate, across 50 studies. extra costs (shipping, tax, fees) were too high.

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26% abandoned because the site wanted them to 35% potential conversion lift for an average large create an account. store from better checkout design.

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Baymard’s research also found that around one in five shoppers abandoned because checkout was too long or complicated, and that a similar share didn’t trust the site with their card details. Notice that most of these reasons are fixable, and that trust and payment choice are part of the problem.

Part 1: Fix the Checkout Fundamentals

Show the full price early Display delivery costs, taxes and any fees on the product page or cart, not as a 1 surprise on the last step. A free-delivery threshold shown in the cart can also lift order values.

Offer guest checkout 2 Let shoppers buy without creating an account. Offer to save their details after the order is placed, when the request feels like a favour rather than a barrier.

Ask for less 3 Remove every field you don’t truly need. Combine name fields, hide “company” and “address line 2” behind a link, and use one address for billing and delivery by default.

Design for thumbs 4 Most shoppers check out on a phone. Use large buttons, the right keyboard for each field (numbers for phone and postcode) and autofill-friendly fields.

Show progress and keep it short 5 A clear step indicator, or a single page, tells shoppers how close they are to finishing.

Fix errors kindly 6 Validate fields as people type, explain what’s wrong in plain words and never clear a form after an error.

Build trust at the payment step 7 Show accepted payment methods, a clear returns policy, contact details and a secure connection (HTTPS). Small reassurances matter most at the moment of paying.

Bring abandoned carts back 8 Keep carts saved between visits, and send a friendly reminder email to shoppers who have given you their email address and agreed to hear from you.

Part 2: Offline Payments, Done Right

Offline payments are any methods where money doesn’t move through an online gateway at checkout. They remain essential in many markets and for many types of buyer:

Method Best for Watch out for Make it work

Cash on First-time buyers, markets Refused deliveries and Confirm orders, add a COD delivery (COD) where people prefer return shipping costs; fee or limit, reward prepaid paying at the door slower cash flow

Bank transfer Higher-value orders, B2B Unpaid orders tying up Clear instructions, order buyers, markets with stock; manual matching number as reference, strong bank payments of payments auto-cancel unpaid orders

Pay on pickup Local stores offering No-shows Pickup reminders and a clear click-and-collect collection window

Invoice / Trusted business Late payment and credit Approve accounts first; set purchase order customers risk payment terms

Cash on delivery without the losses

• Confirm before you ship. A quick call, SMS or WhatsApp message filters out impulse and fake orders.

• Add a small COD fee or minimum order value to cover the extra handling cost.

• Reward prepaid. A small discount or faster dispatch nudges shoppers to pay online.

• Limit COD where needed, for example on very high order values or areas with many refused deliveries.

• Track your refusal rate by region and product, and adjust your rules every month.

Bank transfer that gets paid

• Show bank details clearly on the confirmation page and in the order email.

• Ask customers to use the order number as the payment reference, so payments are easy to match.

• Reserve stock for a fixed number of days, then send a reminder and cancel unpaid orders automatically.

• Send a “payment received” email as soon as you confirm the transfer.

Part 3: Adding Online and Custom Gateways

Offline methods build trust, but many shoppers want to pay instantly with UPI, cards, wallets or buy-now-pay-later. Adobe expected US shoppers to spend $21.3 billion online with buy-now-pay-later this holiday season alone. An online gateway lets you offer these options alongside your offline methods.

Choosing a payment gateway

Check Why it matters

Local payment Support for what your customers use: UPI in India, cards and wallets in the US, bank methods payments in parts of Europe

Fees and settlement Per-transaction costs and how quickly money reaches your bank time

Hosted or embedded Hosted payment pages keep card data off your server and simplify security checkout compliance

Webhooks and refunds Reliable order updates and easy refunds from your admin API

Test mode and Safe testing before going live, and faster integration documentation

Licensing and Use a properly authorised provider in each market (for example, RBI-authorised regulation aggregators in India)

Integration best practices for developers

• Never store card numbers. Use the gateway’s hosted page or secure fields.

• Confirm payments with webhooks from the gateway, not just the browser redirect, which can fail if the shopper closes the tab.

• Make processing idempotent, so a repeated notification can’t create a duplicate order or double refund.

• Handle failures gracefully: keep the cart, explain what happened and offer another payment method.

• Test every path in sandbox mode: success, failure, cancellation and refund.

Getting the Payment Mix Right

There is no single perfect set of payment methods. Start with what your customers already use, then test and adjust:

• India: UPI first, with cards, net banking and wallets via a gateway, plus cash on delivery for reach.

• Business buyers: bank transfer and invoice terms for approved accounts.

• Local stores: pay on pickup alongside online payment.

• International shoppers: cards and popular digital wallets, with prices in their currency.

Measure what matters: conversion rate at each checkout step, conversion by payment method, failed and declined payments, COD refusal rate, and how long bank transfers take to arrive.

Checkout in WentoCart

WentoCart includes a customisable cart and checkout with offline payment options configured from the admin dashboard, so you can offer methods such as cash on delivery and bank transfer from day one. Taxes, shipping, currencies and coupons are managed in the same place, which makes it easier to show shoppers the full price before they pay.

Because WentoCart is open source and built on Laravel, developers can connect the online gateways your market needs using its extension APIs, and tailor the checkout flow, from B2B invoice terms to COD rules, to fit your business.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I offer cash on delivery? If your customers expect it, yes, especially for first orders. Use confirmation, fees or limits and prepaid incentives to keep refused deliveries under control.

How many payment methods should I offer? Enough to cover how most of your customers like to pay, usually three to five. Too many can clutter the checkout; review usage and remove methods nobody chooses.

Is it safe to accept card payments on a self-hosted store? Yes, when you use a reputable gateway’s hosted payment page or secure fields, so card data never touches your server, and keep your store updated and served over HTTPS.

The Bottom Line

A checkout that converts removes surprises, asks for as little as possible and lets customers pay the way they trust. Get the fundamentals right, run offline payments with smart rules, add the online methods your market expects, and keep measuring. Every point of checkout conversion you win back is revenue you’ve already paid to attract.

Build a checkout that fits your customers. Try WentoCart’s storefront and checkout in the live demo, explore the developer documentation, or download v1.0 free today.