How to Stop Losing Shoppers During Checkout

In e-commerce, the checkout process is the most crucial for all businesses. It is very painful for an online seller who receives visitors to their site but makes minimal sales. It is even more painful when a potential buyer places items into the cart only to abandon them at the checkout stage. Research has shown that over 70 per cent of online shoppers drop the cart just before checkout. Here are some of the reasons why shoppers give up before entering the payment details.

 

Why Shoppers Abandon Goods Before Checkout

• Comparison – Some clients will be comparing prices from different online shops and once the total price is displayed, they will purchase from the seller who offers the best deal.
• Stressful sign-up process.
• Hidden costs and high shipping charges.
• Distractions.

 

Tips To Avoid Losing Customers During Checkout

1. Avoid distracting clients

By the time a client navigates to the checkout page am sure you have put in a lot of effort to convince them to remain focused. It will be your own undoing if you tried distracting them with pop up messages and links. It is also not wise to try bringing up discount pop-ups. At this moment you want to help your client focus until they make the payment. Some sites that make sales online even remove navigation bar from the checkout page lest clients fail to close the deals.

 

2. Make it possible to view the total cost

As earlier noted, most customers will compare prices from different sites before deciding on where to purchase. It is therefore important to make it easy for the clients to view the total cost without having to register or sign in. If you complicate the checkout page, most users will become frustrated and leave the page altogether.

 

3. Show all charges

As you display the total cost, ensure you include all prices including those of extra costs like shipment. Otherwise, clients may conclude that the estimated price is that of the item alone. You should break down the costs so that your client does not feel duped and run away to a competitor’s site.

 

4. Only ask for relevant information

Some sites will ask for unnecessary information on the checkout page that often causes frustration to customers. For instance, some sites ask for too much information such as age, multiple addresses, and bank details this mostly plays to their disadvantage. Instead, make it easy on your potential buyers, show them that you trust them and you will have a high conversion rate. At the end of the day, all you want is to make sales and not a database of customer’s details. In the event, a customer fails to fill in the forms correctly, show them where the mistake occurred because it is annoying when you keep trying to proceed with the next step but keep getting the error messages.

 

5. Indicate that a client’s payment is secured

Everyone is cautious about where they fill in their bank details thanks to the many fraudsters all over the world. By simply indicating that the payment detailsare secure and that they won’t be shared with third parties, it gives the clients a sense of security. That way, the potential buyers are likely to click the buy button that is good for your business.

 

6. Free shipping

Customers are intrigued by small things that most online sellers tend to overlook. For instance, if you indicate that you offer free shipping, you may find many customers visiting your site and actually completing the payment process. The trick is just including the total cost of shipping onto the product price so that you don’t incur losses.

 

7. Easy return

Most sellers usually indicate that goods once sold cannot be returned. Well, such a statement can scare away clients who are sceptical about the quality of your products. Most sellers will even include such a statement in bold letters on the checkout page. That could be the main reason why you are receiving many visitors on your site but you have no sales to show for the traffic. Assure clients that you will replace their item in the case they are faulty.

 

8. Customize the checkout page

When customizing the checkout page using a site builder, you should try some of these tips.

– Localize the money according to the client’s location to avoid confusion in terms of the amount to pay.

– Make the checkout page mobile friendly.

– Try psychological tricks such as making the money seem little so that buyers cannot feel the pinch of paying.

– Create a smart form such that it automatically fills in details such as location depending on where the customer is. Better still; allow the user to log in via Google accounts so that it is possible to automatically get details such as name, location, and email.

 

Conclusion

The checkout page is the most crucial part of any e-commerce site because it determines whether sales are made or not. To ensure that shoppers do not abandon the cart after navigating all the way to the check out page, you have to apply some few tricks. For instance, avoid distractions, don’t ask for unnecessary information, secure payments, offer free shipping, allow clients to return faulty goods, and customize the checkout page to ensure maximum sales.

 

Contributed by Kerry Harrison, an experienced content writer, with a First Class Hons Degree in Multimedia Journalism. She currently works for UK Web Host Review, providing content on SEO, web hosting, web performance, UX, web security, web design, and much more.