One of the biggest differences between high street shoppers and those shopping online is in the level of involvement. While a number of people will walk around a town centre simply browsing stores without actually buying anything, the majority of people will have made the trip for a reason and be planning to make purchases.
Conversely many people find themselves browsing through products online simply out of boredom and/or convenience. This lack of involvement means that online shoppers typically decide to buy products impulsively, and if something isn’t quite right they can change their mind back just as quickly. Due to this it is absolutely imperative for an online business to make the process and seamless as possible for the shoppers in order to maximise the number of potential clients that convert into customers.
The checkout process is the point that most online stores begin to lose customers. Generally it is extremely simple for users to look through e-commerce websites adding interesting products to their shopping baskets without being overly involved. The point at which it becomes real is when they move onto the checkout process and have to commit to the purchase. For this reason online retailers need to ensure that the checkout process is clear and simple, there are a number of common mistakes that retailers make when designing a websites checkout process that need to be avoided.
Hiding Information
One critical mistake that a surprising number of retailers make is hiding information that potential customers deem exceptionally important. Most commonly this is to do with shipping prices and times, but it also happens with other terms and conditions, such as the stores returns policy.
A lot of websites refuse to divulge the shipping cost until the shopper either enters all of their details or registers to the website. This is a big mistake as, from a customers perspective, the most beneficial thing about shopping online is the ease of comparing prices and refusing to offer the total cost easily will make them ignore your site completely and move on.
The best solution here is to offer the total price (and its breakdown) on the initial shopping basket page accompanied by a paragraph explaining the company’s return policy and estimated delivery times.
Required Registration
One of the most frustrating things for customers is when they click to move to the checkout and are forced to register for the website before making the purchase. Ideally the customer should be offered the option to checkout without registering if they wish, but if it is absolutely necessary there are ways to handle it that are far less intrusive.
For example by using an email address rather than a username the customer doesn’t have the hassle of thinking up a unique username (which for big websites can sometimes be tough), and they have less text to input. The best approach is to simply ask the user to choose a password while entering their regular payment details, thus minimalising the extra effort required of them.
Requesting Duplicate Information
Many customers find it frustrating when they type all of their credit card details (including their address) in on one page and on the next they are asked to enter the same details for delivery.
Online retailers should always ask if the delivery details match the card holder details before asking for information that is essentially unnecessary.
Offer Options
Customers expect to be able to pay for their products in a variety of different ways. When starting an e-commerce business make sure that you don’t alienate customers by not allowing them to pay by their preferred method.
These are the four primary reasons that I have found people (myself included) abandon a potential purchase at the checkout. Why not leave a comment below explaining what it is that turns you off when trying to make a purchase online, or suggest how you think companies could improve their checkout systems.
Related Posts:
Tags: checkout, Ecommerce, shopping carts, tips on web design
What turns me off when making a purchase online? Everything. When I click checkout, I don’t want really want to checkout. I want to be done with the whole process and have the product on its way to my door. EVERYTHING that comes between me and that goal is a reason to give up.
In regards to getting all the information, EVERYTHING I have to do to get complete information on the product turns me off and makes me want to give up. We have AJAX. There is no reason a user should ever have to click off a product page to get information.