It’s a staggering statistic, 68% of online shopping carts are abandoned before a purchase is made by people shopping online and is one of the biggest challenges for any online business. This article from PayPal is a very timely reminder of 6 ways online businesses can improve their checkout process to encourage more sales being completed:
• Put yourself in your customers shoes – remove anything that may frustrate, confuse or annoy customers
• Remove checkout obstacles – it’s the little things that matter, simplify the process as much as possible and remove anything that is unnecessary
• Minimise the data collection – this takes the customer time so only request the bare minimum you need
• Optimise for mobile – ensure the checkout is friendly for mobile users
• Give customers the right information at the right time – eliminate surprises and provide a roadmap
• Give customers more payment choices – providing different methods of payment so that customers can choose their favourite method will increase sales
It’s quite easy for business owners to overlook particular aspects of their business when they’re busy managing the daily operations of the business as well as overcoming issues as they arise. At Maddock’s Accounting & Advisory we take an active approach to helping act as a second set of eyes for owners by helping them execute their strategies and identifying ways for continual improvement.
Contact the Maddock’s Accounting & Advisory team here to find out how we can help.
“1. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes
Checkouts that seem simple to you may actually frustrate, confuse or annoy customers.
Too often, businesses develop websites without ever experiencing the checkout flow from the customer’s point of view. But if you walk through the checkout process as a customer would, you can learn a lot.
Remember, annoyed and frustrated customers are less likely to complete a sale.
So how do you “play customer”?
Approach your site without preconceived notions of how it should work.Don’t just test out features you know and understand – make mistakes and see what happens.
Pay attention to each of the steps in going through the checkout.Where do you get stuck or feel frustrated? Make a note of those specific pages or actions – that’s where you’re most likely to lose customers.
Ask your family and friends to help you test the checkout experience– ideally people who don’t know much about the inner workings of your site. Watch them while they browse for products, place items in the shopping cart, and try to check out – and jot down where they hit snags. Even two or three such “testers” can help to uncover your biggest problem areas.
Don’t try to solve all the problems at once.Focus your efforts on making the experience faster, easier and more secure, and you’ll be addressing the most common reasons consumers fail to complete online purchases.
Buy from other sites. Go through the checkout of other online stores and compare their processes to yours.
2. Remove checkout obstacles
When you design an eCommerce website, the little things matter. What may seem like a small step – requesting one more piece of information, adding one more screen before checkout – can be the trigger that makes a potential buyer abandon their shopping cart. The more screens that customers face, the more likely they are to walk away from a purchase.
So streamline your checkout process and get rid of any obstacles on the path between product selection and completing a purchase:
Keep it simple. Ask only for the information you need to fulfil an order. Never ask for the same information twice.
Use autofill. Greet returning customers with pre-populated form fields, so they don’t have to re-enter billing and shipping information. New customers should never have to re-enter their details.
Remember what you learn. If a customer makes an error or forgets to fill in a required field, just flag the problem. Making a customer retype an entire page of information is an excellent way to lose a sale.
3. Go easy on data collection
Just because you can gather data about customers, doesn’t mean you always should. Weigh up your desire for customer data against your need for them to complete the sale.
If you ask for information that isn’t necessary for checkout (like their date of birth or signing up to a newsletter), you may frustrate your customers or even make them suspicious – and that’s hardly a positive sales experience.
Remember that a quick, successful checkout nets you a valuable result: a happy customer who is more likely to return.
Instead, save those requests for information for post-checkout or return visits. While first-time customers are simply interested in checking out quickly, returning customers are more likely to value the benefits of setting up an account, such as pre-populated forms and faster checkout.
The “thank you” page is also a good spot for asking buyers to create an account or sign up for a newsletter as it doesn’t get in the way of completing their purchase.
4. Make checkout easy for shoppers on mobiles
Smartphones and tablets have become everyday tools. 79% of Australians own a smartphone and, in 2015, one in three Australians bought something on their smartphone, and that growing trend shows no sign of slowing.
But smaller mobile screens and buying on the go create an environment ripe for cart abandonment.
The takeaway? Online sellers must optimise their sites for simple mobile payments, or lose out.
To make your site mobile friendly:
Design for small screens. Having a mobile-optimised website is good. But mobile responsiveness – when a site flows and scales to suit the browser or device screen – is better. Your eCommerce site should adapt on the fly, working on a small screen as well as it does on a large one.
Use larger fonts and buttons. Place action buttons (like Add to Cart and Buy Now) at the top and bottom of each page.
Cut down on data entry. Everything we’ve said in this guide about streamlining checkout goes double for mobile.
Test, test, test. Your site should look good and work smoothly on a wide range of devices and operating systems.
5. Give customers the right information at the right time
Giving your customers the right information at the right time in the checkout flow minimises confusion – and that can help reduce shopping cart abandonment.
Eliminate surprises. As soon as a customer adds a product to their shopping cart, display the product description, item price and shipping cost. This gives your shoppers an assurance that the transaction is working properly.
Brand the checkout experience. Add your logo and colours to each page of the checkout experience, including the PayPal checkout page. It boosts customers’ confidence that they’re on the right path.
Highlight payment options early on. Alert customers to all your available payment options before they reach the shopping cart. That way, they know they can pay by their preferred method. Add a PayPal button to the shopping cart page so customers who choose PayPal don’t have to enter billing and shipping information.
Provide a roadmap. Show buyers where they are in the checkout process – it’s another way to keep customers moving toward the final step. A flow diagram or numbered steps (for example, “Step 3 of 4”) can reduce a customer’s anxiety or frustration.
6. Give customers more payment choices
Showing shoppers that you offer their favourite ways to pay can improve sales. In fact, just knowing they can pay with PayPal has a powerful effect on customers; accepting PayPal can help improve checkout conversion by up to 44%*
Highlight acceptance of PayPal. Make the PayPal acceptance mark clearly visible on your home page. Ideally, it should be high on your home page, so viewers don’t have to scroll down to see it. If that doesn’t work for your site, list PayPal alongside other online payment types elsewhere on the home page. Many sites put this information in the footer as well as at the top of the home page.
Provide a checkout shortcut. Use the “Check Out with PayPal” button to give customers a shortcut through the checkout process and reduce the likelihood of them abandoning a shopping cart. Put the button on the shopping cart or initial checkout page, next to your standard checkout button.
Partner with a payments platform like Braintree – Providing more ways to pay means more choice for your customers. Ensuring that your gateway provides all the latest payment options available in your market will optimise your opportunity for return. Braintree, a PayPal company, not only accepts payments in over 130 currencies but also gives it’s merchants access to 188 million PayPal users around the globe, accepts Apple Pay, debit cards, credit cards and whatever’s next. To find out more visit www.braintreepayments.com”
See the original article here