A smooth eCommerce checkout is of paramount importance to enhance the online shopping experience of users. If not optimized, it can hamper the checkout flow and compel users to abandon their cart.
In this article, I have presented 7 crucial tips to optimize your eCommerce checkout process and provide a convenient checkout experience to your visitors.
1. Provide Guest Checkout
The mandatory registration form can be a barrier in an eCommerce checkout. It would be unwise if a customer looks all set for the purchase but is forced to abandon because of compulsory account creation.
This distraction can be avoided by offering Guest Checkout.
Guest Checkout enables a customer to check out comfortably without disturbing the checkout flow. It speeds up the checkout process and provides a smooth checkout experience to the users who do not want to receive promotional emails from your business.
Guest checkout is a one-stop solution for mandatory sign-ups and is an important element in your eCommerce checkout.
2. Offer Social Login
Along with Guest Checkout, providing visitors with a social login facility would make up a great idea for a smooth eCommerce checkout.
The registration task is tiresome for the online shoppers and they feel reluctant to sign-up many a time. The social login option, in this case, becomes a better alternative by speeding up the registration process.
Besides, social login removes password fatigue. Customers do not need to create and remember a different password every time. They would be able to log in easily with any of their preferred social media accounts.
Looking to add the social login options on your eCommerce website? Try out our Social Loginizer module that can incorporate up to 15 social login options on your site.
Save prospects’ time by auto-suggesting address when they start filling out the address fields.
Enable Google Autofill functionality. Once set up, it would start displaying the address suggestions in real-time, related to the keywords typed by the user. Upon picking the relevant address, the rest of the major address fields are automatically filled.
Google Auto-fill is essential for an optimized eCommerce checkout.
4. Use Inline Validation to Display Errors
Customers generally make mistakes while filling out the checkout fields, and more often than not, the errors are not identified until the customer hits the submit button.
In many cases, customers are required to fill the entire details again and again till all the fields become error-free. This can be irking and hinder the checkout flow. Therefore, it is advised to use Inline validation.
Inline validation checks the inputs in the form fields and indicates whether the inputs provided by the customer are correct or not when they switch between fields. If there is an error, it would display how it can be fixed.
5. Display Checkout Progress
Use a progress bar to indicate at which stage of the checkout process is the customer present and how many further steps do they need to go through before they could finally place the order.
A progress bar presents the overall picture of the checkout process in front of the customer and gives them a clear idea beforehand of your eCommerce checkout.
6. Display Applicable Offers or Promo Codes
Customers often look for promo codes to avail discount on the products they are purchasing.
If there are some applicable promo codes, mention them on the checkout page else the visitor would hit the back button and start looking out for the offers on your website. It is time-consuming and can delay the conversion.
If you display the offers right on the checkout page, it would be easy for the prospects to know about your ongoing deals and hence it would create higher chances of conversions.
7. Do not stick to just Credit and Debit Card
With the introduction of e-wallets, also known as digital wallets, the payment method preference of the customers has changed. Sticking with only Credit or Debit Cards just won’t be enough.
Add multiple payment options on your eCommerce checkout so that a user has a number of options to choose from. Lack of payment modes might lead to cart abandonment.
Each and every step of your eCommerce checkout highly matters for providing a smooth checkout experience to the online shoppers. You need to ensure that every step is optimized and leading to a successful user-friendly checkout.
One small error can add the prospect into the list of abandoned cart users. Also, make sure that your eCommerce checkout is optimized for mobile devices as well. If it does not go well with the mobile format, you can lose out on huge mobile conversions.
To make your checkout more convenient, you can think about using a One Page Checkout. I hope that the information I shared about having an optimized eCommerce checkout turned out to be useful for you.
A checkout page is the only interface that actually brings the revenue for your business. It is a place where deals are closed and finally, sales are made in return for the payments done by the customers.
It’s really unfortunate to experience a bounce back from the checkout page, as it is the only page where users come when they are sure about finally buying from you. For any random reason, a set back from completing a checkout is not what you expect from your business. Here, in this article, I am putting forward 5 things that you probably did not know about eCommerce checkouts and maybe, that’s why you might have failed to engage the customers.
1. Customers hate lengthy checkouts-
21 % of customers would abandon a shopping cart because checkout takes too long to complete- Stastisia
The length of a checkout page is a relative term. Some of us might say, having a multi-page checkout is lengthy, while other might agree that checkout pages asking too many entries are lengthy. Both the scenarios have a ruthless contribution towards making a checkout process lengthy. The multi-page structure does the job by redirecting users from pages to pages to fill out all the checkout details.
Problem: Too many steps and too many details irritate the customers. They think of them as an obstacle that stops them from getting their desired product ASAP.
The positive mood of customers is directly proportional to the length of the checkout
Just imagine you standing in a departmental store’s checkout line, but before cashier takes the cash, he/she asks you to fill a form. Now, a few questions is not a problem; a biodata would definitely irritate you.
Solution: To deal with the multiple page re-directs, you can switch to the single page checkout system. A good single page checkout system lets you accumulate the whole checkout steps on a single page. This heavy accumulation is, however, effectively organized by segregation so that the page remains clean and clutter free.
Despite everything being on a single page, it can be made clean and clutter free with segregation and form field minimization
Moreover, you should ruthlessly minimize the amount of information you need. Ask only those details which are important. For a start, you can skip asking secondary email address, secondary phone number, ethnicity etc. You can read more for details on how to make your website-form design user-friendly.
2. Checkout on mobile devices is not same as on desktop-
We often ignore mobile checkouts thinking of it as a secondary requirement
The Greater number of articles and researches have been published on the subject of eCommerce checkout flow and UX optimization. However, there is currently quite a limited coverage on checkouts for mobile devices.
We often tend to do whatever we can do in our strength to make the checkout flow seamless. However, we hardly pay an attention to how the checkout flow will go if the user is buying on a mobile device. Just look at this statement from Google back in 2015:
According to Google, “more Google searches take place on mobile devices than on computers in 10 countries including the US and Japan”
Even Alibaba reported “more of their shoppers are purchasing on mobile than desktop”
Users today are using mobile devices more than desktop. Now, if you keep considering the checkout on mobile phones as same as on the desktop, it would not be wise on your part. With more and more customers using their mobile phones to shop online, checkout page optimization for mobile devices should be your first priority. To keep all those important conversions in your funnel, paying some extra attention to Responsive checkout, or Mobile app is a necessity today. Understanding of how an optimized mobile checkout looks like is very important here.
3. We have been forcing Guest checkouts-
For long we have been thinking about guest checkouts as an alternative to necessary account creation. For that reason alone eCommerce sites provide guest checkout options to all the users.
Guest checkout seems to be the obvious solution for new account fatigue, which does not asks customers to create an account or save any personal information to buy a product. However, guest checkout is not always a smart move for every eCommerce site. It actually results in more problems than it solves in few some cases.
It makes very difficult to review, modify, or track orders
Customers cannot re-order products using guest checkout
It becomes difficult for store owners to manage the returns, exchange, or refunds
Store owners won’t be able to follow up such customers
Store owners cannot provide guided checkout experience (Information pre-population, auto-suggestion etc)
The common convention among various eCommerce store owners is that guest checkout boosts the conversion rates. Moreover, asking for account creation is presumed as a barrier to the checkout process. I do not disagree with the convention completely. However, it depends on the scenario and the kind of information you need.
For example, ASOS never included a guest checkout, but still, they experienced a 50 % reduction in cart abandonments just by a simple modification in the login screen. It was how the earlier login screen looked:
Customers were forced to login or create an account earlier
They did a small modification in the above page by simply adding a continue button for new customers.
The new login page did not ask for account creation, instead it allowed the customers to continue with the checkout process.
With the new modification, the users were not asked to create an account on the login page. They can now click on the continue button to proceed with the checkout process. However, it was wise addition which actually did not spare the customers from not having an account. They were asked to provide some information on the next page which was actually used for account creation. So customers still had to register.
The whole idea behind telling the story of ASOS is to explain how guest checkout is not always the only option and you can do a lot more with just simple tweaks in the process. So, the best way to decide whether you need the guest checkout or not is to consider the specific factors like, can your return manager process the guest orders, how much information do you need, how often customers repeat their purchase, and do you have a social login as another alternative to the guest checkout.
4. Social login at checkout page is a better alternative-
The above explanation on guest checkout has made it clear that a guest checkout is not always the best alternative. It brings me to our next point about the social login feature on eCommerce sites. We understand that sign-ups and user accounts are important for the website owners. Saved information in customer account can help boost eCommerce conversion rates up to a large extent.
With the same aim, social login on a checkout page provides easy choice for the users to create a user account that too without filling a registration form. It uses the information stored in social media accounts to automatically fetch the information required to create a user account on the site. So, if users do not want to create an account by themselves, a social login can do the same for them.
A social login for popular social media platforms like Google Plus, Facebook, and Twitter is a wise addition, plus a better alternative to the account registration and guest checkouts.
Social login as a better alternative to guest checkouts
5. Customers hate it when they commit errors-
It’s very much frustrating when making a purchase to submit the form and trigger a validation error. That too with little, confusing, or not guidance on how to fix it.
When such validations with no guidance appear, the thing that comes to a customer’s mind is “Ahhh! now, what did I do wrong”.
In an ideal situation, user fills the checkout form with necessary information and tend to finish the job ASAP by submitting the form. However, people often make mistakes in the form-filling, and that where form validation come into the picture. A good form validation language is courteous and clear about the message it carries. Things that most of us probably don’t know about the checkout page validations are:
It will confuse the user if not shown in the correct place.
It will confuse the user if not shown on the right time.
It will confuse the user if not shown in the right color, and
It will confuse the user if not showing the clear message.
With these four points in mind, a checkout page validation is a crucial element that can either break or make the checkout experience of the clients. So,
Always use the inline validations in close proximity to the field that triggered it.
Show instant validation rather than a showing on top of the page after form submission.
Show the errors in Red color and correct validations in Green
Write a clear message about the error and ways to fix it
User proper colors and proper proximity to show the form validation errors
Finally,
E-Commerce checkout is a broad subject and it is always in research by the experts. Innovations like single page checkout, Ajax shopping cart, Inline form validation, Social login etc. are all perfect examples of how eCommerce checkout is evolving day after day. There is a lot of information to talk about eCommerce checkouts. Certainly, next time when I write about it, I will get some more things and more advancements to write about the eCommerce checkouts.
A lot of effort goes into building the pages that convert. Content optimization, CTA optimization, navigation streamlining, everything we do is for driving conversions on the store. E-Commerce checkout is one such page whose conversion rate has a direct impact on your revenue generation.
In this post, I have compiled a list of the most inspirational eCommerce checkouts that can inspire you to learn some useful aspects from them. Each of the checkouts in this list consists of something that you take a cue from. It should give you a clear idea of how should you go about making your own checkout page conversion friendly like these websites. So let’s get inspired by these checkouts.
1. Apple’s checkout
Apple’s checkout is a great example of providing alternate checkout options
Apple provides a very well organized checkout page that lays full attention on the call to action buttons with proper utilization of the white-spaces. The checkout page does a great job of appealing the users to complete the process even as a guest user.
Asking for necessary account registration to complete the checkout process is one of the most common reasons for cart abandonment. To work out this common issue, Apple provides guest check out option where shoppers are not required to necessarily create a user account by filling loads of information in the registration form.
If they already have an account, they can sign-in, and if not have an account, just continue with the guest checkout.
However, there is a flip side of the guest checkout that customer’s information will not be saved for future reference in the database. It means customers won’t be able to track their order. If that is not a problem for the customers, guest checkout is a useful feature to include in your checkout.
Also the post user login or Guest checkout steps are so simple and interactive. There is a chat option that you can use to clear your doubts right from the Apple’s representative. You can choose the delivery dates and options available, continue with the next steps.
2. Bellroy’s checkout
Lengthy checkout is one of the major reason for shopping cart abandonment. According to Baymard institute,
“27% of US online shoppers have abandoned an order in the past quarter solely due to a “too long/complicated checkout process”.
Bellroy handles this big issue a little different as compared to Apple. It provides a one-page checkout to its users compacting the whole checkout steps on a single page only. The one-page checkout structure makes the process smooth and shorter for the customers. Users can fill out the delivery address, billing address, select shipping options and provide payment details right from the same page.
The user experience has been further optimized by including a set of only the necessary details required to be filled-in.
Those eCommerce store owners who want to provide a simple, quick and easy checkout experience to the customers can utilize a one-page checkout structure and save time and efforts of the customers.
3. Myntra’s checkout Caption:
Myntra goes well with its multi-step yet high converting checkout page
In case you are not a supporter of guest checkout or one-page checkout, you should take a cue from Myntra’s checkout page. It presents a perfect example of how you can make a multi-page checkout conversion friendly without guest checkout.
Here, instead of guest checkout, customers can continue as a registered user by logging-in using their Facebook, or Google account credentials without creating an user account on Myntra.
Moreover, when customers are completing the checkout process of Myntra’s multi-page checkout, they are provided with a clear idea of where they are and where they would be in the next step. It provides a transparent process that includes a progress bar on the top of the page, plus a logo of trust, and payment options logo at the footer keep the users well informed.
The guest checkout option provides the option to the users to register an account right after the checkout is completed. This is a nice touch to encourage account registrations without giving a burden to the customers.
4. Amazon’s checkout
Amazon’s latest checkout emphasizes on account necessary registration
Amazon keeps testing its checkout process now and then. Currently, it is following a unique combination of traditional approach and it’s own peculiar call-to-actions. By highlighting the free two days shipping option on the product page itself, it reduces the task of shipping selection on the checkout page, plus an indirect promotion of Amazon’s prime service.
The common perception of an eCommerce checkout involves providing a lot of options like, Add to wishlist, continue shopping, guest checkout and so on. However, Amazon works on a different principle here. It emphasizes on creating a user account before you can proceed to the checkout page but provides a very quick and compact registration page.
Despite the necessary account registration, Amazon still have a high converting checkout
By doing so, Amazon makes sure that customers entering the checkout funnel are not distracted by the leaks and completes the checkout with a personalized user experience. If your customers do not mind filling a very small registration form, Amazon’s approach is is an inspiration for you.
Caution: Amazon acts as almost a monopoly in the eCommerce market for various categories. Customers preferring Amazon won’t find a hard time filing small registration form. It might not be a similar situation in your case. I would suggest a comprehensive A/B testing campaign before finalizing the decision.
5. Mensuas’ checkout
Mensuas have a single page checkout, with social login option
If account creation is not a preference for you, you might want to look at the checkout page of Mensuas. Mensuas is a leading destination in the US for fashionable underwear for men. Similar to Bellroy, Mensuas too provide a single page checkout to it, customers. However, it goes one step further by introducing social login on the checkout page. One can easily notice the emphasis on login options where you have multiple options to continue with the check out process- Guest checkout, User sign-in, and account registration.
In case you are a new user, you can either checkout as a guest user, create a user account, or just use the Facebook or Google login option for direct login using your social platform credentials. By clicking on any of the social login options, the user can instantly login to the user account without filling a registration form. Thus, saving the customers from a burden to create user accounts manually. Social login makes the checkout experience very smooth and handles multiple reasons for cart abandonment at once.
6. Fab’s checkout
Fab provides a multi-step checkout with Facebook login option
Fab utilizes a well optimized multi-step checkout that can be completed without creating a user account manually. If you don’t have a user account already, you can choose from guest checkout or the Facebook login option.
It efficiently utilizes the Facebook login to encourage user registrations which is an important aspect of learning from Fab’s checkout page. It understands the importance of user accounts and how they can be used to create repeat conversions. So, it pushes the users towards Login option without actually forcing them.
The checkout process after login or continuing as a guest presents some well-optimized forms for providing the billing, shipping and payment information. The forms ask only the necessary information and do not demand secondary information from the users.
7. Nike Store’s checkout
Nike’s checkout is preceded by an optional Paypal express checkout
The speed of the process is a major concern that haunts every store owner. Nike handles the situation by cleverly integrating a PayPal checkout option which provides a more faster and secure checkout. Moreover, for using a Paypal customers need to login using their PayPal account which automatically brings the customers to logged in users’ club.
For the regular checkout interface, Nike goes with a partial one-page checkout structure. I am saying partial because all the steps are not unlocked at once on the page. You have to complete the previous step before moving to the next step.
Nike’s regular checkout is inspired by the single page structure
Here users can choose to continue with the checkout without logging in and create the user account at the later part. Furthermore, the shopping cart summary in the right column keeps the users well informed about the miscellaneous costs associated with the cart- Shipping charges, total cost, single item’s cost.
8. Jabong’s checkout
Jabong provides a streamlined check out process that keeps the users informed about the next steps plus allows multiple social login options. The further steps on the checkout page are well optimized to ask only few important details.
The most inspiring option that I found here was the option to specify if the shipping address is a home or office address. It helps the shopping site to deliver the items on a correct time, minimizing the chances for missing delivery. Furthermore, the alternate phone number field is an optional field which customers can choose to skip or provide. I have found this checkout as one of the fastest among the check outs I inspected.
The final takeaways
Summing up the entire case study, it is evident that whether you take UI or UX as the judging criteria, one page checkout is something that makes the process edgy. I will consolidate the entire features that make these checkouts best-of-their kind.
Single page checkout:
As per Baymard, complicated order processing contributes to around 28% of the cart abandonment. This is when a one page checkout can simplify the process for your customers.
Easy Signups:
Guest login options along with ease of signing up can make the checkout process effective. Along with this, social login options can give the checkout process of your site a notch-up feature. Almost all the eCommerce sites, be it an industry giant or a SME.
Implement upselling and cross-selling:
The check out pages should never provide an exit root and a dead-end to your customers. Instead, it should be used as an opportunity to generate additional revenue through upselling and cross-selling. Offering compelling reasons to the customers to browse the store right back is one of the best ways to achieve customer retention. You can do this by offering customers products related to the one that they ordered, or by giving them discounts on future purchases.
Mobile-friendly checkout:
With the latest Google update that emphasis on mobile-first indexing, it has become mandatory to make the entire mobile-responsive which includes the checkout process as well. Mobile commerce will account for almost 50% of the total online purchases by 2020 as per research. So, it inevitable to ensure that your mobile users get a flawless shopping experience. The checkout process of your site should be mobile-friendly as well. At the same time, it should never exclude any of the capabilities of the desktop site, such as social login option and one-page checkout. The mobile commerce experience should be identical to the desktop one in terms of the ability to browse, purchase and pay for products.
Source: baymard.com
Offer a variety of payment and shipping options:
Meeting your customers’ needs is the key to increasing your checkout’s efficiency. As per the result of Baymard’s studies, lack of shipping and payment options are another reasons for cart abandonment. So, you need to ensure that your prospective customers are able to pay and get the product delivered in whatever way is most convenient for them. Offer them as many payment and shipping methods as possible.
Ensure security:
Cyber security is possibly the biggest concern for the online shopping. The only way to keep the customers assured is by optimizing the UI of your site. The site’s design have a huge impact on the shoppers’ perception of your site’s security. An outdated-looking site will give customers the impression that the site is not reliable and will lead to a lot of them dropping off without purchase.
Conclusion
All these eight check outs are the best ones? It depends. I will leave that on our readers to decide, but I think they all have got something for us to learn from.
All of them do not insist on necessary account creation, except for the Amazon (Which was providing guest checkout a while ago). However, all of them including Amazon do inspire us to handle the first step of checkout wisely. While others handle the situation with guest checkout and social login, Amazon handles it through its compact registration form.
I like the approach of Mensuas, which provides the sign-up, sign-in, guest checkout and social login as well. Moreover, it’s single page checkout is well optimized in terms of form design.
You would have often visited malls for shopping purpose. What did you look for after picking up your items? I am sure your eyes would have been searching for a short checkout line so that you could make a quick checkout.
Let me tell you my case, I went to a store a few days back, picked up some stuff and when it was time to go to the billing counter, I noticed the line was too long. I waited for a few minutes initially but couldn’t keep the patience for long. I left my items there and took an exit from the store.
In e-commerce, this is what we call as Cart Abandonment and a lengthy checkout process is one of the primary reasons for it. This is exactly what happened in my case too. When I realized the checkout would take a lot of time, I dropped the purchase idea.
This is why a simplified and a user-friendly checkout holds very high importance in the eCommerce space. When users find a checkout process lengthy or time-consuming, they abandon their cart and look for better alternatives.
Getting shoppers to your eCommerce store is not difficult, engaging them till the final payment process without disturbing the user experience, is. The checkout page is the most important part of this whole engagement game.
Through this article, I will enlighten you on how to optimize the checkout process and create a user-friendly checkout.
1. Make Account Registration Optional or at least Offer Social Login
Avoiding compulsory account creation is the primary step towards a user-friendly checkout. Do not compel users to signup when they look almost set to make the payment. Making registration process compulsory at the checkout page mostly results in cart abandonment, which causes high conversion loss.
Let the mandatory sign up process not be a hurdle in a successful conversion. Offer Guest checkout or introduce a Social Login option on the checkout page. This would help users in a quick checkout without hampering the checkout experience.
In many of the eCommerce websites, there is no option to update the product quantity right from the checkout page. Hence, if a customer wants to increase or decrease the product quantity, it leaves them with no choice except discarding their current checkout process, going back to the product page, updating the quantity and filling out the entire details again. This spoils the user experience.
So, make sure that you include the option to update the product quantity on the checkout page. Also, ensure that the back button takes the user to the previous page rather than discarding all their information.
3. Add a One Page Checkout
A one-page checkout also called as a single page checkout is also one of the important elements of a user-friendly checkout. Instead of asking users to navigate through multiple steps to fill the checkout form, make it a single step checkout process. It improves user experience, reduces the chances of cart abandonment and eventually leads to increased conversions.
Our One Page Checkout module incorporates all the checkout fields on a single page and helps merchants to allow a quick checkout facility to their customers. The module offers Guest Checkout, Social Login, Multiple Layout Designs, etc. Most importantly, it supports nearly all the major payment methods and shipping services.
4. Display the errors up-front
Mistakes happen very often while filling out the checkout fields and customers are not aware of it until they hit the submit button. They have to submit again and again until the entered inputs are found to be correct. This can be extremely frustrating and become a major barrier in a user-friendly checkout.
Use Inline Validation to counter this hurdle. It identified the inputs in real-time and displays whether the provided details are correct or not when the user switches from one field to another.
5. Display Checkout Progress
Use a progress bar to indicate at which step the customer is present and how many more steps does he or she need to go through before finally placing their order. It is always a good idea to keep visitors updated about their checkout progress.
Many a time, shoppers leave the purchase incomplete because they get tired of filling out the information when they are not aware of the checkout progress. So, give them a clear idea up-front of the number of steps that are needed to make through the checkout.
6. Provide Real-time Customer Support
Customers can have a lot of queries while they are on the checkout page, especially the new visitors. You never know what’s going through a customer’s mind during the purchase.
To assist them with their queries or help them with any trouble they are facing, provide them with real-time support. Adding a live chat option or customer support number would do a great job.
7. Thank Your Customers for Shopping with Your Brand
Leave a “Thank You” note for your customers as soon as they place their order along with the “Order Successful” message, obviously. This is a good sign to appreciate or thank your customers for showing trust in your brand. It improves customer loyalty.
Knowband provides “Better Thank You Page” module that converts a normal order success page into an effective marketing strategy. With the help of this module, the admin can encourage repeat purchases and improve customer retention by offering discounts to their customers for future purchase. It also encourages cross-selling.
The journey from adding the product to the cart to the payment page needs to be smooth and convenient. Having a user-friendly checkout not only ensures more conversions but also keeps you ahead of your competitors. All that a customer craves for is a smooth checkout experience, provide them that.
If you find the above information helpful or have anything to add for a user-friendly checkout, do let me know in the comments below.
Moreover, you can visit our Knowband store and look for a number of checkout modules to help you with an optimized checkout process.
