How to Cut Down WooCommerce Checkout Steps: A Guide

Are Lengthy Checkout Pages Killing Your Sales? They will keep targeting your sales until you deal with the complexity of the checkout process. 

The average online shopper is impatient. If your WooCommerce store has a long, cluttered checkout process, you could be losing valuable customers. 

So, what’s the solution?

Streamlining your WooCommerce step checkout process is the key.

Here in the paragraphs below, we will explain the best methods of simplifying the checkout steps in WooCommerce and which one you must choose. So, let’s explore. 

Why Simplifying WooCommerce Checkout Is a Game Changer

A complex checkout isn’t just inconvenient—it’s costly. By cutting down unnecessary steps and organizing the flow, you can:

1. Reduce cart abandonment rates
2. Boost conversion rates and sales
3. Improve user experience across devices
4. Speed up the purchasing process
5. Encourage repeat purchases

Let’s explore the best ways to create a multistep WooCommerce checkout experience without overwhelming your customers—or your developers.

Best Method To Simplify WooCommerce Checkout Steps 

When it comes to optimizing the WooCommerce checkout multi-step process, there are two main methods store owners can choose from:

• Using a WooCommerce multistep checkout plugin
• Removing unnecessary fields through custom code

Each approach has its pros and cons, but one is clearly more user-friendly and scalable.

Method #1: Use a Multistep Checkout WooCommerce Plugin

One of the hacks to optimize the checkout process is by simplifying the steps involved. To make the process user-friendly, you can opt for a multi-step checkout for the WooCommerce plugin. With our WooCommerce multistep checkout plugin, you can do the job easily in just a few clicks. 

How It Works?

This is how the multistep checkout WooCommerce plugin works: 

1. Divides checkout into logical steps such as Billing, Shipping, Payment, and Review.
2. Uses a progress bar to guide customers and show how far they are into the process.
3. Adapts responsively for mobile and tablet devices.
4. Supports various themes and custom styles for seamless integration.
5. Allows step validation to prevent skipping essential information.

This plugin improves the overall flow of your step checkout WooCommerce experience by reducing cognitive load and making the process less intimidating.

Benefits of a Plugin 

Using a plugin offers a wide range of benefits that go beyond aesthetics. This is the reason you must know how to add a multistep checkout to WooCommerce using a plugin. 

Here are some of the perks offered:

• Easy Setup: No coding required—just install and configure.
• User-Friendly Interface: Keeps the customer focused on one task at a time.
• Customization Options: Adjust step titles, styles, and sequences.
• Mobile Optimization: Designed to perform well across all screen sizes.
• Higher Conversions: A smoother flow encourages more completed checkouts.

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Method #2: Remove Unwanted Checkout Fields Through Code

If you have development knowledge or access to a developer, manually removing unnecessary checkout fields can simplify the process. For example, you can remove the "Company Name" or "Order Notes" fields using snippets in your theme’s functions.php file.

Common Checkout Fields to Remove:

• Company Name
• Order Notes
• Secondary Address Line
• Phone Number (if not essential)

Here is a code snippet to help you remove two fields, billing company and order comments, from the billing and order sections, respectively.

add_filter( 'woocommerce_checkout_fields', 'custom_remove_woocommerce_checkout_fields' );

function custom_remove_woocommerce_checkout_fields( $fields )

{

    unset($fields['billing']['billing_company']);

    unset($fields['order']['order_comments']);

    return $fields;

}

Drawbacks of Coding 

Having expert WooCommerce developers is not the only issue with the coding method for simplifying the checkout process, but there are more issues.

Some of these issues are as follows:

• Requires technical knowledge or a developer
• Risk of breaking your checkout if not coded properly
• Difficult to scale or change the layout into multiple steps
• No visual indicators or progress bars
• Lack of mobile responsiveness adjustments

This option is best for small tweaks, not for building a comprehensive, multi-step WooCommerce checkout experience.

Multistep Checkout WooCommerce Plugin vs. Code

Let’s compare both methods side-by-side to help you decide what’s best for your store:

Feature	Plugin (Multi-Step Checkout for WooCommerce)	Custom Code
Ease of Use	✅ Beginner-friendly	❌ Requires coding
Visual Layout (Steps & Progress)	✅ Built-in support	❌ Not available
Customizability	✅ Flexible step control	⚠️ Limited without advanced coding
Speed of Implementation	✅ Instant setup	❌ Time-consuming
Error Handling	✅ Inline validation in each step	❌ Must implement manually
Scalability	✅ High	⚠️ Limited

 

Drawbacks of Complex Checkout For WooCommerce

An overcomplicated checkout process is more than just a minor inconvenience—it’s a silent sales killer. Shoppers today expect a fast, intuitive, and hassle-free experience. When your WooCommerce checkout is bloated with too many fields, confusing layouts, or lacks logical flow, it directly impacts your store’s performance. You have to implement strategies to resolve slow checkout issues.

Let’s break down the major consequences of sticking to a long, single-step checkout process:

   1. Increased Cart Abandonment

Studies show that nearly 70% of online shopping carts are abandoned, and a major reason is friction during checkout. A single-page checkout that tries to gather all information at once can overwhelm users, especially if they’re in a hurry or distracted. Instead of pushing through, they leave—often never to return.

   2. Poor Mobile Experience

More than half of online shopping now happens on mobile devices. A cluttered one-page checkout forces users to scroll endlessly, zoom in to fill tiny fields, and jump between sections. Without optimization for smaller screens, the checkout becomes frustrating, leading users to exit before completing the purchase.

   3. Higher Bounce Rate on the Checkout Page

When a user lands on the checkout page and is immediately hit with a wall of forms and instructions, they often bounce. This signals to search engines and analytics tools that the page experience is poor, impacting your SEO and conversion insights.

   4. User Confusion Due to Too Many Form Fields

Customers get confused when they are unsure what information is required or why certain fields are even present. Fields like "Company Name" or "Order Notes" may not be relevant to every user, but are still visible. This clutter breaks focus and leads to form abandonment. To limit this increasing abandonment, simplifying the checkout with the WooCommerce multistep checkout extension is the ideal solution. 

   5. Lost Sales Due to Form Fatigue

Form fatigue is real. The longer and more complicated the checkout form is, the more likely customers will give up midway. Even if they genuinely wanted to buy, the mental and physical effort required to complete the purchase deters them from following through.

Additional Pitfalls You Might Overlook:

1. No progress indicators: Customers don’t know how far they are into the process or how much more time it will take.
2. Error messages that don’t make sense: Without clear, step-by-step validation, users can get stuck and confused about what went wrong.
3. Lack of trust: An overly complex or broken checkout process can make your store look unprofessional or even suspicious.

So, we can conclude that a cluttered checkout process is not taking you anywhere, not just the checkout process, but your entire WooCommerce store. So, opt for WooCommerce plugins that help you cut the clutter and let you offer the best for your customers. 

Putting It All Together!

Compiling all the instructions mentioned in the above paragraphs, we can conclude that simplifying the checkout process is key. The best method of simplifying the checkout process is by removing WooCommerce checkout steps that are irrelevant and not required. 

To achieve this goal, you should choose a multistep checkout WooCommerce plugin compared to custom coding because of the uninvited complexity coding brings. 

So, get the plugin installed and simplify the checkout process for a better user experience.