You’re here because you have something to sell – and possibly because there are more and more sad, lonely shopping carts being cruelly abandoned in the last step of your checkout procedure. Essex web design services create bespoke websites for clients in the UK and beyond. Specialists in graphic, print & digital design. Take heart, you can avoid this in future with some carefully researched tweaks. Read on!
Website design
Good, clean website design is really important if you want to gain customers and keep them. In online retail, that crisp, final click is the crucial one – the conversion. Through great web design and superior product development, you lead customers to your site, entice them with your products or services and smoothly guide them through the shopping process.
The checkout procedure
If you then experience that potential customers are abandoning their selected cart of goods right at the end, you need to ask some questions about your checkout procedure. Fair enough, various elements could contribute to non-conversion, including unexpected delivery or shipping fees. However, the main other potential cause is usability. Think about it as if you’re a user. Is your checkout procedure user-friendly? It is fast, easy to follow and navigate through.
Single-page checkout
Upon asking these key questions, you’ll most likely come across the concept of a single-page checkout; a simple concept, which means exactly what its name implies – a checkout procedure that doesn’t require navigating to various separate pages.
Testing
There have been some good studies done involving testing whether the single-page checkout really affects the conversion rate or not. This study showcased a 13% increase in the conversion rate, and in this test, the single-page checkout outperformed the two-page checkout by 22%.
It would stand you in good stead to perform your own A/B split testing (such as the latter study noted above, wherein 50% of customers were directed to the single-page checkout and 50% to the two-page checkout).
The general opinion in online retail seems to be that single-page checkout is a better option even if only for the most obvious reason – it’s faster, as there aren’t any more pages to load. This could be very important to your target market… or it could be relatively immaterial. In the long run, it would be crucial to test, track and analyse whether a single-page checkout affects your customers and sales in any notable way.
Make your checkout page great
In order to construct a checkout page to support your conversion rate optimally, there are more subtle, psychological things to keep in mind, as well.
In addition to a checkout page being user-friendly, note and test these7 elements to make your checkout page great:
- Adding trust elements – place security verification badges throughout the process, not only on the checkout page.
- Assist customers through live chat – this is a no-brainer!
- Changing the customer’s mind – e.g. including a money-back guarantee; if there is no risk, the customer is more likely to complete a transaction.
- Form fields – less is not always more.
- Frequently asked questions – address their worries and incorporate their input into a list of FAQs.
- Micro-commitments – by requesting small bits of information in the correct sequence, build trust and improve conversions.
- Testimonials/ proof of other trustworthy purchasers – adding this onto the checkout page can make customers feel more secure and feel they are making the right decision.
Since no two companies (or their target markets) are the same, there are bound to be some interesting variations in results. Experts have come to a similar conclusion to mine – don’t assume your results will mirror anyone else’s, don’t always believe what you read, and test everything.