Do you have an amazing website, great prices and high-quality products? Yet despite all the efforts you put in your website you noticed that you have a very high checkout abandonment rate? Typically, higher abandonment rate indicate there are most probably some problems with your checkout process.
So, if you see that abandonment rate in your shop is higher than the avrage in your industry then you should optimize the checkout.
Optimize your Checkout with these 3 simple Conversion Tactics
1. Simplify user flow
Once the consumer comes to the very last stage – also known as checkout – you want to make sure they complete their orders as quickly as possible. For this reason, it is vital that you don’t distract them with ads or some kind of pop-ups.
This also means eliminating all kind of forms with which you want to collect information that are not necessary for payment (e.g. phone numbers, how they found your shop, their level of education, birth date, etc.). Speaking from personal experience, I sometimes get very frustrated when I see what kind of demographic information the shop is asking me.
Often, I get so annoyed that the experience ends with a non-purchase rather than a completed one. By the way, this also includes account registration. Let’s be clear: not every customer wants to register in order to be able to purchase from your shop. So, if you have a high cart-abandonment rate and you make the purchases in your shop conditional upon making an account, then I would suggest you run an A/B test to see if your cart abandonment will decrease once you eliminate this condition from your online shop. You may be surprised!
2. Payment methods – the more you offer the better
If I have learned anything from working in the eCommerce industry and looking after different international markets then it is this: each market has its own specific variables but this is especially true when it comes to the payment options. Some countries like cash on delivery, others love credit cards, others prefer a bank transfer, etc. However, if possible, offer as many payment options as possible. One common reason for a customer abandoning your checkout is because you are not offering her the payment options she is looking for.
Another time the multiple payment method comes into play is when your customer is faced with her payment being declined. I think this has happened to everyone at least once.
So, what does this message usually look like?
“We are sorry to inform you but there is a problem with your credit card. Please re-enter your credit card number.”
These kind of messages are very frustrating for many customers, so instead of forcing the customer to re-enter everything again and worrying if the credit card will be rejected again, why not provide customers with an alternative message?
“Oops, it looks like there are some issues with your credit card at the moment. Don’t worry, there are several options available to help you complete this order. For security reasons, you will need to re-enter the number of your credit card OR you can also pay with PayPal, Bank transfer, etc.” (Simply list here all the payment options that you have)
3. Remove the navigation pane
As previously mentioned, once the customer gets to the checkout, you don’t want your customer leaving the page. You want your customer to complete her order as quickly as possible. Displaying the website navigation can be very distracting once the customer enters the checkout.
If possible, remove the footer, header and any sidebars during the checkout process. Believe it or not, some shops have seen a significant increase in the checkout conversion rate by simply hiding their navigation, so maybe this is something you want to test in your shop too?
These are some of the techniques you can utilize in your online shop in order to streamline the checkout process. I tried to explain the ones that are not too much hassle to implement in your shop.
However, there are also some other helpful methods to increase the checkout conversion rate, but I will write more about this in some of my future articles.
How do you optimize checkout process?
1. Simplify user flow: Once the consumer comes to the very last stage – also known as checkout – you want to make sure they complete their orders as quickly as possible. For this reason, it is vital that you don’t distract them with ads or some kind of pop-ups. This also means eliminating all kind of forms with which you want to collect information that are not necessary for payment (e.g. phone numbers, how they found your shop, their level of education, birth date, etc.).
2. Payment methods: if possible, offer as many payment options as possible. One common reason for a customer abandoning your checkout is because you are not offering her the payment options she is looking for.
3. Remove the navigation pane: If possible, remove the footer, header and any sidebars during the checkout process. Believe it or not, some shops have seen a significant increase in the checkout conversion rate by simply hiding their navigation
What is the checkout process?
The checkut process is – once the consumer comes to the very last stage – also known as checkout. Also, when customer is on this step you want to make sure they complete their orders as quickly as possible. For this reason, it is vital that you don’t distract them with ads or some kind of pop-ups.
