10 Things You Can Do to Optimize Your Ecommerce Checkout Process

One of the things all ecommerce website owners fear is cart abandonment. You draw visitors to your page, they decide to buy, make their selections and build their cart, get to the checkout process and poof – they are gone. This is an all too common scenario in the ecommerce world. What can you do to optimize your ecommerce checkout process? Here are 10 things for you to consider.

KISS Your Pages

Keep It Simple Stupid is a common mantra. It means to keep your design and checkout process as simple as you can.

• Display your prices clearly and prominently. This way there are no surprises and your customer knows exactly how much they are paying
• Be clear about shipping. If you offer free shipping, make this one of the focal points of your pages.
• Put your phone number on each page of your site. That way if customers have a question they know you’ll be available. This also encourages trust. If you’re open to being contacted, then you should be someone they can trust.
• Stick to a simple clean design with large images. Too much text looks cluttered. The buying process is usually prompted by seeing what you are buying. In the physical retail world one of the secrets is to put the product in the customer’s hand. While you can’t do this online, you can present them with high quality large images.

Can You be Trusted?

Trust for an ecommerce site is vital. Your customers have to be able to feel confident giving you their credit card number.

• Include trustmarks on your checkout pages. These are graphics from such sites as Paypal and the Better Business Bureau.
• Only ask for exactly what you need from your customers. Don’t get too nosey or they will lose trust in you and abandon their cart.
• Include testimonials on your pages. If your customers can see other people have been happy with their products and your service they will be more likely to complete the checkout process.

The Actual Checkout Process

Once you get your customer as far as the checkout process, make it as simple and straightforward as possible.

• Make your checkout pages isolated from the rest of your site. Remove navigation from your checkout pages. This reduces distraction.
• Give buyers the option of purchasing as a guest. Don’t force the registration process. Not everyone wants to become a member; they just want to make a purchase.
• Let your customer know where they are in the checkout process. Show them at each step where they are and how much further they have to go to actually complete their checkout.

Use these 10 things you can do to optimize your ecommerce checkout process and avoid cart abandonment. If you follow these tips you will see a rise in your conversion rates. While you may have a stunning ecommerce site that attracts many visitors, your main goal is conversion.