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Many people like to browse online stores, add items to their cart, and then move on to other sites, leaving their items behind. You can reduce cart abandonment rates in your online store by making the customer checkout experience seamless.
The checkout process is critical to the online shopping experience. After all the work you put into creating your product pages, the last thing you want is to lose a sale because the checkout process was too cumbersome for customers.
Related: Four top tips to optimize your online checkout
How can you improve the checkout process for your users?
In the US, the cart abandonment rate reached 68.7%. Of course, some customers aren’t ready to buy. It could be that the shipping costs give them pause, or they want to hang on to the product and just buy it later. Others, however, may be put off by the inconvenience of the checkout process.
By optimizing the amount, you can attract a higher percentage of potential customers who are ready to buy and establish friendly relations with those who may return later.
Here are seven tips to improve your eCommerce checkout experience.
Related to: Online sale of products. How to build the perfect checkout page
1. Find out the costs and fees in advance
Consumers are always looking for a deal, especially in a tough economy. They definitely don’t want to feel taken advantage of, so if there are additional fees you need to add to the sale price, make that clear before consumers decide to add the item to their cart.
For example, if you are selling hotel rentals, find out in advance if there is a resort fee or other fees that are added to the cost of the room. If you offer shipping, make the cost of each option clear in the cart. That way, online visitors are more prepared when you show them the final total when they check out.
2. Give customers multiple payment options
Credit card payments are no longer the only way people pay for online purchases. Adding more customer payment options can improve a user’s checkout experience and convince visitors to complete a purchase.
Options you can explore when adding your online store include:
- PayPal/PayPal Alternatives. Many customers are hesitant to provide their credit card information online due to security concerns. Allowing them to pay with options like PayPal, Amazon Pay, or Venmo can alleviate those concerns.
- Mobile payments. Many people use contactless payment apps on their smartphones to make purchases using apps like Google Pay and Apple Pay. The use of such apps is expected to double by 2025. You can capture the majority of customer purchases by making this payment option available.
- Cryptocurrency. While some may question this type of currency, many others embrace it. Additionally, many large companies such as Home Depot, AT&T, and Microsoft accept cryptocurrency as payment. Cryptocurrency is a good payment option if you want to close more cart sales.
Of course, your ability to accept different payment types depends on your point-of-sale (POS) payment solution and its adaptability.
3. Make your online payment button easy to find
The checkout process begins when visitors add items to their carts. You can encourage them to continue through the retail checkout process by placing a big, bright add button next to the product options. Make it big and unique enough to stand out from other elements on the page.
There’s no need to make things fancy, though. A simple “Add to Cart” or something similar is often enough to do the trick. Even better, add a second “Buy Now” button that allows you to purchase the item directly and bypass the cart entirely. This is a great option for people who may want to buy specific items now while leaving others in the cart for later.
4. Make sure your site works the same on all platforms, especially mobile
The design of your online e-commerce store should be flexible enough to adapt to different screens. You need to make the checkout experience quick and easy, regardless of the device customers are using.
Remember, shoppers can start shopping on their phone and finish the purchase later on a laptop. You don’t want to lose a sale because you didn’t think about making the shopping cart work seamlessly on any device.
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5. Make sure customer support is available
Outages happen, and when they do, you need to make sure someone is there to address the customer’s concerns. Consider adding features like online chat that connects directly to customer service. This method ensures that customers can contact someone immediately. You can also add an option to send an email to customer service detailing any customer issues.
6. Make sure the user has a secure checkout experience
Customers who buy online should feel safe giving you their payment information. Make sure you have protection in place to prevent credit card fraud or attempts to steal information entered by customers. Your site must follow proper payment form guidelines and use protocols such as Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to protect transactions.
If you have an app, you should also take steps to ensure that your mobile payment experience is secure and smooth. Make sure you provide information about your payment processor. In particular, having a big name handling your payments gives your company credibility.
7. Use easy, password-free logins
Customers can opt out of a purchase if they need to go through verification processes such as one-time passwords (OTP) or multi-factor authentication (MFA) based on passwords. Password-free authentication for your online store means one less piece of information for customers to remember, and therefore one less sticking point.
Instead of using passwords, visitors can authenticate themselves using biometric and cryptographic keys stored on the device with a single click. Going passwordless stops phishing and is a great way to remove a lot of friction from the online checkout process, thereby helping to optimize checkout. Passwordless authentication also makes it easy for users to sign in or sign up for a new account.
Related: Passwords are terribly insecure. Here are some safe alternatives.
When it comes to online shopping, having a streamlined checkout process is critical to customer retention and closing sales. Here are some tips to optimize your checkout experience:
- Be transparent about costs and fees upfront so customers aren’t surprised at checkout.
- Offer multiple payment options to accommodate different preferences.
- Make the checkout button easy to find and consider the Buy Now option.
- Make sure your website is mobile-friendly and works smoothly on all devices.
- Provide reliable customer support to resolve any issues or concerns.
- Make sure your payment process is secure and protects customer payment information.
- Simplify the login process by implementing passwordless authentication to avoid cart abandonment.
By implementing these strategies, you can provide a hassle-free checkout experience that encourages customers to complete their purchases and keeps them coming back to your online store.