What is the checkout page?
The purpose of an eCommerce site is to convert prospects to customers. To allow customers to pay for their items, a checkout page is essential. During a customer’s checkout process, it should be a simplified and protected process as it sets the stage on how efficient and secure your ordering process is.
Checkout pages should be continuously evaluated, optimized and updated for faster checkouts and higher conversions. If the checkout page is too slow or requires too many difficult questions the customer does not want to answer, the likelihood of cart abandonment will be high.
Why is the checkout page important?
This is a critical aspect of the customer decision buying journey. Being able to smoothly checkout with ease and comfort is an important factor in the customer’s decision to purchase their desired items or abandon their cart. It’s essential that businesses make this process as effortless as possible because customers desire a simple, fast checkout experience.
Now that your customer is on the checkout page and is preparing to make their payment, it’s essential that you have a smooth checkout page to ensure your customer’s checkout isn’t abandoned. Some of the key best practices include:
Lack of shipping options
Customers that shop online want to do so because it’s a convenient option to get their items instead of waiting around and travelling to the physical store to purchase the item. Therefore, it’s important to ensure that the checkout page informs the customer on the delivery options available. If a store has a lack of shipping and delivery options, it can lead to the detriment of customers shying away from ordering from the site and leading to high cart abandonment. Customers that do not recognise the shipping courier or there are no options with shipping methods or if the shipping methods provided are too expensive, customers will abandon their cart.
Guest checkout
One of the highest leading causes of cart abandonment on the checkout page is that customers have no interest in spending time on inputting their details to create an account. Customers like the freedom of making their own choices and if they’re restricted to creating a detailed account on your site, this can lead to high cart abandonment. Instead, offer the option of both creating an account and guest checkout. This ensures that the customers that are in a rush and have no desire to create an account to still checkout.
Mobile optimization
There has been a growing popularity of shopping online using a mobile device. If you intend to set up an eCommerce site that is not mobile optimizable, you are simply deciding to say that you are not catering to a number of your customer base. To ensure you’re not a company that gets left behind, it’s important to design your mobile site to be optimized for a seamless checkout experience. If your mobile site is not optimized for checkout purposes, it can lead to higher cart abandonment rates.
