0
0
Do you know why Amazon was so keen to register a patent for the 1-Click, (also called one-click or one-click buying) technology?
Because customers want to be done with the checkout process in flash. Literally with one click. How many times have you painstakingly decided which product to buy, added them to cart and then found yourself in the beginning of a long form that asks a long list of ‘*required information’?
Too many times, right? Well, truth be told the shopping cart the final destination where your online store visitors turn into paying customers or lost sales prospects.
The checkout page plays an influential role in increasing or suppressing your store’s conversions. User-friendliness is not a nice-to-have option. Instead, it should be an inherent feature of the checkout page.
That means you have to say NO to a thousand distractions and focus only on those features that will make it easier for the customer to checkout quickly.
Here are some ways that you can try to make your shopping cart checkout process more user-friendly.
Adding and removing items from the cart
“Consumers cough up $5,400 a year on impulse purchases.” (CNBC) Amost 80% of online shopping happens on an impulse. While it is a good thing for business, it can also backfire if the checkout process is designed to be twisty.
Making the checkout process longer gives the customer time to introspect and decide against buying the product. It is necessary that the shopping cart is designed in such a way that they are able to add or remove items from the cart without much effort. In fact, they should also be able to view the products easily so that the checkout process can be completed with minimal steps.
Avoid nasty surprises
The fun in online shopping is that it is inexpensive compared to brick and mortar store shopping. The fun element is often lost when the online store springs a surprise in the checkout page. The surprise usually comes in the form of a shipping costs, taxes, packing charges etc.
All of these costs would not have been considered by the customer at the time of deciding to buy the product. Such nasty surprises in the checkout page can lead to a surge in cart abandonment. Hence, the need to include all applicable costs by design in the previous pages as well as the checkout page.
Ask minimal information
Nobody likes being asked too much information to make an online purchase. Unfortunately, most online stores have the tendency to ask for first name, second name, address, locality, pin code, telephone and much more non-essential information to complete a transaction.
Ideally an email address and the contact number of the customer is sufficient enough to complete a transaction. Anything more can help in future marketing efforts, however, they don’t have to be fixed as ‘required fields’.
Asking inimal information from the customer makes it easy for them to complete the transaction. In fact, using autofill to fill in recurring information should help process the order faster. The end result would be more sales and lower cart abandonment rates.
Be optimized for mobile
The customers of today are shopping from the comfort of their couches. Omni channel commerce and mobile app shopping are the mainstream buzzwords in eCommerce. If your checkout page is not optimized for mobile, there is a fat chance that your customers would abandon their carts.
To make the shopping cart page user-friendly in a mobile device, pay close attention to designing the buttons and CTAs for quick visibility. The right choice of colors that trigger positive action can also help here. For instance, the color green is always associated with YES or PROCEED while red is often associated with something negative.
Security by design
security can be a make or break factor for your checkout page. According to Statista at least 15% of cart abandonments happen due to concerns about payment security. Customers are wary of their private information being made public or breached by hackers. They need assurance that their data is kept secure at all times.
Hence, the need to integrate signs, logos and symbols that will showcase your checkout page as a secure one to customers. You can use a EV SSL certificate to secure your page as well as encrypt the information it collects from customers while concluding the checkout process. You can also display trust seals or indicators that will show your website to be a genuine source to do business with.
Allow guest checkouts
According to this Neil Patel blog, the registration page is often skipped by users resulting in cart abandonment. Creating a new username, setting a password and confirming the details by clicking on a link sent to the email are all counted as lengthy procedures by impatient customers.
They need swift checkouts, which means your store has to allow guest checkouts. Guest checkouts require the customer to create an account only after completing the purchase. This means that the store does not lose on sales and the customer is also spared from the lengthy process of signing up.
Offer multiple payment options
Cash on delivery is slowly phasing out as more digital payment modes are coming to the foray. Plastic card modes are widely used for online shopping. In fact, digital wallets are also rising in popularity owing to their ease of use and the many loyalty programs attached to them.
All this hints that retailers must equip their online stores with multiple payment options. Payment options which would enable customers to buy through any mode they wish. Any restriction on most commonly used payment modes could result in cart abandonment.
Conclusion
Checkout pages are the most critical elements for any successful eCommerce business. A well-designed checkout page can turnaround profitability for the online store. A poorly designed page, one that misses the cues that customers look for will inflate cart abandonment rates. Stay clear of such mistakes and make sure your checkout page is designed to perfection with these steps.
