Simplify the Process
A long or confusing checkout process is a turn-off for customers, and simplifying the process will help maintain a customer’s interest long enough for them to make the purchase. The most common checkout-crime committed by store owners is the ‘sign-in’ barrier. How many times have you come across ‘Are you a new or returning customer? Sign in or create an account’? This forces the user to remember whether they have an account, and if so, their login details. If they don’t have an account then they are confronted by the unnecessary process of creating one. Instead of forcing a customer to choose, make use of a discreet and optional, ‘Already have an account? Sign in here’ button. This in no way impedes the checkout process for the customer. This is a solution demonstrated on the Ray-ban website. Another option is to have a guest checkout and grab their email during the process.
Create Sales Funnels After the Sale
If you want to create sales funnels, then do this after the purchase has gone through, on a confirmation page. Here you can encourage a customer to create an account, and also offer a discount code for their next purchase.
Shipping Transparency
Hiding your shipping prices until the end of the checkout process will irritate users. By the time they discover the price, they will be frustrated and more likely to look elsewhere or decide it’s too expensive. According to a survey by UPS, two of the main reasons for abandon checkouts are high shipping costs or shipping prices revealed too late. Improve your process and be transparent. If you need a zip-code to calculate delivery, then allow the customer to do this on a ‘shipping information’ page, without requiring them to checkout first.
Get Creative With Visuals
Attractive, branded checkouts are far more professional and appealing. Using your company’s colour scheme along the way, and including any applicable security logos will help to build trust. A progress indicator is useful for counteracting customer fatigue. They know where they are in the process and it encourages them to continue to the end. The Whiskey Exchange website offers a great example of this.
Create Visuals
Finally, if you require a lot of information from customers then create visual ways to obtain this. Endless dropdown boxes and text fields can become frustrating for users and time-consuming to fill out. Consider creative ways to get around this. A booking checkout on The Hireman training website allows customers to select the number of people to be booked on a course by using a slider or by clicking on a row of icons.
More Reasons Customers Leave
A survey conducted by UPS reveals the top eight reasons for abandon checkouts. Take a look at these reasons, and consider whether any of them may apply to your own website. The great news is that fixing them should be fairly straightforward.
Shipping costs too highOnly went through the checkout process to compare the prices between different sitesNot ready to make a purchaseOrder value was not high enough to qualify for free shippingShipping/handling costs revealed too latePreferred payment option not listedSlow loading pages
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