An article by this title was posted last week at Smashing Magazine, a publication about web design and programming. Very much worth reading.
However, a careful reading highlights factors that have always been true in the larger direct commerce marketplace. Some of the characteristics of checkout design vary, based upon the size of the merchant (in sales) and the nature of the market which the merchant services.
Thus, when you read about what “best practices” are; or what factors are “common” or “typical”, you should certainly consider those practices. But you should also conduct A:B tests to confirm these practices make a difference to your customers. Because their the only customers that count … or should count.