A frustrating checkout process can cause customers that are on the fence about a purchase to abandon their shopping cart. When online shoppers abandon a cart, this actually costs you and your ecommerce brand money. Making a few simple tweaks to your site’s checkout feature and UX design can help to recoup some of that revenue loss and boost sales while also enhancing customer experience. The related boost to your conversion rates could be up to 5 percent, according to Neil Patel, an expert in web design to boost traffic.
Registration Is a Hassle
After customers spend time on a retailer’s website, browsing the merchandise and placing objects in their cart, what happens immediately after they proceed can have repercussions on their purchase journey. Welcoming customers with an easy registration page for the checkout process is an easy way to pave the way for a smooth checkout. Why put obstacles in their path right off the bat? Take away the requirement that customers log in or create an account in order to check out and finish their purchase.
Instead of mandatory registration, offer a guest checkout option where customers don’t have to create an account in order to buy something, and then provide multiple options to register on the site, such as logging in with Facebook, Google or Amazon instead.
The Checkout Process Takes Too Long
Online shoppers who have added items to their shopping carts need to have the confidence to initiate the checkout process. It creates anxiety for customers when they’re not sure how long and involved the checkout process will be. For this reason, give customers a visual clue as to how many steps there are to check out. Retailers can do this with a “progress bar.”
For example, a retailer’s website could display a bar at the top of the page with three steps: step 1, the shopping bag or cart; step 2, shipping information; and step 3, payment information. This visualization serves to reassure customers that the process will not be overly time-consuming, a common barrier to completing purchases online.
Shipping and Payment Processing UX Is Sloppy
There are several aspects to designing a great shipping and payment UX experience:
Provide shipping details before payment options: Sites that ask for payment information too soon confuse customers. Having to think about and enter payment information before they’re ready is off-putting to online shoppers. Ask for shipping information first and provide transparent shipping costs up front. It is common for consumers to expect free shipping or a free-shipping option, especially around the holidays, so this information should be clear and prominent on the page. For example, if the site offers free shipping with orders of $50 or more, state that as soon as possible. This could entice customers to add something to their cart in order to reach this threshold.
Offer promotional codes early: If there is a special promotional code the customer can use to save on shipping costs or get a discount on their order, advertise this as soon as possible, as well. It causes frustration for customers to have to go searching for promo codes and free shipping offers at this stage of checkout. This hassle makes customers more apt to leave the site before completing the transaction.
Include a checkbox to identify billing and shipping addresses: After customers enter their shipping address, choose their shipping method and apply any applicable discounts, there should be a box to check if their billing address is the same as the shipping address.
Use secure checkout: A secure checkout icon or message—so-called “trust signals,” according to BigCommerce—boosts customer confidence as well at this stage.
Make entering payment information familiar and straightforward: Customers with PayPal accounts will welcome the opportunity to use PayPal on retailer sites, since this means they don’t have to take out a credit card to make their purchase. Otherwise, entering credit card information should be uncomplicated and quick: cardholder name, credit card number, card expiration date, and (card verification value) CVV number. Offer secure and speedy payment processing to give the customer confidence to continue with the transaction. Glitches and delay in payment processing will serve as red flags and may result in the customer’s flight before purchasing.
Resources:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/neilpatel/2014/09/23/improve-your-online-checkout-process/#4ef0d6e34999
https://neilpatel.com/blog/first-step-of-checkout/
https://www.mageplaza.com/blog/6-tips-enhance-online-checkout-process.html
https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/ecommerce-checkout-page-optimization/
