The checkout process is a critical point in the conversion funnel, as it’s the final step in the buyer’s journey. If you’re not optimizing your checkout pages, you’ll be missing out on conversions right at your fingertips. Luckily, there are a variety of ecommerce checkout optimization strategies that brands can implement to quickly improve conversion rates and customer satisfaction.
What is Ecommerce Checkout Optimization?
Ecommerce checkout optimization improves the online checkout experience by implementing strategies that reduce friction and improve the ease of the checkout process.
The ultimate goal is to create a seamless and frictionless checkout that removes any barriers and encourages customers to complete their transaction.
These optimizations reinforce trust and minimize distractions so there’s a clear path to finalizing the sale. Once you create an experience that’s easy to navigate and trustworthy, you’ll improve customer satisfaction so shoppers keep coming back for more.
The Importance of Ecommerce Checkout Optimization
When shoppers encounter a complicated checkout process, they’re likely to abandon their cart and look for products elsewhere. By removing friction and making it easier for customers to complete their purchase, your brand will reduce cart abandonment rates and boost revenue.
This frictionless experience also leaves a positive impression on your customers which encourages repeat purchases, customer reviews, and brand loyalty that will expand your network of potential customers.
How Can You Increase Ecommerce Checkout Conversion Rates at Checkout?
Take a look at these five checkout optimizations that every ecommerce site should follow to increase conversions and make the most of your traffic.
1. Simplify The Checkout Process
27% of customers leave checkout because the process is too complicated. The first step in solving this is by reducing the number of steps and forms required to complete the transaction.
Most retail websites can reduce their checkout flow by 20% to 60%. If possible, try to keep the number of form elements around 12. Remove any unnecessary fields, and only ask for essential information.
If you can’t fit your checkout process in one page, show customers how far along they are and what steps are left with a progress bar. This helps reduce anxiety and makes the process feel more manageable. Without the progress bars, users won’t know what’s next and can cause them to abandon.
2. Offer Guest Checkout
24% of shoppers say the main reason they abandon checkout is because they’re asked to create an account. Even with the popularity of ecommerce, people are still wary about providing their credit card information online. If there’s no sense of trust or validity, your customers won’t feel safe moving forward with their purchase.
Ultimately, it’s better to offer a guest checkout option than losing potential sales. Once a guest completes their purchase, leave users the option to create an account after checkout because all they will have to do is create a password.
3. Provide Multiple Payment Options
44% of consumers have reported to abandon their carts if their favorite payment method is unavailable. Customers are used to having a wide variety of payment options. If their preferred option isn’t found, they’ll likely shop somewhere else.
To remove this friction, offer a variety of payment options including credit cards, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay. Along with these options, you need to reinforce that your online store is trustworthy and secure. 35% of people will abandon if security isn’t immediately clear. Furthermore, over 80% of shoppers feel more secure when they see credit card logos on a retail website.
4. Optimize For Mobile
Mobile spending in the US has more than doubled compared to 2019, so there’s no debate that your store needs to be optimized for mobile purchases.
Ensure that forms and CTA buttons are easy to select and fill out. Make sure every aspect of the design is responsive with clear next steps. Even if a customer completes a purchase through their mobile device, if your process wasn’t optimized or streamlined, there’s a good chance they won’t come back again.
5. Offer Free Shipping or Discounts
Extra checkout costs are the number one reason why shoppers abandon their carts, outside of just browsing. Provide as many details up front such as tax, subtotals, and shipping costs so there are no surprises when they make it to checkout. Show order summaries in each step so they feel confident moving forward.
You can also offer incentives to encourage customers to complete their purchase, such as free shipping or a small discount. If a user goes to abandon, presenting these small savings is often enough to sway shoppers to go back to checkout.
If you can’t offer free shipping to everyone, consider offering the deal once shoppers spend a certain amount. Present a progress bar in your mini cart or on abandonment to show how far shoppers are from free shipping. Suggesting personalized product recommendations with this tactic will encourage users to add additional items to their cart, therefore increasing your AOV.
Re-engage Abandoned Shoppers with Email Remarketing
Even with a completely optimized ecommerce checkout process, your brand still needs email remarketing strategies in place to re-engage shoppers that abandon your website.
UpSellit’s PreCapture technology collects data and contact information in real time so you can reengage shoppers to come back into the funnel. For users who didn’t enter their email before abandoning checkout, UpSellit’s Anonymous Visitor ID can identify 5-35% of anonymous shoppers using a database of over 250 million shopper profiles.
With this new lead information, send a series of three remarketing emails over the next week that include the user’s cart contents. This provides a convenient path back to purchase to recover otherwise lost sales.
Optimize Your Website with UpSellit
Ecommerce checkout optimization is a critical part of the buyer’s journey that has a significant impact on your brand’s bottom line. Our behavioral marketing solutions and patented AI-technology combats website abandonment to personalize and optimize your online store.
From strategy to optimization, our team of conversion experts design and develop every campaign to align with your brand and customer journey. Our A/B testing capabilities makes it easy to discover the best solution for your brand’s conversion optimization needs.
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