eCommerce Know-How

eCommerce Know-How Know-Letter Newsletters

Straight Talk

February 16, 2010

Focus on Checkout


Full Article: Boosting conversions with better checkout  by Bernardine Wu.
Click here to view printable PDF version

You've got your customer in the bag. Well, their items are in the shopping cart, anyway. Checkout is where you'll find out if you have a happy customer or not. Improving checkout is the most critical lever in boosting conversions, but you needn't overhaul your whole checkout in order to gain sales. Fewer clicks and pages, early notification and easy-to-edit information are among first principles.

Here are 7 questions to consider when evaluating your checkout.
  1. Do you give your customer all the information (shipping costs, tax, delivery options and dates, out-of-stock, etc.) earlier in checkout?
  2. Can she check out without logging in or creating an account?
  3. Is your navigation and checkout process easy to follow and uses a progress bar?
  4. Is it easy for her to change her order, use promotion codes or coupons, and redeem gift cards without leaving checkout?
  5. Can she easily change shipping and billing addresses and ship to multiple addresses?
  6. Do you save (cookie) her cart for at least 7 days, ideally 30?
  7. Do you show field-level error messages and state the mistake and action needed?
Bottom Line: Simplify checkout to 1-3 pages and as few clicks as possible, while informing your customer early and often.

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