Categories
eCommerce

Why Your Business Needs an Optimized Checkout Process

When it comes to online shopping and retailing websites, customers want a streamlined, hassle-free experience. What this means is that they want the least amount of steps possible from opening the website to checking out their orders. If you are a webpage owner, it might be the right time to have a look at whether or not your customers are getting the best shopping experience. 

Studies have found that badly optimized websites, and eCommerce websites that have too many steps to fulfill have seen an increase in cart abandonment. This is because people want a hassle-free experience, which you should be providing to get the best conversion rates. 

Every eCommerce checkout process includes the same basic elements for a successful transaction, which are the following: personal details, delivery options, and payment information. While this is mostly successful, not all buyers pull through with their purchases. Some customers could have had doubts about the integrity of the merchant, or because the checkout process was too complicated and they gave up. These are the reasons why you need to optimize your checkout procedure for online retailing, which will be discussed below:

What Is Checkout Optimization?

In eCommerce, checkout optimization means keeping customers excited about their purchase even while filling out the boring albeit necessary forms, making sure nothing stops completion. The trick to the whole process is layouts and perhaps even using a payment page builder. 

Streamlining The Layout Of Your Checkout Area

The first tip is to create a one-page checkout page. While a trend in eCommerce is to utilize multi-page checkouts (e.g. page 1 has personal information, page 2 will be shipping methods, etc.), studies found that they aren’t all that great. If customers have any inclination to exit, whether it stems from tiredness, anxieties, feeling rushed, this is when customers will take the way out. 

By utilizing apps like Stripe checkout, you can cut down the steps needed per page by making everything into one whole checkout form that looks secure and clean. 

The second tip is to limit options for things like shipping to two of the most sought after–cheap or fast. Additionally, don’t require customers to create an account to purchase a product, and guide them through checkout making the choices obvious and providing easy instructions. 

Another tip is to remember that not all customers take the time to read everything on your website, so make sure that the purchase buttons stand out to ensure the correct ones are clicked and redirected to the checkout page. Also, note that after the purchase is completed customers know when they can exit the page or if there are any next steps they have to take. If not, redirect them to a thank you page and email them the necessary tracking information and numbers for contact. 

Reduce Checkout Page Distractions

While your site may look awesome, you do not need to make the payment page look just as awesome. By using a payment page builder, you can add only the necessary tools and information needed for the customer to complete their order. This is because the chances are that they are already persuaded that your product is good once they reach the checkout page. 

Some tips to consider when building the checkout page are to hide navigation options that lead them off the page accidentally, remove ads and banners, and remove visual clutter around it. Your end goal is to get them to buy, so make sure that they are staying on task towards paying for your product and finally buying it. 

Conclusion

Using apps like Stripe checkout are good ways to streamline your eCommerce checkout process because of its modularity and versatile design. Remember that customers are often impatient and easily irritable, especially when it comes to bad web design and shady websites. Make your website stand out not just with good web design, but with trouble-free and easier ways of checking out to  anyone who aims to purchase your products. 

If you are looking for the best payment page builder integrated with Stripe checkout, Payment Page can help you with growing your business through the final parts of a sale. With the ability to accept payments from all over the world with different payment methods, your eCommerce website will easily grow into an international retailing powerhouse with our help. Contact us today if you are an entrepreneur or small enterprise owner looking for ways to streamline your sales processes. We will be happy to help.

Categories
Marketing

How Optimizing Your Checkout Process Can Boost Your Sales

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. 

Categories
Accepting Online Payments Marketing

4 Tips for Boosting Your Checkout Conversion Rate – Our Guide

The most important goal of any business is profit. E-commerce businesses and other online enterprises are no different, but for them, the thing that translates to profit is conversions. The better your checkout conversion rate, the more profits you are likely to rake in. 

This is the most crucial reason that your Stripe checkout should be optimized for the customer experience. Even the most minor details can cause customers to abandon their carts, quitting before they buy. Studies have shown that the average abandonment rate for e-commerce stores teetered around a staggering 68.63 percent—a whopping seven out of ten people.

Why do customers abandon their carts?

There are nearly limitless reasons customers abandon their shopping carts, but some of the most common ones are:

  • The checkout process was too complicated
  • The website was taking too long to load
  • The shipping rates surprised them
  • It was required that they make an account

To address some of these concerns and improve the customer experience on your website, we will talk about some tips and tricks you can use to smoothen your checkout process and get that ever-important boost in conversions. Here are some of these tips and tricks:

1. Try a single-page checkout

In web design, one thing is true: The fewer clicks it takes to get from the starting point to the action you desire from the user, the more successful you are likely to be. The same can be said of the checkout process. The fewer clicks the customer has to make, the more likely they are to make a purchase. 

That means using a hosted payment page or a single-page checkout system to make sure that their purchase is final the moment they are done with the page. To do this, it is important to limit the information you request from your customer and use smart solutions, such as pulling the location information from the zip code and using Google auto-fill to complete forms faster. 

2. Allow guest checkout

Now more than ever, customers are more discerning of to whom they pass their information. Requiring them to submit this information might dissuade them from their purchase. In your desire to gather valuable data from your customers, you might be pushing them away from something more important: purchases.

You can avoid this by allowing them the option to sign up after their purchase or associating an account with the email that they used and then sending them a computer-generated password to go with it. 

3. Offer secure payment options

Secure payment options, such as Stripe checkout, are important to your customers, especially since one of the biggest fears customers have when shopping online is that their credit card information will be leaked or misused in some way. Enlist the services of a payment page builder to create a checkout page that helps your customers feel secure about their purchase. 

4. Remove surprise fees

Customers should be aware of added costs, such as shipping and taxes, even before they reach the end of the purchase process. Surprise fees can make them feel uncomfortable, causing them to abandon the cart. It might also help to offer free shipping once they reach a specific amount or number of purchases. 

Final thoughts

The internet is a savage and unforgiving place, but with the right strategies, any business can enjoy success and a loyal following. The checkout process is not exempt from this. You must apply the right design and optimization strategies to your website for the checkout process to be smooth and successful. 

If you need the help of a payment page builder, send us a message at Payment Page. We can make this process easier for both you and your customers.

Categories
eCommerce

4 Common Online Checkout Blunders and How to Avoid Them

With the majority of business now being conducted online, it is important for every business to have an online presence. While this does make things more convenient for the average consumer, this makes things far more competitive for businesses of all sizes, in all industries. 

For a business to have that competitive advantage online, it must achieve quite a few things. It must have a robust and recognizable brand, it must have good social media practices, and its website must provide a good experience for the user. In this article, we are going to talk about the user experience. In particular, we will go over how your payment process can affect it. 

To that end, here are 4 common mistakes online businesses make when designing their payment process, and the ways to fix them:

1. No mobile checkout

Gone are the days when most users were on laptops. Nearly 60% of internet users in the modern age use their smartphones to make online purchases. That means your mobile interface is more of a priority than ever, including your payment process or stripe checkout process. 

One of the easiest ways to fix this is through the use of a hosted payment page. It is also important to test your website on a mobile device to see how well it looks and how easily it is navigated on a smaller screen. 

2. No guest checkout

Not everyone who goes to your website wants to make an account. Some enjoy guest checkout because the process of filling out a form might take too long, and others might have security concerns. Whatever the reasoning might be, not allowing guest checkout might just turn them off from a purchase entirely. While having that important user data is important, it is still more important to prioritise profit. 

This is relatively easy to fix, as it involves incorporating a checkbox that allows users to skip your user data form. A hosted payment form is also a perfect thing to add. 

3. Too many clicks

Your website must take the fewest clicks possible from your landing page to your stripe checkout. This is the reason why Amazon has a 1-click checkout option, and why so many e-commerce websites have a “Buy Now!” button next to their “Add to cart.” The faster your users and customers can pay and get their order confirmed, the more likely you are to successfully sell them things. 

4. Surprise costs

One of the major reasons for abandoned carts on e-commerce websites is surprise costs. If your shipping and handling costs appear at the end of the payment process, it might prove dangerous for your e-commerce website. Any surprise costs might scare off potential customers, so it is important to give them an idea of the cost of their shipping and handling as they continue to shop.

Another good solution is to offer promotions of free shipping and handling once a certain purchase total has been achieved. 

Final thoughts

The user experience is one of the most important considerations in the design of a website. Your payment process is no exception to this. Even with all the information a customer has to provide, it must be as convenient as possible for them to make a purchase. This can improve your bottom line and elevate your profits. 

If you’re looking for a hosted payment page service, send us at Payment Page a message. We have the skills to make this easier for both you and your customers. 

Categories
Marketing

How to Build Trust During Online Checkout

Business is a never-ending tug of war—you have successfully encouraged your customers to add items into their cart, but understand that the battle is only half won. You will need to close the sale and ensure that no carts become abandoned. 

Ensuring that your products remain flowing and never stuck in the limbo is paramount to your business success, just as vital as lead generation and promotional strategies. You need to let your customers know that they’ll be getting value for money, and that your products will deliver above and beyond.

That said, here’s how to reduce cart abandonment and encourage solid trust:

1 – Make sure that you have SSL certificates on your site

A Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certification directly translates to a trustworthy brand. Displaying it on your online store certifies that you are indeed trustworthy and credible, letting them know that you value your customers’ online security. SSL certificates signify the protection of your clients’ valuable information through encryption and ensures that they are being handled securely. 

Customers are more likely to trust your brand if you have a visible SSL certificate. You may add visual cues to the field wherein they must place their credit information, such as security icons and borders. These let your customers know that you are using a secure method of transaction.

2 – Offer a reliable and 24/7 customer service

If customers are curious about certain aspects of your brand, they may have some inquiries and will attempt to reach out to you. They may do this through your contact number, social media pages, or your business’s e-mail address. It’s crucial that you attend to these inquiries as soon as possible and answer any questions clearly.

Customers are more likely to trust your brand if you give a clear and complete answer within a few minutes of asking, as customers may get impatient and lose interest if you keep them hanging for too long. Using a live chat feature on your website can help with this because it allows you to connect with your customers in real-time and provide them with the information they need. It also allows you to negotiate with your clients and easily make deals.

3 – Make sure that they experience personalized shopping

Thousands of other eCommerce entrepreneurs likely offer similar products and services, so how do you ensure that you standout? Building trust is the answer, and one crucial aspect of that is tailoring shopping experiences according to your customers’ preferences. By making the shopping journey fir to their unique tastes and expectations, you build trust unlike any other.

One of the best ways to do this is to allow your web pages to be translated to their native language. Offering diverse payment methods is also key, as this will unconsciously tell them that you care and are willing to go above and beyond. 

Building the Best Business with a Hosted Payment Page

To ensure that your carts get successfully checked out, invest in trust. In the landscape of eCommerce, your customers need to know that you are reliable and trustworthy, promising to deliver them the best products possible. One of the best ways to do that is through reliable customer service, SSL certificates that encourage security, and of course, a personalized shopping experience through diverse payment methods.

If you wish to invest in diverse Stripe checkout methods, Payment Page can help. We offer you a WordPress plugin to create a hosted payment page, allowing you to diversity your payment methods and accept payments from international clients. Building trust has never been easier—reach out to us for more information. 

Categories
Marketing Tutorials

A Guide to Designing a Payment Form Users Will Love

In any online eCommerce site, the most important element of the site is the payment form. Without it, customers would not be able to checkout and complete their purchases, which is what any online business wants their site visitors to do. This is why investing time and resources into a payment page builder is crucial.

A hosted payment page can make a world of difference in improving your sales and bounce rates. While many business owners choose to simply put a PayPal link on their checkout page, they’re missing out on a big opportunity to generate better returns. Many customers fail to understand how PayPal works or don’t want to create an account, preferring to utilize other more familiar payment methods. 

The Trick To eCommerce Sales? Reduced Friction During Checkout

The general rule of thumb with eCommerce is that when people access the payment form, you will want them to have the fewest steps possible. This reduces the chances of them putting extra thought into their order and abandoning the cart. The more steps you place on your payment page, the less likely people are going to continue placing their orders. 

Here are some steps to reduce bounce rates and keep people from receiving friction when transacting with your business:

Explore Hosted Payment Pages

If you are spending your resources on getting people on your website, it doesn’t quite make sense to send them elsewhere when it is time to pay. This is why using payment forms like Stripe is amazing. Stripe offers amazing customizability and integration with your website. This payment form is best used because it is all done on your site’s domain, without bringing up external windows as PayPal would. 

It also looks much nicer than just slapping on a PayPal button, as the whole user interface can be customized to fit your business’ theme and needs. 

Multiple Payment Methods Are Always Welcome

In today’s world, people pay for their purchases using a variety of methods. If a business only has one kind of payment method available when it is time to checkout and their preferred one isn’t available, there’s a chance they will abandon their cart. To continue generating revenue and keeping sales at a high, be sure that payment methods are available, from credit cards to installment payments for more expensive items. 

Offer Checkouts Without Needing An Account

A good way to have a high bounce rate at checkout is to mandate people to create accounts to be able to check out. People do not appreciate having to take additional steps in order to buy something they are unsure about purchasing a second time. This makes it more likely that people will abandon their carts and leave you with fewer sales. 

By making the account creation suggested but not mandatory, you can ensure that people who want to just try out your products will think less about buying and go through with the purchase. 

Make The Whole Site Look And Feel Legitimate

Many people rely on the look and feel of a website, which includes everything from the homepage to the payment form. If you are investing in website design, it only makes sense to also invest in a payment page builder to make the checkout process give off a legitimate feel. With all the scammers on the internet, people are very skeptical about online purchases. Ensuring your website has a high-quality payment form will be a huge plus. 

Choose a good hosted payment page that has certifications for SSL encryption, as well as complying with the PCI SSC standards for maximum safety. 

Conclusion

A hosted payment page is integral in any online business website’s success. Having it well built and running smoothly will convert multiple leads into followers. By reducing your payment form’s friction rate, this will ensure better sales over time, as more steps entail more room for second thoughts. 

Payment Page aims to assist international businesses of any scale craft easy-to-use and highly customizable payment pages using apps like Stripe checkout. If you want a better way to run your business’ checkout pages, sign up for our services to be notified when we launch. 

Categories
Marketing

What Are Some Top Strategies for Conversion Optimization?

In any online business, one of the greatest indications of health is a good conversion rate. When people convert from being leads into clients, this is where the real revenue starts to come in for a company. Conversions are the goal of all advertising and digital marketing campaigns, and once people start converting from leads, this allows for better growth overall.

Digital marketing methods combined with e-commerce tools like payment page builders and hosted payment pages can create a powerful online business site. Digital marketing tools build websites and increase online visibility, which can be coupled with a hosted payment page for reduced checkout friction for best results. 

Optimizing Your Site For Conversion Rates

There is what is called a conversion rate optimization plan, or a CRO, which aims to improve the overall buyer’s experience of users and the performance of a website. This is a good mix of a multitude of tools that exist to create seamless websites that are tastefully done to fit the user experience. 

Your CRO plan should have the aim to reduce friction, which is the most important driving force in securing any sale online. Friction when it comes to finding your page, navigating it, and checking out will increase bounce rates, which won’t do your Google rankings any good. 

Here are some CRO strategies to boost your overall conversion rates:

Take Advantage Of The “Feeling Of Missing Out”

Many people are susceptible to this marketing tactic. Shoppers love to see items on sale, and when they see that there are timers for sales or specific dates, they are less likely to think twice about confirming their purchases. While many people hate being rushed into a sale, putting limited time offers out there for them to decide on their own will likely result in an urgency to buy. 

Make people feel like they’ll regret not taking up the offer you set out, which you can employ in your website through writing a call-to-action that states how limited the offer is. 

Make Sure Your Payment Page Has Fewer Steps

People hate loading through multiple pages especially when all they want to do is buy a product. Payment page builders are great at this, as sites can be customized to have a set number of pages they have to go through to complete a purchase. Stripe checkout is especially great at this, as it looks legitimate in user interface while offering maximum customizability. 

When your payment page has fewer steps to complete before making a sale, this reduces bounce rates that are bad for your website’s online visibility. One thing that gets people irritated more than anything is the mandatory creation of an account to make a purchase. By reducing the steps needed while keeping everything streamlined, you’ll see your conversion rates rise! 

Think Of How Your Site Is Optimized For The Best User Experience

One of the biggest sins in website design for conversions is not optimizing a site centered on the user’s experience. At the end of the day, the one who will be using your site to buy is the customer, so it makes sense to give the best-optimized experience for your site visitors. Remembering that customers mostly access sites on their mobile devices should make you prioritize the mobile experience of visitors to ensure they stick around long enough. 

Conclusion

The overall CRO plan has the idea of being seamless in all aspects of the browsing and shopping experience. With a nicely designed website and the help of a payment page builder, the entire shopping experience can generate better conversions over time. In any business venture, it pays to have a plan for all aspects of running one, and this now includes making moves online. 

Payment Page aims to assist international businesses of any scale craft easy-to-use and hassle-free checkout processes using apps like Stripe checkout. We believe that the biggest factor that hampers an e- commerce store’s ability to sell all over is the lack of proper payment page builders, which is why we are here to help. Sign up on our website now to be notified when we launch our services.