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
eCommerce

3 E-Commerce Payment Mistakes That Can Affect Your Sales

While plenty of website traffic can translate to more sales, this is not always the case. Your SEO or PPC strategies can push all the users to your website, but without further consideration for its design, a website might underperform in terms of turning visitors into buyers. 

There is no such thing as a perfect system. It is impossible to convert every single visit into a purchase, but it is nevertheless important to aim for as high a conversion rate as possible. If you’ve got a great site design and plenty of interest for your product, though, what could be the issue? We’ve got one culprit you may want to consider: your payment page.

How quickly your customer converts into a purchase often depends on how many clicks it takes to get to your payment form. That being said, this article will talk about what else you can do on your business website and what mistakes you can avoid making that can expedite the process other than the obvious route of reducing clicks. Here are some of these strategies:

1. Not informing the customer of their checkout progress

We’ve spoken before about the importance of making sure your website is easy to navigate. This means making it as easy as possible for visitors to get from your landing page to your checkout page. Beyond the ease, though, you can take things a step further by showing them how far along they are in the process. 

Customers might find it tiring to be forced to endure all the steps needed to make online deliveries, such as inputting their address, filling in their contact and payment information, and so on. If they are made aware of how close they are to the finish line, though, they may be more inclined to complete the purchase. A progress bar also adds a layer of transparency that might just provide enough transparency to make them feel more comfortable. 

2. Not allowing guest checkout

The numerous website data breaches of the last decade resulted in billions and billions of accounts and various details being leaked to unscrupulous criminals on the internet, and as such, users are now more reluctant to hand over their details to just any website. 

Allowing your customers to check out items as a guest can help them feel more comfortable about their purchase. It addresses their security concerns and can expedite the process—especially since they don’t have to go through the extra step of making an account. 

3. Not disclosing delivery and other additional charges

Nothing turns off a buyer more than surprise charges. It is the reason why 7 out of 10 buyers abandon their shopping carts right before the final step. Even before your customers reach the payment page of your website, they should know exactly how much they’re paying for. 

Customers have to be made aware of any and all charges as early as possible, so that they don’t feel like they’ve been fooled into paying more. If possible, try to offer promotions that give your customers perks like free shipping or small gifts depending on how much they buy. 

In conclusion

The payment process is an important aspect of the customer experience. As such, it must avoid the previously mentioned mistakes. Avoiding these mistakes can allow you to offer your customers two things: transparency and security. These are just two of the most important things to think about when designing your website and payment page. 

If you need a payment page builder, send us at Payment Page a message. We have the expertise to make this process more convenient for your customers, turning those visits into purchases.