Checkout in e-commerce: how to improve the customer experience
Ecommerce owners generally focus their attention on marketing and sales, which is obviously important. However, there is another crucial element for conversions: the customer experience when closing a deal, that is, at the checkout.
The checkout process is where you turn visitors into customers. It doesn’t matter how effective your marketing is if you can’t convince people to go through the checkout and payment steps.
Importance of checkout in e-commerce
Online customers care a lot about the checkout process. There isn’t a person who doesn’t think twice about entering payment details on a website, especially if it’s their first time buying from the store.
According to Baymard research, the average rate of cart abandonment in e-commerce is almost 70% and this is due to several problems presented at checkout time, such as unexpected freight cost information and many processes to be carried out.
In the case of a physical store, this would mean that out of every 100 people who enter your establishment, only 30 buy something.
Is there anything you can do about this? Yes. In fact, most of these checkout issues are quite simple to fix.
5 ways to improve the checkout process
Improving the checkout experience is primarily a matter of simplifying your forms, addressing customer questions and uncertainties, and ensuring they have all the information they need to make the best decision.
To get started, try following these five tips:
1. Simplify and shorten forms
Imagine filling out a long payment form. You carefully write down your billing and shipping address, enter personal details, and try to remember your credit card number.
Not the most pleasant of experiences, right? One study about conversion in forms shows that only 3% of users would fill out forms with 4 or more fields.
That’s why you not only need to simplify forms, but also make them smart to create a better user experience. When it comes down to it, follow the mantra: “ The shorter the better.”
2. Allow express purchase
Understand that many people are only interested in making a quick purchase. They don’t necessarily want to enter into a relationship with your store.
Forcing these buyers to create an account on your website (and check their email) hurts your conversion rates. In fact, according to a Selz report, 20% of shoppers will abandon their shopping cart if they have to create a user account.
Guest checkout (guest purchase) or express purchase allows people who have not registered with the store to place orders just by providing basic data at the time of closing the order, such as address and e-mail, which already allows you to try future communication.
3. Add security seals to the checkout page
Because online fraud still exists, it’s common for visitors to think twice before sharing their credit card information. Especially if it’s a site they’re using for the first time.
The addition of security seals on the checkout page gives the customer greater confidence to make the purchase.
Furthermore, you must be clear in your mind that investing in online security is essential to protect your company and your customers.
Among the most used seals we can highlight:
4. Offer multiple payment options
It is not difficult to provide different forms of online payment for the convenience of customers, but there are still many e-commerces that restrict the options.
The ideal thing to do is analyze your target audience and evaluate which payment options best meet their needs. For example, if according to your research, most visitors use online wallets rather than credit cards, be sure to provide multiple wallet options.
Various payment solutions are available for online stores. Sticking only to traditional card methods could cause you to lose customers at checkout.
5. Show a progress bar of the purchase process
Have you noticed the detailed process from “Log in” to “Place order” at the top of the page of large e-commerce sites, like Amazon? This is a great example of a progress bar.
If your online store doesn’t include some type of progress indicator, people will have no way of knowing how close to completing their purchase they really are. So they may think the checkout experience will be long and boring, which is bad for their business.
By adding a progress bar, you show customers exactly how many steps remain before they can finalize their order.
A good checkout experience guarantees sales
Shopping cart abandonment hurts your revenue, and poorly designed payment processes are one of the biggest reasons why this happens.
Instead of just focusing on the front end, dedicate yourself to optimizing your checkout process. This will make your customers eager to buy and help you increase conversion rates.
Make clear values and information regarding product delivery. Offering varied shipping options and express delivery can also be great motivators for the customer to close the order.
To guarantee the commitment to deadlines and agility in shipping orders, your store can count on the Delivery365.
Focusing on express delivery of products and services, Delivery365 makes available tracking technology, management of couriers and deliveries, options for receiving payment, easy customization for your company sales page and much more.
Visit our website, learn about our solutions and increasingly improve your customer’s experience.
