Recovering trust and reducing technical debt by making pricing logic server‑true and payment plans instantly readable.
ablefy powers creators selling products with complex pricing options (subscriptions, installments, bundles) and advanced settings like custom intervals and absolute dates. Checkout is the single point where trust is either earned or lost.
For years, the experience was held together by frontend logic that was risky to touch, and sellers reported the inconsistencies repeatedly. We decided to fix the root cause instead of applying another visual band‑aid.
Pricing was calculated in the browser, leading to rounding errors and mismatches between checkout and invoice totals.
Complex plans were described as dense paragraphs, forcing users to mentally calculate dates and totals.
Both issues damaged trust and created legal risk under EU/German transparency requirements.
There was no single source of documentation, so I mapped every pricing path myself to avoid blind spots.
One‑time, installments, subscriptions, limited subscriptions.
Absolute dates, relative intervals, custom charging days.
Edge cases like month‑by‑month price changes (19€ → 20€ → 30€).
Main product + order bump with different plan types (e.g., subscription + installments) and how they render together in the summary.
We ran moderated usability sessions and counter‑balanced the order to reduce bias. The patterns were consistent across participants.
Unexpected totals felt misleading and made people doubt the price summary.
Dense descriptions forced mental math to decode payment schedules.
Unclear totals made it harder to commit, especially on installment plans.
By always showing the total price in the summary, we reduce payer confusion and prevent drop‑offs during checkout.
Providing a detailed price breakdown (items, taxes, shipping) increases trust and should lift conversion.
Replaced legal text with clear milestones: free trials, first payment, recurring dates, total amount.
Moved pricing logic to the backend so checkout and invoice totals always match.
Edge cases with many rates show a clean summary with a “View Details” breakdown.
Timeline color adapts to seller branding; layout stacks cleanly on mobile.
A quick visual snapshot of how we made pricing clarity obvious without overwhelming users.
Increase in shop_checkout__pricing_plan_change events (±4.5%).
Small uptick in switching payment methods during checkout.
Decrease in shop_checkout__extend_checkout_summary_click events.
Critical learning: Conversion remained flat/neutral. Clarity helps users make informed decisions, not necessarily impulsive ones.