How Improving Your Website Checkout Process Can Increase Sales
Many e-commerce websites face the problem of checkout abandonment. They lose potential customers who have previously intended to make the purchase.
Today we’ll try to find out what makes the checkout process difficult for buyers and how the problem can be solved.
1. Make checkout a clear process. Let the customers see what stage there are in and what is still required for them to do. It will be convenient for users to see a descriptive progress bar telling what else they are supposed to do to complete the checkout.
2. Give your customers peace of mind. If the selected items come with warranty, or if they can be returned or exchanged, be sure to emphasize that during the checkout process. If you sell clothes at your website, consider offering free styling tips to use the items just purchased. This will give your clients a sense of security and a desire to purchase at your website again.
3. Making changes MUST be easy. Note, the shopping cart should display as many details as possible (product name, quantity, size, color) and allow to change any attribute easily. Clients will enjoy the feeling of an informed purchase if you add a ‘Change’ button and function to each product in the cart.
4. Protect your customers’ personal data. If your e-commerce website provide for third party accreditation, this should be made visible during the checkout. Knowing that their personal data and financial details are kept safe will definitely encourage users to make the purchase.
5. Let them think again – Provide an option to save their cart contents for later. For instance, think of the people who have spent hours browsing your website adding items to their cart but for some reason have to leave the laptop straight away (an important telephone call, crying baby, a small fire in the kitchen:-). If they can save the cart, they will be more likely to return to it later. A useful tip: use a simple auto e-mail service to remind the users that they have not completed the checkout.
6. Be more flexible – allow your customers to checkout without having to register.
We hope that you find this useful and your e-commerce website will soon benefit from the suggested changes.
