Tips on Increasing Convenience at the Checkout Process
by Josh Biggs in Business on 21st February 2020As an online business, your end goal is to ensure that your customers make it to the checkout stage. However, just because they’ve made it to this phase in the process, things can still go wrong. Customers abandoning carts can have a huge impact on your bottom line, and finding a way to reduce the chances of this happening is important. That’s why having the right payment processor in place is imperative.
Having a system that integrates checkout, payment processing and fraud detection into one benefits you in many ways, including reducing the chances of losing money or products. It also reduces the number of people you need in-house managing all of these tools and gives you clear insights into your customers data and behaviors.
However, if you truly want to impress your customers, you need to go beyond having the right payment processor and doing something that will make a lasting impression. Below are some ways to accomplish that goal.
Avoid Popups
When a person finally makes it to the checkout page of your online store, they don’t need anything to distract from their purchase. Thus, to leave a lasting impression and make the process as easy (and fast) as possible, refrain from adding pop-ups to this page.
Many businesses like to do this to encourage people to check out other products or to sign up for a newsletter. Mostly, though, it’s annoying and if you irritate your customer at the final stage of the buying process, they may abandon their cart and go somewhere else.
Make the Process Short and Simple
Not only should you refrain from having pop ups as your customers are trying to check out, but you might also reconsider having them register to make a purchase on your site. This process gives you insight and valuable information about your customer, but it takes a lot of effort on their part to fill out these fields.
If you want to make a good and lasting impression, give people the option to check out as guests. It’s also a good idea to only ask for the necessary information to complete the order. The simpler the checkout process is, the more inclined customers might be to buy from you in the future.
Customers are humans, which means they are prone to make mistakes. Thus, if they type in incorrect information while checking out, make it easy and simple for them to correct the problem. This is best accomplished by taking them directly to the information that needs to be fixed. If they have to spend time looking through the form for data that’s wrong; they may give up and go to another site.
Thank Them
This small gesture could have a lasting impression on customers when they buy from your site. How you present this thank you will be up to you, but this is when you might consider using pop ups, directly them to a thank you page or sending them an email.
The best thing to do is make the thank you fun and let the customer know you appreciate their business. Don’t try to sell them any other products at this point. Just let them know that you are happy they visited your site and hope they are satisfied with your products.
One of the huge challenges you will face as an online seller is getting customers to the checkout stage. Once they are there, you want to ensure they complete the process by having the right payment processor that is quick and easy to use, and you also want customers to know how much you appreciate them. This could create a lasting impression that will bring customers back to your site to buy more products.