Do you know that poor checkout process is one of the most popular dampener for eCommerce sales? If you have been a victim of horrible eCommerce checkout experience, in all probability, you will not visit that site again. An appealing website design is not enough for high eCommerce sales, it’s important to give visitors a good shopping experience and to make the checkout process easier.
It all boils down to simplicity and more unnecessary options, barriers would act as hindrances for completing a purchase. If you are an eCommerce owner and suffering from bad sales due to poor checkout, here are 11 tips for better eCommerce checkout and making your customers happy:
Login information Requirement
It’s true that asking a customer to login first helps in lead nurturing, but at the same time it’s a huge barrier to complete ecommerce purchase. When someone is eager to buy , some extra steps for registration, acts as bummer and even if they register, what will happen if they forgot the login credentials and need to click on ‘forgot password’ button. You need to forget sales then! It’s advisable to keep a ‘guest registration’ for quick checkout that would ensure you don’t lose a customer and revenue today.
Personal Information For Shoppers
On the other hand, shoppers who register with your eCommerce site and complete their shopping should reap the benefit. But how? Next time , some of the personal information like name , address, and credit card (of course, with their information) for expedient checkout. You need to take care of the online security aspects for financial info. This will help shoppers to complete shopping with literally few clicks!
Short is Sweet!
Keep the form fields short and take the information you absolutely need. Think of shortcuts so that you don’t miss the info and at the same time shoppers don’t abandon carts, like creating a check box to indicate shipping and billing address is the same.
Progress indicators
Multi step eCommerce checkout is a problem when buyers are not sure about the number of steps. Worse, they might assume there are many a steps which will take time, even if there are only 2 more steps. Take a cue from ModCloth, eretailer in clothes, how they have broken their checkout steps adding labels.
Clearly numbered and labeled steps reinforce the progress that holds buyers patience and results in better conversion
Related Product Recommendations
Heard of ‘cross selling’ and ‘upselling’? Then why don’t implement it online. In a way you are helping customers by suggesting related and complementary products,that would also drive sales. Here is what amazon recommends while purchasing decorating bags
Logical Flow of Forms
Interested shoppers won’t mind giving necessary information ,but if the information collection process is not in a logical order, they might abandon the cart. The usual flow is –
- Contact info – name , email and phone number
- Shipping information – physical shipping address
- Billing info – card details , and others
Addon Processing & Shipping Services
It’s been found out that offering a rush processing and multiple shipping options usually result in better sales and they are ready to shell out extra bucks so that means extra profit to you . Be upfront about the additional costs, so they don’t get shocked and abandon the cart.
Easy Support Information
This is a vital step and also the most overlooked one . Customer support info should be in every eCommerce checkout stage, so as to contact to get help in case of need. Often reticent and confused shoppers abandon shopping because of lack of help!
Call Attention to Mistakes
Many a times, shoppers might mistype information. An alert system should be there that would point out the mistake in the clear visible way. Buyers should understand the mistake and what they are required to do. For example , if they need to enter 9 digits in the phone number field, it should be clearly mentioned in case it does not happen.
Reassurance of Buyers
ecommerce purchases are on the rise, but so as online fraud. People are excited to shop online but biggest barrier comes in the form of data leakage. Assure visitors with the certification you have got for security and compliance like BBB or VeriSign. Shopping cart should have link to the privacy policy and third party seals add to trustworthiness
Customer Reviews
Good customer reviews can reassure new visitors and can increase conversion to a great extent. Allow customers to make reviews to before completing the purchase that would add to your credibility. A final review will make for happy customers who will return and you will need less attention to returns and customer service.
So, do you have any better ecommerce checkout plan that’s giving you better returns? Please share!
