June 23, 2023

Checkout Page: How To Optimize Your Checkout For More Conversions

Optimize your checkout page for maximum conversions! Discover effective strategies to streamline your checkout process and boost your sales. Learn more now.
Checkout Page: How To Optimize Your Checkout For More Conversions
Checkout Page: How To Optimize Your Checkout For More Conversions

You may put tons of money and effort into designing your ecommerce store. However, if shoppers are unable to make it through to the checkout phase, converting them into paying customers will be next to impossible. 

Research reveals a nearly 70% 

cart abandonment rate which means that only three out of ten shoppers will complete their purchase, leaving ecommerce business owners with thousands of dollars worth of missed sales. 

As an ecommerce business owner, it doesn’t have to go that way. By optimizing your checkout page, you can arm shoppers with all the information they need to make a buying decision and turn them into paying customers. 

Read on as we look at tips that can help you optimize your ecommerce checkout page and improve conversions. 

What is checkout page optimization? 

Checkout page optimization refers to the various strategies used to improve the checkout flow and drive customers to make a purchase. The goal of optimizing your checkout page is to reduce any frictions that may occur during the process and encourage customers to make a final purchase. You want to ensure that every component from the layout and design to the product details, payments, and shipping is well-optimized to ensure a smooth checkout process. 

Why is checkout page optimization important? 

So you’ve invested in your homepage and product detail pages. Why is checkout page optimization important? Well, in simple terms - cart abandonment. 

As we mentioned earlier, research shows that only three out of ten shoppers make it past the checkout phase. Around 17% of shoppers ditch their purchases because the checkout process is too complicated. 

To reduce cart abandonment, capture shoppers and turn them into paying customers, it is important to optimize your checkout page. 

Checkout page optimization not only reduces cart abandonment but can also increase your average order value - (AOV) and revenue. 

11 ways to optimize your checkout page for more conversions

Now that we’ve understood the importance of checkout page optimization, let’s dive right into the various strategies to optimize your checkout page and increase conversions: 

  1. Enable guest checkout 
  2. Reduce form fields 
  3. Consider a one-page checkout 
  4. Use a progress bar
  5. Provide multiple payment options
  6. Add security badges
  7. Offer free shipping
  8. Provide live chat support 
  9. Use psychological triggers to encourage sales
  10. Employ upselling and cross-selling tactics
  11. Make your checkout page mobile-responsive

Enable guest checkout 

Many shoppers, especially first-time shoppers, want a fast and easy way to buy products. They want to make purchases without creating an account. 

Research reveals that 24% of shoppers abandon their cart because they were required to create an account. 

You can create a guest checkout on your ecommerce site to allow shoppers to complete their purchase without creating any account or filling in so many details. 

You can enable customers to log in with their Google, or Facebook accounts without any hassle. 

By enabling guest checkout, you can avoid losing out on sales and increase your conversion rate. 

Reduce form fields 

According to research, an ecommerce website only requires eight form fields on a checkout form. However, the average retailer has as many as twelve fields. The research concluded that showcasing many form fields can discourage shoppers and increase cart abandonment rates. 

When creating form fields for your checkout page, ensure it is for only important information.

Only include essentials like billing address, name, and credit card information. 

Consider a one-page checkout 

One way you can optimize your checkout process is to use a one-page checkout. You can simplify the checkout process by including all checkout fields on one page.

Multi-checkout pages are great. However, with a one-page checkout, customers can easily access all they need to know on one simple page. This makes the checkout process easier, shorter, and more convenient. 

Use a progress bar

A complicated and lengthy checkout process can discourage shoppers from completing their purchases. As we mentioned above, you can consider a one-page checkout page. However, if you already have a multi-checkout page or you prefer to use it, you can make use of progress bars. 

Progress bars can give shoppers an idea of how long the process will take and what steps they will need to take. If your customers can see through the checkout process, they are less likely to abandon their cart along the way. 

Provide multiple payment options

Customers have various payment options that they prefer to use while shopping online. To capture as much of your target audience, you want to ensure you have multiple payment options to cater to their needs. 

You can add payment options like:

  • Credit and debit cards
  • Apps like PayPal and Shop Pay
  • Digital wallets like Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Google Pay, etc. 
  • But Now, Pay Later 

With a wide range of payment options available to your customers, you can turn many interested shoppers into paying customers. 

Add security badges

Most shoppers are concerned about the security of an ecommerce site and may be hesitant to provide sensitive information if they do not trust the site. 17% of shopping carts get abandoned because the customer didn’t trust the site. 

Security badges can help reinforce trust and encourage customers to shop from you. You can add as many security badges as possible on your checkout page to increase trust and conversion rate. You can include badges like SSL certificates, payment badges, money-back guarantees, antivirus software badges, etc. 

Offer free shipping

High shipping cost is one of the major reasons for cart abandonment. For most online shoppers, free delivery has a major influence on their purchase. Around nine out of ten consumers will shop more online if given the option of free shipping. 

With free shipping having one of the biggest impacts on sales, you want to show that you can meet customer expectations by including free shipping-related messages on your checkout page. For example, you can set a minimum order requirement for customers to qualify for free shipping. 

Your profit margin doesn’t have to take a hit. You can slightly raise your prices to take in the shipping costs. 

Provide live chat support 

As customers shop for their preferred products and go through the checkout process, they may have one or more questions about their purchase. 

With live chat support, you can address any questions or objections in the checkout flow immediately. You can use the live chat support to give your potential customers quick answers to their questions. This prevents customers from abandoning their shopping cart and exiting the checkout flow. 

Use psychological triggers to encourage sales

The process of buying a product is essentially psychological. Many questions go through the mind of customers as they shop on your ecommerce site. Questions like: is this the right product for me? Should I spend money buying this product? The more ‘Yeses’, you can get in the minds of your customers, the higher your chances of getting a conversion. 

You can do this by using psychological triggers on your checkout page. What do we mean? 

Psychological triggers are things that influence people to take a specific action. 

Here are two powerful psychological triggers that you can include on your checkout page: 

  • Urgency/scarcity: If you’ve ever bought a product because it was the last one in stock, you did so because you had a sense of urgency and scarcity. Urgency and scarcity create a feeling that if you don’t seize the opportunity immediately, you may never get the chance to. On your checkout page, this can particularly be very useful in encouraging customers to complete their purchases. For example, “Order product in 5 minutes and secure same-day delivery”, “Limited slots available”, etc. 
  • Social proof: Most shoppers will compare reviews and testimonials before making a purchase. Shoppers are more likely to consider reviews just as much as they would consider a personal recommendation. By taking advantage of social proof like customer reviews, ratings, and testimonials, you can instill confidence in potential customers and drive sales. 

Employ upselling and cross-selling tactics

Apart from preventing cart abandonment, you can also increase the amount shoppers spend on your ecommerce store and boost your revenue. What better way to do this than employing upselling and cross-selling tactics? 

Upselling involves promoting an upgraded version of a product for a higher price. For example, this could mean including personalization options for your product, volume discounts, gift-wrapping, etc. 

Cross-selling involves recommending products that will complement the one added to the shopping cart. For example, if you sell lipstick, you can include a lip liner and lip primer as complementary products to bump up the value of your product and encourage customers to spend more. 

Make your checkout page mobile-responsive 

Why? Well, it is projected that by 2024, the United States will have over 187 million active mobile shoppers

To capture these customers, you can’t afford to slack on mobile-friendliness. You want to ensure your checkout page has a fast mobile load speed, a responsive mobile design that customers can resize to fit their screens as well as a checkout button that is finger-friendly. 

Start optimizing your checkout page 

The customer reaches crossroads once they arrive at the checkout page. You want to ensure you guide and persuade them to complete their purchase. This will ultimately reduce cart abandonment and increase your conversion rates. You can go through our tips above to optimize your checkout page, increase conversion rates and boost your online revenue. 

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