Our checkout had 9 fields. Removing 4 increased abandonment.

We ran a checkout optimization test over 5 weeks with 11,200 sessions. The original form had 9 fields. We hypothesized that fewer fields would mean less friction.

Control (9 fields): 68.4% completion
Variant (5 fields): 59.1% completion

We lost 9 points by removing fields. The removed fields were: company size, role, use case, and referral source. When we interviewed abandoners, the pattern was clear. Those four fields had been doing qualification work. Users who filled them felt the product was being configured for them. Without them, the checkout felt generic, and the commitment felt arbitrary.

We restored all four, moved them to a second step with a progress indicator, and completion rose to 74.2% — higher than either version.

Which of your form fields is doing emotional work that you mistook for friction?