Among all the elements within an eCommerce website, the checkout page outweighs every other factor with regard to importance. It is the page that fetches you conversions or in other words the place where visitors become customers.
Your website may possess an appealing layout and a user-friendly interface. You might also carry an extensive range of products but it is only good sufficiently to raise the traffic on your website. True, it is vital but none of it actually counts if the great percentage of your website traffic is not clearing the checkout page.
In simple terms, it implies an elevated cart abandonment rate which suggests that people are including items to their cart but not displaying the will to purchase following their entry into the checkout segment.
Cart abandonment can be due to many reasons. Were you aware the average cart abandonment rate is 70%? Every 7 among 10 customers leave their cart for some reason. The percentage reveals that e-retailers miss out on immense sales as a result of shopping cart abandonment.
The finest approach to lowering cart abandonment and raising conversions is optimizing your checkout page, which is covered in this blog. This article suggests the best checkout page optimization procedures to regain your lost sales.
How To Optimize Your Checkout Page?
To facilitate a smooth checkout process and presenting your customers with a seamless checkout affair, consider the following eCommerce checkout top practices.
# 1 Avoid Compulsory Sign-ups By Providing Guest Checkout
The second main reason for cart abandonment according to Baymard Research is “The site wanted me to create an account.” It is clear from this fact that shoppers do not appreciate exchanging their personal details online, still numerous e-commerce websites have made the sign-up process compulsory.
From a merchant’s perspective, it is quite comprehensible that they wish to get customer information for their marketing campaigns, but they too need to know that not all wish to form a part of their promotions, campaigns or newsletters.
The percentage of such customers may be less, but it does affect your sales.
Therefore, skip the mandatory registration procedure and offer a Guest Checkout service on your eCommerce website, preventing the necessity to create an account. It is among the finest practices for eCommerce checkout optimization.
# 2 Add Social Login Options
While some visitors do not wish to register, a few feel hesitant to sign-up. When shoppers are offered with a registration form on the checkout page, it interrupts the checkout flow and hinders their checkout experience.
As some websites pursue a tedious registration process, it might force the visitors to abandon their cart and exit the store.
You can assist such visitors by providing them the social login tool, primarily something like Google login and Facebook login.
Social login prepares the way for a fast checkout by hastening the registration process, and it also keeps up the checkout flow.
Social Login
It is a one-click registration, taking into account that the visitor is logged in beforehand into the social network he or she is utilizing to sign-in on the website.
Social login forms among the successful checkout optimization strategies.
#3 Provide Free Shipping Or At Minimum Reduce The Shipping Cost
Another eCommerce checkout optimization process would be to offer free shipping facility to the customers.
Exorbitant shipping cost has continued to be a frustration for online shoppers and undoubtedly the primary reason for shopping cart abandonment in Baymard’s study.
The excess added amount at the last checkout step reluctantly compels customers to abandon their cart. A few e-commerce stores levy a high shipping amount and it is sufficient to wean the customer interest from the purchase.
To lower the probability of cart abandonment and induce prospects to conduct a purchase, presenting free shipping can be a suitable way.
Free Delivery
Free shipping can certainly improve the chances of conversion. It makes customers joyful when the product amount stays the same throughout.
And you aren’t required to jeopardize your profit. You can slightly modify the product price to assimilate the shipping cost.
# 4 Offer Multiple Payment Alternatives And Shipping Services
Contributing to the checkout page finest practices is to broaden your payment and shipping options.
Nearly 6% of the online shoppers leave the checkout page on account of the absence of payment modes and around 4% are without choice to purchase since their credit card becomes declined. So almost, 10% of the people are possessing payment related problems.
It can be countered by presenting multiple payment options. It is also essential as different customers have their faith linked with separate payment modes.
So, allow the people to select their preferred payment mode from several payment options. It will certainly lead to an increased conversion rate.
In addition to Credit Card and Debit Card, you must add digital wallets such as Google Pay, PayPal, etc. and definitely Cash on Delivery.
Likewise, you should present people with several shipping services. Different shipping stores have separate delivery times, so permit the users to decide how fast they desire their item to be delivered.
A few shipping service providers also assure a one-day delivery which can be very useful, particularly for a user who wishes to get his/her order inside 24 hours.
# 5 Employ Exit Popup
Another checkout optimization strategy would be inviting the shoppers with some pleasant offers and rebates when they are on the verge of leaving your website after nearly making through the complete checkout process.
Though you cannot ascertain the precise reason why the visitor is leaving the checkout page, you should put in your best effort till the last minute to inspire the user to buy.
It can be achieved by employing the Exit popup functionality. It tails the mouse activity of the user and shows your store offers immediately as the user plans to make an exit.
Exit Pop-up
Check out Knowband’s Exit Popup. It comprises a feature-laden module that has plenty to offer to make your popup successful. Most notably, you can activate the exit popup functionality for many pages, not simply for the checkout page.
# 6 Consider Adopting A One Page Checkout
One of the finest ways to optimize your checkout process is by adopting a One Page Checkout on your portal, also termed as a single page checkout.
This checkout optimization eases the checkout process by positioning all the checkout fields on one page. It provides a convenient, speedy and easy checkout, and leads to an improved conversion rate.
# 7 Employ Google Auto-address Fill And Inline Validation
Conserve users’ time and permit them to check out fast by activating the Google Auto-address fill feature on your website.
It shows the address suggestions instantly as the visitor keys in his/her address in the address field. Upon choosing an address, the remainder of the address fields get filled automatically.
You should also incorporate the option to utilize the shipping address for the billing address also.
Together with autofill, activate Inline Validation (also known as Data validation). It aids a user to locate the mistake while placing the details on the checkout fields. As the user shifts between fields, it examines whether the inputs furnished by the user are right or not.
These 2 methods play a critical part in the checkout optimization of eCommerce.
# 8 Show Security Badges
People frequently suspect the security level of a website, particularly new visitors. They do not depend on a site easily and so they feel slight concern while furnishing their payment details.
Make visitors experience that your website is dependable and their payments are protected. Show them the trust seals. It can contain the logos of the payment choices, security badges from McAfee, Norton, Padlocks, or also a brief text that reads “Fast and secure payment”.
You must also include an SSL Certificate to your website to keep the trust throughout.
# 9 Form Your Checkout Mobile Responsive
Currently, many people opt to perform online shopping through mobile devices.
A report from Statista mentions that 72.9% of entire retail e-commerce is hoped to be produced by m-commerce, by 2021 and this is the major reason why online businesses are highlighting on easy mobile browsing to assure their visitors relish a seamless checkout experience not just from desktop but even from a hand-held gadget.
So, ensure your checkout page is mobile responsive if you wish to obtain big conversions from mobile devices.
A checkout page that is mobile-friendly is an important factor in the checkout page optimization.
# 10 Show Progress Bar
You can go on with the multi-step checkout process if you aren’t enthusiastic about a single page checkout but ensure it shows a progress bar.
Progress Bar
A tedious checkout process can frequently irritate users if they can’t ascertain how much time it will take for the checkout process.
Aid them by showing a progress bar/progress indicator so that it is obvious beforehand what entire steps they need to undergo to finish the checkout.
People are less probable to leave the checkout page if they can view their checkout progress.
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# 11 Promote Cross-selling
When you speak about checkout optimization, cross-selling simply cannot be overlooked. Immediately after the user conducts a purchase, show them linked products that would go nicely with their purchase.
Moreover, you can at least motivate customers to shop for more by showing them gratitude and offering them a coupon code for their following purchase.
Conclusion
Checkout page optimization is not limited to a few tight strategies only. You will discover lots of ways to optimize your checkout page, and the aforesaid methods are also useful and beneficial though it is not as simple as it seems.
Checkout optimization involves plenty of time and effort. You are required to keep performing A/B testing at frequent intervals to recognize what pans out the best for you.
Keep in mind even a small abatement in the abandoned carts can pile up an immense amount in your total revenue.
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