If you are an online business owner in India or aspiring to start your own venture, you may put all your efforts into setting up the business, building a website, marketing the products and services and more. But what happens next? You may notice that the checkout rate on your online store or website is low.
According to recent research, the average online shopping checkout rate after adding things to the cart is about 71%. There are several factors and elements that play a crucial role in determining whether a customer checks out, ultimately leading to a poor conversion rate. Hence, as a business owner, it is paramount that you optimise the payment checkout process to increase the conversion rate.
In this guide, we explore important checkout optimisation and the different tips you can implement right away to boost your conversion rate. Read on!
What is checkout optimisation?
Checkout optimisation is a process of enhancing the final steps of an online shopping experience to make it fast, convenient, secure, and user-friendly for customers. It primarily focuses on eliminating redundant processes and hindrances that may prevent customers from completing the purchase. By enhancing the checkout process, you can significantly increase the checkout conversion rate and ensure that more shoppers complete their transactions.
Why is optimising the checkout process important?
Optimising the checkout process is crucial for all online businesses to reduce cart abandonments and provide a better shopping experience for customers. An effective checkout process typically includes an efficient online payment gateway that enables customers to complete their purchases without any hassles, resulting in a higher conversion rate and increased revenue.
How to improve the checkout experience for higher conversion – simple tips
- Simple navigation
Today, online shoppers love a smooth and hassle-free shopping experience. As an online business owner, whether you own an e-commerce business or run an online retail store, you must have a soft, simple, and distraction-free website layout, especially on the checkout page.
Ensure that you remove all unnecessary elements, such as footer menus and navigation headers, from the checkout page that may potentially distract the customer’s attention. The layout should be designed to ensure that the customer focuses solely on completing the checkout process. Simple navigation and checkout page layout will surely help improve e-commerce conversions.
- Transparent policies
Transparency is a key factor in winning customers’ trust and improvingthe conversion rate. Studies suggest that approximately 81% of online buyers value transparent policies when making a purchase, making them a critical component of your checkout optimisation efforts. So, providing your customers with clear information about return policies, shipping details and customer support. This will help instil a sense of confidence in the customers, increasing the likelihood of them completing the transaction.
- Mobile optimisation
Speaking of conversion optimisation e-commerce, you cannot overlook the importance of mobile optimisation. Nowadays, most online customers prefer shopping using their smartphones. So, the checkout process must be optimised for mobile users.
Ensure that there are clear and compelling call-to-action (CTA) buttons on a mobile screen, guiding customers to complete their purchase easily and quickly.
- Security badges
As you are trying to increase conversion rate and improve the checkout experience for your customer, try to put yourself in the customer’s shoes and think what you would look for to complete the purchase. Chances are high that you may have a security assurance.
This is where displaying the security and trust badges on the checkout page plays a critical role. Make sure that you display SSL certificates and trust seals on your website. This will give your customers a sense of assurance of a safe and secure payout process. Also, ensure that you integrate high security measures, like advanced encryption, into your e-commerce payment system to safeguard the customer’s details.
- Multiple payment options
Today, there are different digital payment options, and each customer may have their own preference. So, as a business owner trying to get higher conversion rates and improve the checkout experience, it is paramount that you provide multiple payment options to the customers, like digital wallets, UPI (unified payment interface), debit/credit card, net banking, etc.
Giving your customer the flexibility to choose their preferred payment option improves customer experience and the chances of the customer completing the payment process.
- Make card editing an easy process
Allow the customers to easily update or edit the cart, like they may want to increase the quantity of a certain item or remove an item they have already added to the cart. The process must be easy for the customers, and they must be able to edit the cart from the checkout page. This will automatically minimise frustration, reduce cart abandonment and ensure a smooth checkout process.
- Offer real-time assistance
A lot of customers abandon the cart and fail to complete the transaction because they don’t find answers to their queries about the payment gateway and other concerns that they may have. Hence, providing real-time support in the form of live chat can help them find solutions to their issues and facilitate a smoother checkout experience.
Ensure that you invest in a dedicated customer support system for your online business. This will boost customer satisfaction, increase conversions and have a significant impact on the revenue.
Conclusion
Improving the checkout experience for online customers requires careful planning and the implementation of meticulously crafted strategies that enhance the shopping experience. By using the above tips, you can surely optimize the checkout experience, resulting in higher conversions.
