Friction! Friction in an online marketplace refers to anything in the user experience that creates obstacles.
Barriers to the user's ability to complete a desired action. Anything like:
- Browsing
- Searching
- Selecting a product
- Adding it to their cart
- Completing a purchase
Anything!
Examples in an online marketplace may include:
- Confusing navigation
- Long loading times
- Unclear product descriptions
- Complicated checkout processes
Why is it important for you as an online marketplace operator to eliminate friction?
Eliminating friction:
- Makes it easier for people to use your website
- Helps customers find and buy what they want - faster
- Reduces frustration for customers!
- Helps build trust with customers (= more sales)
- Makes your website stand out from your competitors.
Amazon is friction reducing machine. Amazon implemented thousands of strategies over the years to reduce friction.
Amazon is friction reducing machine. Amazon implemented thousands of strategies over the years to reduce friction.
Some examples from Amazon:
- Streamlined the registration and login process: Amazon allows customers to create an account quickly. It also offers that handy guest checkout option.
- Simplified the user interface: Amazon's website has a clean design, making it super easy for customers. Amazon also gives those helpful purchase suggestions and recommendations
- Optimized checkout process: Amazon's checkout is straightforward; one-click purchasing for returning customers.
- Fast website speed: Amazon invests heavily in its infrastructure, reducing online waiting times.
- Enhanced product descriptions and images: Amazon encourages detailed product descriptions and high-quality photos.
All good things and things we'll cover!
How to Identify Points of Friction in Your Online Marketplace
Friction – it's everywhere! Where to look? Start here:
Having a Difficult Registration or Login Process
Complex registration frustrates customers. They high tail it running away and abandoning their shopping cart.
Look for difficult registrations by tracking the number of abandoned carts or monitoring user feedback or complaints about the registration or login process.
Look for difficult registrations by tracking the number of abandoned carts or monitoring user feedback or complaints about the registration or login process.
Having a complicated registration process is like giving your customers a puzzle to solve before they can buy from you. Ain't nobody got time for that!
Having a Confusing or Complicated User Interface
A confusing interface makes it difficult for customers to find what they want.
Find complicated user interfaces by observing user behavior, such as the time spent on a page. Or monitor the number of clicks required to find a product.
Find complicated user interfaces by observing user behavior, such as the time spent on a page. Or monitor the number of clicks required to find a product.
Also recommended is that you solicit user feedback from friends and family. See if they find the website easy to use.
Complicated user interfaces are like trying to navigate through a maze blindfolded. You might eventually find what you're looking for, but no fun!
Complicated user interfaces are like trying to navigate through a maze blindfolded. You might eventually find what you're looking for, but no fun!
Having a Complicated Checkout Process
Complicated checkout processes lead to customers abandoning their carts. No purchase!
To identify, track the number of abandoned carts during checkout. Monitoring user feedback or complaints about the checkout process.
Complicated checkout processes are like going through airport security. Takes way too long…
Having Long Loading Times
A slow website can lead your customers to leave you before purchasing (leaving you before your first date).
To catch, monitor website speed and load times. Also, monitor user feedback or complaints about slow website performance.
Slow websites remind me of lineups in the morning at local coffee shops. We all have places to be!
Slow websites remind me of lineups in the morning at local coffee shops. We all have places to be!
Having an Inefficient Search Function in Your Online Marketplace
A poor search function sucks! It makes it difficult for customers to find what they want.
You can identify this issue by monitoring the number of unsuccessful search queries. Or also listen to user feedback or complaints about the search function. No one wants to look for a needle in a haystack.
Having Poor Product Descriptions or Images
Unclear product descriptions or low-quality images make informed purchasing decisions difficult.
Monitor user feedback or complaints about the product descriptions or images. Poor product descriptions are like blind dates. You think you know what you're getting into but…
Monitor user feedback or complaints about the product descriptions or images. Poor product descriptions are like blind dates. You think you know what you're getting into but…
How to Reduce Friction in Your Online Marketplace
Some ways to improve the common points of friction for your online marketplace:
Improving a Difficult Registration or Login Process:
- Simplify the registration and login process by reducing the number of required fields
- Make it easy for customers to sign up with social media accounts.
- Offer a guest checkout option for customers.
- Test the registration and login process with real users first. Like a cooking show, first, test it before serving it to guests!
Improving a Complicated User Interface:
- Simplify the website design by reducing clutter (like cleaning up your room before guests arrive).
- Provide clear and intuitive navigation options (dropdown menus, filters, etc.)
- Test the user interface with real users to identify issues and make improvements.
Improving a Complicated Checkout Process:
- Streamline the checkout process by reducing the number of required fields
- Offer multiple payment options and shipping choices to accommodate customer preferences.
Checkout should be like ordering a pizza with a multitude of choices (toppings = payment options).
Improving Long Loading Times:
- Optimize website speed by reducing image sizes, compressing files, and minimizing code (like a diet – cut the excess baggage, friends).
- Use a content delivery network (CDN) to improve website performance (what's a CDN? –think users are driving a Porsche 911 instead of a Toyota Sienna to your website).
Improving Inefficient Search Functions:
- Improve the search function by using autocomplete suggestions, filters, and synonyms.
- Use natural language processing (NLP) to understand user queries better
- Again, test the search function with real users to identify any issues.
Improving Poor Product Descriptions or Images:
- Provide clear and detailed product descriptions that include information such as size, color, and materials.
- Use high-quality images that showcase the product from multiple angles.
- Test the product descriptions and images with real users (like rehearsing for a play, ensure you got it right).
Overall, to improve friction, stay focused on the customer experience! Continually test - continuously improve.
Friction by the Numbers: Benchmarks to Measure Your Marketplace Against
"Continually test" works best when you know what good looks like. These are the current reference numbers to measure your own marketplace against.
How many people leave, and why
The Baymard Institute averages 50 studies and puts the documented online cart abandonment rate at 70.22% (updated 22 September 2025). Many of those shoppers were only browsing. Among those who meant to buy, the most common reasons in Baymard's survey were:
- Extra costs too high (shipping, tax, fees): 40%
- Delivery too slow: 20%
- Didn't trust the site with card details: 19%
- Site required an account: 18%
- Checkout too long or complicated: 17%
- Website errors or crashes: 17%
- Couldn't see the total cost upfront: 12%
- Not enough payment methods: 9%
Two of the friction points in this article are on that list: forced registration and a long, complicated checkout. The top reason, surprise costs, is one we haven't covered. If you charge buyers a fee or sellers a listing fee, show it before the last step.
A checklist with targets
| Friction point | What to measure | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Checkout or posting form | Form fields shown by default | Baymard finds an ideal checkout needs 12-14 form elements (7-8 fields). The average US checkout shows 23.48 form elements (14.88 fields). |
| Loading time | Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) | 2.5 seconds or less |
| Sluggish buttons, filters and search | Interaction to Next Paint (INP) | 200 milliseconds or less |
| Pages that jump while loading | Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) | 0.1 or less |
| Registration and login | Share of sign-ups started but not finished | Track it in your analytics funnel and cut fields until it improves |
The three speed metrics are Google's Core Web Vitals. A page passes when it meets the target for 75% of visits, on mobile and on desktop. One update since this article was first written: on 12 March 2024, INP replaced First Input Delay as the responsiveness metric. INP covers every tap and click during a visit, not just the first one. On a marketplace, that means slow search filters and "load more" buttons now count against you. To check your scores, enter a listing page and a search results page into PageSpeed Insights, not only your home page.
Login friction: passkeys are now mainstream
Besides social login and guest checkout, there is now a third way to remove the password step. In its May 2025 consumer survey (1,389 adults in five countries), the FIDO Alliance found that 47% of consumers will abandon a purchase if they forget their password. It also found that 69% had enabled passkeys on at least one account, and that passkeys were offered on 48% of the world's top 100 websites. If your platform supports passkeys, or lets people sign in with an existing Google or Apple account, buyers who are just browsing are far less likely to drop off when you ask them to log in before contacting a seller.
Closing Summary
First, we covered friction as any barrier that prevents or discourages customers from completing a transaction. Then we covered common points of friction:
- Difficult registration/login processes
- Confusing user interfaces
- Complicated checkout processes
- Long loading times
- Inefficient search functions
- Poor product descriptions/images.
You also learned how to use strategies to improve each one. For example, to simplify the registration/login process, we recommended reducing the required fields and offering a guest checkout option.
How about you?
- What strategies are you aware of to reduce friction?
- Any particularly effective tips? Please leave them in the comments!
