Is the cart total always visible during checkout?

You see it in some retail stores now – you can see a running total as a clerk rings in your shopping cart.
Some even let you have handheld devices to calculate your cart totals within store aisles. So how many
online retailers have running cart totals within the checkout process? Just 23% show it, with the
remaining opting to hide the total.

The debate here is whether the abundance of information helps shoppers convert or if a lack of
information may suppress abandonment triggers – imagine seeing a big “you are spending $450” always
in front of you, knowing you really don’t need that signed replica Star Trek Enterprise model ship.
Conversion rates were about 60% higher at Top 100 retailer sites where the cart total was not always
shown during the checkout process.