Frictionless Behavioral Benchmark · 46 stores audited · live data
The State of E-Commerce Friction
Behavioral economics benchmarks from a research audit of 46 e-commerce stores (DACH + selected international DTC brands). Where the average store fails psychologically, which friction patterns are most common, and how your store compares. Methodology grounded in Kahneman, Cialdini, and Baymard research.
Sample size:N = 46
Methodology:7 friction categories · 23+ patterns
Updated:live
Methodology note. The Frictionless Behavioral Benchmark is built from automated friction analysis of public-facing pages of e-commerce stores — originally a DACH-focused dataset, now expanding to include international DTC brands (Allbirds, Casper, Gymshark, Glossier, Brooklinen, and others). Major direct-to-consumer brands and mid-tier shops. Each store contributes one data point (its most recent scan); duplicate scans of the same store are not double-counted. The dataset grows continuously as more stores are added to the research and as users initiate their own scans via frictionlessai.net. All benchmarks are reported in aggregate; individual store scores are not published.
Section 01 · Score Distribution
Where do most stores fall?
Frictionless Score from 0 to 100 across all 46 scanned stores.
Higher is better. Most stores cluster between Critical and Poor — meaning they leave significant conversion on the table.
Average Score
53.9
across 46 stores
Median Score
56.0
50th percentile
Top 10% (P90)
67.5
healthy stores threshold
Bottom 10% (P10)
36.0
critical-friction stores
Critical (0-24)
2 (4.3%)
Poor (25-49)
12 (26.1%)
Fair (50-74)
32 (69.6%)
Good (75-100)
0 (0.0%)
Section 02 · Friction Category Prevalence
Which psychological frictions are most common?
Across the 46 stores in the dataset, this is the percentage where each WHY category was detected as a HIGH or CRITICAL friction. Trust signals and decision clarity are the most consistently absent.
Friction Anxiety
41.3%
4 critical15 high89.1% any-severity
Value Ambiguity
32.6%
0 critical15 high87.0% any-severity
Urgency Absence
32.6%
0 critical15 high87.0% any-severity
Trust Deficit
23.9%
7 critical4 high89.1% any-severity
Price Resistance
19.6%
0 critical9 high87.0% any-severity
Decision Paralysis
17.4%
0 critical8 high89.1% any-severity
Mobile Friction
0.0%
0 critical0 high87.0% any-severity
Section 03 · Top Friction Patterns
The 15 most common friction patterns
Specific patterns Frictionless detects most often, ranked by prevalence across the 46 stores in the dataset. Each maps to a behavioral mechanism with documented research basis.
#
Pattern
Category
Prevalence
1
Forced Account Creation at Checkout
FRICTION ANXIETY
82.6%
2
No Sticky Add-to-Cart on Mobile
MOBILE FRICTION
71.7%
3
Decision Paralysis: room to optimize
DECISION PARALYSIS
50.0%
4
Value Ambiguity: room to optimize
VALUE AMBIGUITY
45.7%
5
Urgency Absence: room to optimize
URGENCY ABSENCE
45.7%
6
Price Resistance: room to optimize
PRICE RESISTANCE
41.3%
7
Shipping Cost Hidden Until Checkout
PRICE RESISTANCE
34.8%
8
Reviews Not Positioned Near Add-to-Cart
TRUST DEFICIT
30.4%
9
Weak Value Proposition Above the Fold
VALUE AMBIGUITY
30.4%
10
No Urgency Signal on Product Pages
URGENCY ABSENCE
30.4%
11
No Return Policy Visible
TRUST DEFICIT
23.9%
12
Checkout Form Has Too Many Fields
DECISION PARALYSIS
21.7%
13
No Social Proof Above the Fold
TRUST DEFICIT
15.2%
14
Payment Anxiety
—
13.0%
15
Cognitive Load
—
10.9%
Cite this
Use Frictionless data in your work
Writing a CRO blog post, agency proposal, or research paper? Cite the live benchmark below. The numbers update as our sample grows.
Frictionless Behavioral Benchmark (live, N = 46 stores audited). Available at frictionlessai.net/benchmarks. Methodology: WHY Framework v1, automated friction analysis of public-facing e-commerce pages, grounded in Kahneman, Cialdini, Baymard.