Research suggests that 70% of potential customers decide to abandon their journey once they make it to the final step of the process. The checkout page is where we lose the majority of eCommerce customers, but why is that? There are quite a few reasons why we lose so many customers at the checkout page, and it’s worth noting that the way we shop online has changed. With so many options, and the economic uncertainty that’s pushing us to choose wisely, many shoppers browse websites to compare prices and familiarize themselves with what’s out there before they’re ready to buy.
The window shoppers will come and go, but what about those customers who had a clear intent but decided to move forward with one of your competitors instead?
Why Your Potential Customers Abandon Their Carts
Unexpected Costs
The majority of customers who abandon the checkout process do so because they’ve encountered an unexpected fee that they weren’t willing to pay for. Though there may not be anything you can do to change the cost of your items or the taxes and fees associated with them, you can try including the final price or an estimate in the product listing to provide some transparency for your budget conscious customers.
Long Delivery Times
Research shows that over half of consumers now expect free next-day delivery. As shipping times become smaller the standard has become so that customers expect an impossibly quick turn-around. A better checkout design could help here as well, even though you might not be able to do anything about your shipping time-frames, you could however offer omnichannel options like buy online pick up in store for those who are looking to get their items faster.
Security Concerns
Security is a growing concern for customers who are apprehensive to provide their credit card information to a website they aren’t familiar with. Though security has become more standardized, fraudulent activity is still common. At Virid, our eCommerce platform has fraud prevention and security features built in so you don’t have to worry about sensitive information being stolen. You may want to remind customers that their data is safe at some point throughout the checkout process as well for some extra peace of mind. Reviews and testimonials help to add extra security as well, you can include these on product listings as well as on your checkout page.
Required Account Creation
Offering a guest checkout option is a great way to remove some of the friction that may prevent a potential customer from converting. If your customers do want to create an account, it should be as simple and easy as possible. This is a great opportunity to build trust with your customers, but it can also drive them away.
Convoluted Checkout Process
Your checkout process should be as frictionless as possible. For customers who are on the fence, this is where most of your customers will have to make a choice. That’s why it’s important to remove as many opportunities for your customers to decide against you as possible. A long and convoluted checkout process has shown to result in almost 20% of potential shoppers abandoning their carts.
Lack of Clear Return Policy
15% of customers who abandon their carts do so because they weren’t satisfied with the return policy. Just like customers have come to expect fast shipping times, they’ve also come to expect flexible return policies so they can feel like they aren’t taking a risk when they shop. Your return policy should be as flexible as possible but also be clear and easy to locate on your site.
How to Create a Frictionless Checkout Experience for Revenue Growth
Now that you’re aware of some of the main barriers that cause friction for your potential customers, let’s review some changes you can begin implementing on your site today to make the checkout experience more seamless for your customers.
Evaluate Site Speed
You can perform speed checks for free with tools that are available online, the standard site load time is under 3 seconds, but is ideally under half of a second. The last thing you would want when your customers are ready to buy is an unexpected error or poor performance getting in the way. If your site is performing slowly and you don’t know why, you can also run a full site audit to comb your site for anything preventing it from performing as it should be. Virid offers a free site assessment tool, get started by contacting us to discover your site’s potential.
Implement Alternative Payment Methods
When you find yourself at the checkout page, you’ll probably notice at least 3 or 4 payment methods to choose from. Not only are many alternative payment methods expected by customers and a key way to remain competitive, they can also guarantee some extra security for your customers who want to choose payment methods that encrypt sensitive data.
Establish Clear CTAs
Studies have shown that the size, placement, and design of the “buy” button can have a huge impact on your conversion rate. Call to actions are important, so they should be given a lot of consideration when designing them. You will also have to consider the adaptability of the design as your checkout page will likely be visited on a variety of screen sizes. Try a variety of different strategies and conduct user testing to discover what works best for you.
Ensure Site Accessibility
Accessibility is important for SEO and is one of the easiest ways to improve the customer experience regardless of how your customers process information. This is just another reason why you should prioritize a checkout experience that is as painless as possible, if you’re wondering how to improve your site for accessibility, Virid can help. Our site assessment tool will check for more than just optimization opportunities, we check for accessibility compliance, too.
Offer Currency Conversion
If your website is used by customers all around the world, you probably have a localized site that adapts the content language based on the location of your user. This is a great start, but you should also make sure your checkout page is optimized for user location as well. Make sure your currency converts automatically based on the location your site is being browsed from, as well as the language.
Implement Upselling and Cross-Selling
Your checkout page offers a great opportunity to offer more than just the items your customers are currently interested in. Cross selling and upselling strategies improve the customer experience and build loyalty by providing customers with everything they may need all in one place. You can add a subtle product recommendation bar on the checkout page where customers can find recommended products to supplement their purchase based off of customer data you already have or the items they currently have in their cart.
Include Progress Indicators
If you’re looking for more ways to make the checkout experience streamlined and frictionless, implement a progress bar to help your customers to see how much time is left in their journey. That way even if you do want to add a couple of extra form fields, at least your customers will be expecting them.
Auto-Save Cart Content
There’s nothing worse than when you accidentally close a tab with a cart full of items that you now have to search for and add again. You can use cookies to auto-save cart content in your customer’s browser to keep their items safe for whenever they want to return to complete their purchase.
Launch 1-Click Checkout
For customers who have created an account or provided information necessary for future purchases, you can implement a 1-click checkout option that auto fills your customer’s information so they don’t have to. This can boost loyalty and trust with your customers who will leave satisfied with a seamless shopping experience.
After you’ve implemented all of these new features into your site, and designed your checkout page with intention, make sure to take advantage of the “thank you” page after a customer completes their purchase. This is an opportunity to provide more product recommendations, or gather customer data with an email newsletter signup field or feedback on their shopping experience with a survey.
Next Steps
If you’re looking for more ways to improve the customer experience or are ready to optimize your checkout page and looking for inspiration, team Virid’s eCommerce experts are always ready to lend a helping hand. Our eCommerce platform marketAgiliy 7.0 is designed to tackle every eCommerce challenge you may face and more, schedule a consultation today to get started.
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