In Excel or Google Sheets, checkout abandonment rate for a whole period is (SUM(M2:M7) - SUM(N2:N7)) / SUM(M2:M7), where each SUM covers one column of monthly figures. On the sample data it returns 47.47%.
Checkout abandonment rate = (Checkouts started − Orders) ÷ Checkouts started × 100
What you need
Checkout abandonment rate is the percentage of started checkouts that are not completed: checkouts started minus orders, divided by checkouts started, times 100. You need these columns, here from the sample file monthly.csv:
- Checkouts started: column M (checkouts)
- Orders: column N (orders)
Step by step
- Download monthly.csv below and open it: in Excel use File → Open; in Google Sheets use File → Import → Upload. The headers land in row 1 and the six months in rows 2 to 7.
- Click any empty cell and enter =(SUM(M2:M7) - SUM(N2:N7)) / SUM(M2:M7) for the whole six months. It adds up each column first and then does the arithmetic once, which is the correct way to combine months.
- For each month, click AQ2, enter =(M2 - N2) / M2 and drag the fill handle down to row 7.
- Format the results as a percentage (Home → %, or Format → Number → Percent in Sheets). The formula returns a fraction such as 0.45, which the format shows as 45%.
- If a month can have zero in the denominator, wrap the formula so it shows a blank instead of #DIV/0!: =IFERROR((M2 - N2) / M2,"").
The formulas
=(SUM(M2:M7) - SUM(N2:N7)) / SUM(M2:M7)=(M2 - N2) / M2What you should get
Run against the sample data, the code above returns these values:
| Month | checkouts | orders | checkout_abandonment_rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-01 | 1,310 | 702 | 46.41% |
| 2026-02 | 1,420 | 748 | 47.32% |
| 2026-03 | 1,560 | 812 | 47.95% |
| 2026-04 | 1,400 | 771 | 44.93% |
| 2026-05 | 1,650 | 846 | 48.73% |
| 2026-06 | 1,790 | 917 | 48.77% |
| Whole period | 9,130 | 4,796 | 47.47% |
(9,130 − 4,796) ÷ 9,130 × 100 = 47.47%
Notes for Excel
- Google Sheets accepts the same formulas. If your spreadsheet locale uses a comma as the decimal separator, Sheets and Excel expect semicolons between function arguments instead of commas.
- Averaging the monthly results with AVERAGE() gives a different and usually wrong answer for the period, because every month counts the same however large it was.
- Excel tables (Insert → Table) let you write the same formula with column names instead of letters, which is easier to read and survives inserted columns.
Where checkout abandonment rate misleads
- It is 100 minus checkout conversion rate. Pick one to report.
- Customers who switch payment method after a failure can create two checkout sessions for one order.
- Prepaid-only and cash-on-delivery stores have very different levels; compare only within your own history.
The full explanation, with a calculator, is on the Checkout abandonment rate page.
Same metric, other tools
Related metrics in Excel and Google Sheets
Learn more about Excel
About the data on this page
The figures come from a small made-up dataset, printed above in full so you can check every number by hand. Download it as monthly.csv. The results are computed from those rows when the page is built, and the Excel formulas, SQL and Python on these pages are run against the same rows before publishing, so the code and the answers agree.
To get these numbers from your own data without writing formulas, try AnalyzeIt: ask in plain words and it shows the working behind every figure.
Legal entity
Devansh Yadav
Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh
Governing law: Courts at Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh
Phone: +91 8433475698
Legal: legal@analyzeit.in