9 Ways to Optimize your eCommerce Checkout for Conversion

Congrats, you did it!

You created a stellar marketing campaign that brought tons of new traffic to your site. You optimized your site search and product pages so said traffic could find exactly the products they wanted and get to checkout. And then...they abandoned their carts.

Unfortunately, many retailers don't consider checkout to be as critical to the overall eCommerce experience as everything that precedes it. However, an optimized checkout process reduces abandoned carts, drives sales, and even improves customer loyalty.

Here are 9 ways to optimize your eCommerce checkout for conversion:

Implement autofill

Lengthy steps in the checkout process drive away 27% of consumers. One way to condense the process is through autofill. For example, a customer's country, state, and city could be populated with less typing. Ask customers for their postal code, and the system can figure out the rest.

 Pre-populating shipping information into the billing information is another way to save time for your customers. More often than not, the two addresses are the same. You can further save the customer time by defaulting to the cheapest shipping option for all orders. This knocks out another step for the customer, which of course they can review and change if they wish.

Offering an autosave option for location and credit card is a great way to make customers more inclined to visit again, because they know the process will be even easier the second time.

Upselling and cross-selling

Upgrading a product in your customer’s basket may make customers more inclined in following through with a purchase. To urge them to spend more, you could offer free samples of other products, or a coupon.

Cross-selling has the same effect. Customers may feel like they’re missing out if they don’t buy the related products. This especially works well with fashion retailers: two pieces may be a part of the same set but are sold separately.

Both methods are a simple way to cut down the time spent by customers searching for a similar product. It is also a great way to reel in more profit!

Email marketing

The process of making an account as a new customer is another time-consuming activity. Cut this back by having a ‘guest’ option for new customers. Offering a signup is more effective than enforcing one. Adding a place in checkout for returning customers to sign in is another way to cut back time, rather than having them go back to the home page and search around your site.

Adding a newsletter option (also known as email marketing) is another way for guests to turn into regular customers. This method builds a foundation for a relationship and paves the way for more conversions. And while social media marketing still helps drive conversions, studies show that email marketing is more effective.

Reward loyal customers

Advertising a rewards program before or after the checkout is also an efficient way in drawing in conversions. This is a way to show you care about your customers. Even if the rewards are small, who doesn’t love coupons and deals? Showing you have a program for this may drive browsers to become loyal customers.

This option is also a good way to get customers to make an account on your site or put their emails in for a newsletter. These micro conversions ultimately drive profit.

Cart management

Make your customer’s cart easy to manage at checkout. If the customer has made a mistake and must go back, re-entering all the checkout information will take up more time and become a hassle. Making your cart manageable from the checkout page will prevent that issue.

Make your customer service reachable

Implementing live chat on your site is an important way to make your customer service accessible to shoppers. Before checkout, customers can ask any questions they have. This way, they won’t need to exit the checkout page if they have any doubts. Getting the questions out of the way earlier will make checking out that much easier.

Make sure you add the number and email of your customer service in a place customers do not need to look for. This goes for on the checkout page and on your site. It’s annoying to go on a wild goose chase for a direct phone number. So now if there is an issue during checkout, they can easily reach you for help.

Make security visible

Make security of information known to your customers. Many people feel safer about making an online purchase if a trust seal is present during checkout. As Dwight taught us in The Office, “Identity theft is not a joke”!

Visuals such as trust seals, or even symbols like a lock, are good ways to assure your customers of the care you take with their information. This also eliminates the time taken by customers to research your business, especially if you are small.

Optimize for mobile 

Four out of five Americans are now online shoppers, with more than half having made purchases using a mobile device. It’s easy and convenient. But if your website is not compatible with these devices, it could drive away sales—particularly from Millennials and Gen Z. Already have a mobile-friendly site but not seeing conversions? Check out the guide we wrote on why your mobile site may not be converting.

Highlight Reviews

One way to reduce the time spent shopping is by showcasing a few product reviews on your site. If a a new shopper visits your site, reviews an give them the confidence they need to make a purchase. Reviews also reduce the need of researching the product elsewhere; this user-generated content provides shoppers with valuable product information from a trustworthy source.

Reviews are personalized and real, which is why 84% of people trust reviews as much as a personal recommendation. Product reviews can mean the difference between an abandoned cart and confirmed purchase.

So there you have it—9 ways to optimize your checkout for increased conversions and greater revenue.