One of the most important aspects of online retail is the user experience. Your website must be designed in such a way that its users are naturally drawn to your offerings. Besides high-quality design and helpful information, it must also offer convenience to effectively make sales.
To illustrate this point, even a delay of one second in your website’s loading time can cause a drop in conversions of up to 7 percent. This is particularly problematic when you consider that 70 percent of website visitors will abandon their shopping cart before making a purchase.
As such, it is important to optimize your checkout process. There must be as few clicks as possible between your landing page and the payment page. Even then, your page must be perfectly designed to make that purchase all the easier. In this article, we will show you how to make that possible by going over a few important facts.
The underlying causes
Through a series of surveys and data gathering, most of the underlying causes of failed conversions have been determined. Marketers, designers, and business owners use this information to better understand customer behavior. Once that is understood, intelligent strategies could be employed to increase sales.
Here are some of the data points of interest:
- 61% of customers were deterred by additional shipping and tax costs
- 35% of customers did not want to make a customer account
- 27% say that the checkout process was too long and complicated
- 24% were put off by the fact that they didn’t know what the total cost was
- 22% said that errors occurred on the e-commerce website
- 18% were hesitant to put their bank account information on the website.
As you can see, the most important concerns apparent are related to transparency, security, and convenience. These are the things that must be addressed when thinking about optimizing your checkout process.
Pitfalls to avoid, and strategies to employ
Based on various studies, surveys, and statistics, different strategies can now increase the likelihood of turning a site visitor into a customer. Here are some of the tried-and-tested tactics you could employ for your online shop:
1. Don’t surprise customers with additional costs
The most annoying thing for nearly any buyer is finding that the price you intended to pay was less than the actual cost. While shipping is already a common thing people prepare for, other fees like taxes can turn off a customer from making a purchase. This is the most important thing to address, as it can account for up to 61 percent of people leaving before they buy.
If free shipping is not possible, make sure your customer is informed about the price even before they hit the checkout page. This way, they are more likely to make an informed decision.
2. Allow different options
The most common payment methods are the following: PayPal, Stripe checkout, credit cards, debit cards, and cash. Online payment has become such a commonplace practice that having a robust set of options can raise your conversions by up to 200 percent.
3. Allow guest checkouts
Many people are reluctant to provide their email addresses to other websites, especially with all the fears surrounding data privacy and security. As such, it is important to give them an option for guest checkouts. This can allow them to safely make a purchase and can push them to make more down the line as you prove to be a trustworthy website.
4. Reduce the number of clicks
There is a reason why many online shops have a “Buy now!” button right next to their “Add to cart!” It reduces the number of clicks towards a purchase. It allows the customer to buy a product before their hesitation sets in. Additionally, a website should be easy to navigate and understand, and that often entails reducing the number of clicks and designing intuitive payment buttons.
In conclusion
As we’ve mentioned before, convenience is the key to customer satisfaction. And by convenience, we mean that the customer has less to worry about—security, ease of access, and so on. Whatever product you might sell or service you might offer, keep in mind the user experience, and you can quite easily boost your sales.
If you are looking to optimize your payment page, send us at Payment Page a message. We can make the purchase process a smoother experience for both you and your customers.
