How to Improve Your Ecommerce Checkout Flow
You’ve got traffic, but no purchases, what do you do? Improve your Ecommerce checkout flow with these tips to convert and retain customers.
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You’ve used all possible strategies to win customers to your e-commerce site. However, they’re still not making purchases. Worse still, most of them abandon their shopping carts at checkout.
Ecommerce checkout flow is a HUGE part of the user experience, and one you can’t afford to screw up.
According to the Baymard Institute, cart and checkout abandonment constitutes 70% of the average sales loss in e-commerce. If your business keeps losing money on the table because of cart and checkout abandonment, you need strategies to help your customers complete their orders.
Read on to learn different strategies to help you improve your Ecommerce checkout flow.
1. Simplify Your Purchase Sequence
People shop online because of the convenience and ease offered by e-commerce shops compared to physical shops. Therefore, you don’t want your customers to feel like navigating through a maze when they shop on your platform.
The debate about one-step multiple-step checkouts rages on. Some business owners believe that a one-step checkout is more straightforward and appealing to consumers. Others believe that one-step checkouts are overwhelming and have a higher checkout abandonment rate.
Whichever checkout option you choose, ensure that it is detailed and easy to follow.
According to the Baymard Institute, 28% of online shoppers who abandon their carts before completing their order attribute it to long and confusing checkout processes. Create a self-explanatory diagram to show your customers the step they will take before completing the order.
Here’s an example of what your purchase sequence should look like.
A good purchase sequence should have a linear flow, guiding the customer as they purchase. You can also use it as a visual tool to show your customers where they are in making the purchase – from the product page to the part where your store uses email finder tools to verify the user’s email to payment and order confirmation. For instance, Amazon has a four-step purchase sequence.
A customer can follow up on their order on the purchase sequence. If your customer doesn’t complete the purchase at once, they can easily pick up from where they left off by following the purchase sequence.
2. Improve Your Page Designs
The success of your checkout page relies on simplicity and convenience. Nobody wants to wade through complicated design pages to woo customers. You’ve worked so hard to get the shoppers to your official website so remove all distractions from the checkout page design that could slow down the conversion. You can replace headers, footers, and menu buttons with essential links such as delivery information and trust badges.
Don’t keep flashing other things that the customer could buy along with their order. This will only annoy and push away your customer. Instead, offer upsell items only after the customer has finished the transaction.
After working so hard to earn customers, you don’t want to lose them to clutter and complexity. Online shoppers appreciate simple designs that will help them stay on track with their purchases.
The image above is an illustration of a straightforward page design. Berkey Filters only displays the vital information on the page. Instead of cluttering the page with irrelevant information, they provide helpful shipping information.
3. Ensure Fast Page Loading Speed
According to HostingManual, online visitors are one of the most impatient lots you’ll ever encounter. 50% of them will leave the site if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load. 80% of those will never come back because they don’t like delays.
If you want your customers to stay on your checkout page long enough to make a purchase, you need to ensure your page loads fast.
Amazon is an e-commerce giant, yet it still loses customers because of slow loading checkout pages. The company says that it loses 1% of its revenue for every 100 milliseconds page loading delay.
Besides, Google also uses loading speeds to determine your page’s search result ranking. Not to scare you, but you need to ensure your checkout pages load fast to impress your customers.
You can use Pagespeed Insights to determine your page’s loading speed. The tool also tells you how you can improve the speed. In the example below, the page scores a relatively low 31 points, primarily because of its abysmal speed index, time to interactive, and largest contentful paint.
Here are some strategies to increase your page’s loading speed.
- Combine your page files. The more files your page has, the slower it loads. You can improve your page loading speed by 80% by combining CSS and Javascript files into one file for each type.
- Use compression audits. These will help you determine the size of the files on your page. Anything above 100KB will slow down your page.
- Compress your website files. You can use software like GZip to increase loading speed by up to 70%.
- Reduce image sizes. Your images should be a standard size. When uploading, minimize the images.
- Use Content Distribution Networks (CDNs). You’ll be delivering content through a network of servers. Customers will find this faster and more reliable when accessing your checkout page.
The idea is to make your page as accessible as possible for your customers. 50% is a lot to lose while you can salvage the situation.
4. Optimize for Mobile Devices
According to SaleCycle, 59% of e-commerce purchases are made on mobile devices. The site also states that 80% of mobile users make an online purchase every six months. These statistics explain why you need to optimize your checkout page for mobile users.
Besides, having a user-friendly checkout page also appeases search engines. If you can’t see SEO results with your content creation strategies, this could be the trick you need to convert more customers.
You can use Google’s Mobile Friendly Test to determine how your page looks on mobile. Here’s an example of how the tool works.
When optimizing the checkout page for mobile users, consider the design, ease of use, and privacy.
The example from eBay above has a mobile-friendly checkout page. The company has made the page design easy to use with activated buttons for the different steps their customers can take with an item they choose. You can copy this idea and improve your checkout flow.
5. Make Registration Optional
The Baymard Institute records that 37% of e-commerce buyers who abandoned their purchase at checkout did it because the site required them to create a new account. Just because a customer has decided to shop with you doesn’t mean they want to have an account. Some clients want to shop and go about their business without feeling like they’re being compelled to surrender their personal information.
If you force your customers to register on your site, they’ll feel coerced. They are less likely to go through the checkout process to the end.
You need your client’s information for shipping and delivery. However, you can ask them to fill out this information without creating an account with you. Let them fill out any essential information you need, and ask if they’re interested in being part of your email list.
Alternatively, you can allow your customers to sign in with their social media networks. This way, they can verify their identities without feeling like they’re signing up for something new.
Here’s an example of a business that allows customers to log in to the platform with their Google accounts.
This option assures the customer that registration is optional and they don’t have to give up their details to the eCommerce platform.
6. Avoid Extra Charges at Checkout
How would you feel if you committed to buying something, only to be charged extra in the last step? Defrauded, robbed even? That’s precisely how your clients feel when they find extra costs attached to their items at the payment section of the checkout page.
Your customers know they might have to pay for delivery and taxes while shopping. However, they’d like to see most of this information up front when shopping on your site.
Although it could be hard to display some financial information such as taxes because they vary in different areas, your customers appreciate transparency. You can give a heads up for taxes in a statement like “taxes applicable.”
Some of the extra costs that your should disclose include:
- Subtotals
- Applicable taxes
- Shipping and delivery fees
- Final order total
Here’s an example from Berkey Filters. See how they’ve included all the costs under the product.
Your customer already knows how much they need to own a particular item with such information. Avail it as early as possible and help your customer make an informed decision.
7. Include Trust Badges for More Credibility
According to Helpnetsecurity, 33% of US online shoppers worry about falling victim to fraud. Your customers need to feel safe when they shop with you. Nothing puts off a customer more than feeling that their information, bank details, and personal details are not safe.
You can use security seals and badges to convince your customers that your platform is safe. Use these badges and seals all through checkout to keep reassuring your customers.
Here are some of the badges you can use for your business.
- PayPal. PayPal is one of the most trusted online money platforms. Their badge means that you use their highly secure system, and it assures your customers that your site is safe.
- Visa. The Verified by Visa merchant program proves that your business is accepted by the world’s most recognized money processing brand. Furthermore, you won’t be charged for the badge.
- Better Business Bureau. Some 170 million online shoppers log in to the BBB website to prove a business’s credibility before shopping. Having a BBB badge shows that your business is ethical.
- Google Customer Reviews. Sign up for GCR so that customers can leave reviews about your platform. Google will assess the review and give you a badge when you meet their threshold.
You can also use Trustpilot and G2 badges for credibility if you’re selling SaaS products.
8. Provide a Cart Autosave Feature
Your customers spend a lot of time sifting through the different products in your catalog and choosing their most preferred ones. Sometimes, they can’t complete a purchase and need to return later. Imagine their frustration if they have to go through the process again.
Design your checkout page to save a customer’s cart even when they don’t buy immediately. That sums up the convenience that customers need on your site.
You can use the customer’s email address to save their cart. Ask them to input the correct information so it’s easier to retrieve their shopping carts.
9. Facilitate Prompt Customer Support
Your customers need to know that you’re willing and ready to help them whenever they’re stuck in the checkout process. They’d like their questions answered adequately and promptly.
You can enable a knowledge base with FAQs, an active call center, or a live chat option to help your clients. Don’t use robots to answer you’re clients. Your customer is more likely to complete their purchase if they can consult real humans who understand their predicaments.
Here’s an example of a call center option from Curry’s.
Guide your customers through the purchase, keep them on track and see a significant drop in checkout abandonment.
10. Send Follow-Ups on Checkout Abandonment
Even after following all these tips on improving your checkout flow, you’ll still encounter checkout abandonment. That shouldn’t discourage you. Instead, follow up on the customers and know their reasons for abandonment.
You can ask the customer for feedback and write an email to convince them to return. You could even offer a discount or a one-time bonus to convince them to complete the purchase. This approach could affect your short-term profit margin, but it also could help you gain long-term customers.
However, only use this strategy once per customer. As much as you want to convince your customer to return, don’t bombard them with emails. You can send one email immediately after checkout abandonment, then follow up a few days later. Plus you can send recurring emails like these through automation software.
You can include social proof in your email to convince your customer.
In Closing
Creating a seamless Ecommerce checkout flow makes it easy for your customers to complete their purchases. This translates to more profits and growth for your business.
If your checkout flow is poor, you can use different metrics to improve it. You can create an easy purchase sequence, use simple page designs and boost your page loading speed.
You also need to optimize your e-commerce checkout page for mobile users and make the registration process optional.
The main idea is to make the process easy and safe for your customers. Follow these tips to improve your Ecommerce checkout flow and watch your revenue increase.
