Your checkout page is where the rubber meets the road. Your customer will either complete the process or click away, perhaps never to return.
That’s why it is vital that you stack the deck in your favor by making the purchasing experience as appealing and efficient as possible.
Make checkout mobile-friendly
The fact is that more people every day are using their mobile phones to make purchases. Therefore, set up your website for thumb-friendly payments.
Also, be sure that your website loads quickly and moves along at a fast pace by incorporating digital wallet options and allowing for credit card scanning with the phone’s camera.
Inspire customer trust
When people feel comfortable with your brand and website, they will be more likely to complete their purchase via online payment processing. Reassurance can come in the form of user-generated content (UGC) from happy customers, security badges that attest to the safety of your site or both.
There are several types of UGC. It could be a glowing review, a photo of a buyer using one of your products or a video unboxing.
Digital trust signals include payment badges from providers like Visa and Mastercard as well as SSL certificates that encrypt data.
Make it easy
If people are forced to jump through too many hoops, they will bail. One of the most annoying of these obstacles happens when businesses require potential buyers to set up an account before the purchase can go through.
Some people might be ready to make this commitment right away; in that case, accommodate them with an easy account set-up flow. Those who are a bit wary might feel more comfortable checking out as a guest or doing so through social media.
Even so, feel free to tout the benefits of having an account, i.e., gaining access to sales promotions and tracking details.
Be transparent
No one wants surprises, particularly when they involve unexpected service charges or shipping fees. Encountering one of these during checkout is a surefire cause for cart abandonment.
To keep this from happening, be absolutely clear about all costs from the start. You may also want to dedicate a page on your site to shipping and delivery, including a calculator to make things absolutely clear.
For best results, break down the price of all items, including the sales tax, shipping costs and any added fees associated with each available shipment method. Additionally, invest in live customer service or a chatbot to answer questions in real time to prevent shopping cart abandonment.
Accept numerous payment options
Companies that provide payment processing for retailers want to help you to make a profit. After all, they make money when you do. To that end, a top-quality vendor will let you configure your systems to offer numerous ways to pay: credit and debit cards, digital wallets, buy-now-pay-later, PayPal and even cryptocurrency.
If you sell internationally, be sure to also accept multiple forms of currency that allows buyers to pay in their native monetary denomination.
Include a progress bar
In the spirit of transparency, customers are happy when they can see how far they have gotten in the purchase process. Every time someone advances closer to the finish line, there is a small thrill of accomplishment leading to the victorious rush that they experience when the payment is confirmed.
Dividing the payment journey into a series of distinct steps can also be helpful to you and your staff. Everyone knows just what to expect as well as relatively how long it will take for completion.
Provide real-time help
In the middle of the shopping experience, complications can arise. Customers might have a pressing question; a promo code might fail to activate; there may be a last-minute concern about the product itself.
Whatever the issue might be, having assistance close at hand can mean the difference between abandonment and a sale.
While 24-hour live support is the gold standard, there are other methods that you can bring to the show as well. Invest in a live chat service that answers basic questions and triages more complex ones to a human support specialist.
Alternatively, furnish details about your online knowledge base if you have one as well as user forums and phone support contact details. In the end, you need to send out the strong message that you care and are available to support your valued buyers at every juncture of the process.
Buying goods and services online gives you a way to interact with customers from everywhere day and night. Just be sure that every aspect of the checkout journey is dedicated to providing a streamlined, secure and transparent experience.
When you do, you will exponentially increase your sales conversion statistics and set the stage for happy, loyal customers.
