eCommerce is tricky. Everything needs to be in the perfect place for a customer to click on buy now. Even if the smallest thing is out of place, it could lead to abandoned carts. 

A customer may find your products and service perfect, but if the shopping journey and checkout process isn’t smooth, customers may end up leaving. 

According to a report by Baymard institute, average abandoned cart rate in eCommerce is close to 70%, with almost 20% consumers finding the process too long/complicated.

If you’ve recently noticed a pattern of increased cart abandons on your eCommerce store. Then, this may be the right time to look towards eCommerce checkout optimization.

What is Checkout Optimization?

Checkout optimization is the process of using a series of strategies to streamline the eCommerce checkout process. When the checkout process is seamless, customers are able to make payments easier. A good checkout process should aim to make the customers buy the products in under 30 seconds. 

But checkout optimization is much more than the checkout process. Cart abandons don’t happen just due to complicated checkout process. Consumers also abandon carts due to friction points throughout the entire entire shopping journey. 

So, your checkout process shouldn’t focus on the checkout page, it should start from the place a consumer enters your website. 

Importance of Checkout Optimization

Every eCommerce business anywhere in world should have a checkout optimization strategy. Here are the top benefits of optimizing the checkout process:

1. Reduce cart abandonment rates

A high number of cart abandonment rates impact a brand’s revenue. But eCommerce brands often focus on the wrong thing to fix the card abandonment rates.

Shoppers that go till the checkout page and then leave the process aren’t disinterested in your products/ brand. They want to buy the product but something is stopping them from doing so. As an eCommerce business, its your duty to figure out what’s stopping customers from hitting the “Buy” button. 

By optimizing the checkout process, you can prevent thousands of consumers from abandoning the cart. 

1. Increases retention rates

To survive in the fierce eCommerce space, it’s not enough to get a customer to purchase something. Ideally you want your customers to keep coming back to you to shop. This is the way you can build a successful eCommerce store. 

As they say, ‘first impressions are everything’. If a new customer didn’t had a good time shopping on your store, they’re more than likely to never visit you again.

If a consumer has to jump through several hoops to complete a purchase, they’re not coming back. 

Optimizing the eCommerce checkout process can improve your customer retention rates. 

Common Reasons Why Customers Abandon Checkout

Every customer persona is different and they all have different reasons for abandoning a cart. The reasons for cart abandonment vary greatly based on several factors, such as:

• Industry of your business
• Your product/service type
• Audiences
• Personal preferences, and more.

But, every customer has the same shopping journey as you can see in the illustration below. If your customers are abandoning the cart, it’s because of a friction point in any of these shopping steps. 

Here are some common reasons across all industries and business type that show why customers may be leaving.

• Surprise cost and hidden charges

If there’s one thing that every customer hates - it’s surprise cost additions. Any hidden fees (taxes, shipping, random taxes, etc.) can pull customers away from the ‘Buy’ button. 

If you’re giving surprises to customers at the point of checkout, they aren’t going to take it well. 

• Forced account creation

Customers don’t want additional friction in the process. If they’re on your store to buy something, you shouldn’t force them to create an account. 

While creating an account has become a standard practice in eCommerce industry, it also acts a point of friction. 

• Complex process

Customers shop online because they prioritize convenience over everything else. So, your priority should be to provide consumers with a fast checkout experience. 

• Limited shipping options

Another factor that’s often overlooked while optimizing the checkout process is limited shipping options. Customers want multiple shipping methods and customized delivery options. 

• Concerns over security

If you’re not able to showcase your customers how secure their payment and personal information is, it’s going to lead to abandoned carts. One simple way to tackle this problem is by displaying security badges whenever possible and offers customers a secure experience when building your store. 

• Lack of available payment methods

If you have limited payment methods it causes a certain level of frictions. If a customer likes to use online money transfer services like Google Pay, Apple Pay, or something similar, you should have it as an option. 

Forcing customers to add a new card, or use a payment method they’re not familiar with adds unnecessary friction in the process. 

Best Practices to Optimize eCommerce Checkout Process

Now you know why eCommerce checkout optimization is important, let’s go over the steps and strategies you can use to optimize the process and boost sales. 

1. Optimize eCommerce store for mobile devices

Mobile devices have become the primary device for shopping for millions of consumers globally. 

Mobile eCommerce sales reached $359.32 billion in 2021. If your eCommerce website isn’t optimized for mobile devices, leave everything and get to it. 

You need to provide a seamless and fun shopping experience for mobile users as it will end up amounting to most of your sales. 

Optimizing your eCommerce store for mobile devices won’t just help in reducing abandon cart rates, it has other benefits as well. Since 2019, Google is using ‘mobile-first indexing’. What it means is that the ranking of your website will be determined by the mobile version of your site. 

Just by optimizing your website for mobile devices, you can boost sales and supercharge your SEO efforts. 

Choose a mobile-friendly website design that adjusts to multiple screen sizes. Doing so will ensure that a customer doesn’t have to zoom in or zoom out to see parts of your website. 

It’s highly crucial that you place CTAs in the right place when optimizing website for mobile devices. You don’t want website visitors to scroll till the end to find the ‘Buy’ button. 

1. Personalized product recommendations go a long way

Even the smallest of personalization can make a huge difference. Every shopping journey on your website is unique and customers want to treat it that way. 

66% of customers expect brands to understand individual needs, while 70% customers claim their brand loyalty is dependant on how well a brand understands their needs. 

When you show personal recommendations for products, it helps in upselling and cross-selling. 

Moreover, if shoppers have to scroll your entire website to find a companion item, they’ll abandon the cart. Naturally show the products they may be interested in or products that they can combine. 

Amazon does an incredible job in this regard. Check out this example:

• Offer free shipping

Amazon’s two-day free shipping policy has changed the entire shipping landscape for eCommerce stores. If possible, offer free shipping to customers. 

If you add shipping costs when customer is about to checkout, it can lead to abandoned carts as customers don’t like unexpected costs. 

This is the reason why all eCommerce businesses should offer some type of free shipping. If offering free shipping on every order won’t be ideal for your business, you can set up a minimum order value threshhold, or membership program. 

• Use exit pop-ups

Did you know that the average conversion rate for online shoppers who put items in their cart is 11.4%?

Customers that ABSOLUTELY want something from you will buy. Otherwise, they’ll abandon cart whenever they face a roadblock. 

With the help of exit pop-ups, you can make customers re-think their decision of abandoning the cart. Your exit pop-up can include anything that’s relevant. The best option is to offer some kind of discount on the next purchase, or some kind of free reward.

• Leverage customer reviews

Social proof is a powerful marketing element. Even today, customers are hesitant while buying things from an online store. They’re worried if the product will have a good quality, if its exactly as advertised, if it’s durable.

Having a number of customer reviews on your website can assure customers how good a product is and if its something that matches their needs. As a matter of fact, 79% of all consumers trust online reviews before making a purchase. 

Ask your customers to leave a review when they purchase something on your eCommerce store. 

• Include guest checkout option

As mentioned above, forcing customers to create an account to buy something is a bad idea. According to a survey, the second most-voted reason for customers abandoning the cart was “the site forced me to create an account.”

We understand the importance of collecting customer data, but it shouldn’t come at the cost of a sale. If you want to make sure customers don’t leave their carts, offer a guest checkout option. This is especially useful for first time users. 

If you want customers to create an account, offer something of value to them. Offering a one-time discount on the next order for creating an account can be a good incentive. 

• Keep the checkout process as small as possible

To reduce cart abandon rate, make sure your checkout process isn’t longer than one page. The more pages you add, the higher your cart abandonment rate can be.

When customers have all the information in a single place, they’re more likely to complete the process. 

A multi-page checkout process is a bad idea as customers have no idea how much percentage of the process is remaining. If you can’t use a single page checkout, use a progress bar to indicate to customers how much progress they’ve made. 

• Leverage autofill and data validation

Enabling an autofill function allow returning customers to go through the checkout process easier. 

For first-time customers, you can add optimization options like auto-filling the customer’s city and state when they enter the zip code. Or you can add a feature that suggests their address while they’re typing it out. 

Also, make sure there’s no mistakes in customer information by using data validation. Doing so is a great way to optimize eCommerce checkout and ensure the entire process goes smoothly.

• Offer multiple payment options

Each customer has their preferred payment method. The most common ones being digital wallets, and BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) plans. If customers can’t find their preferred payment method, they may find some other place to shop.

With a range of payment options, you’re offering your customers more choice and flexibility. Some shoppers don’t like using methods like credit cards as they feel its unsafe. Some customers want convenient options to make a payment. 

You can use tools like WordPress, Shopify, or Fastor eCommerce platform to place express checkout buttons that help you get more impulse buy sales. 

• Add SSL

Customers have become smarter than ever. So, you have to build trust before they start paying you money. If a customer doesn’t believe your checkout is safe and secure, they won’t hit the ‘Buy’ button. 

According to a ClearSale Survey, 92% of consumers claim that security is an important factor to them. 83% consumers stated they’re more likely to shop at websites that highlight fraud prevention methods. 

That’s why it’s vital to add a SSL certification and industry standard security badges to show you’re compliant with all security practices. 

Summing Up

Without optimizing the checkout process can be tricky. You have to analyze the entire shopping experience, starting from the moment a visitor lands on your website till the moment they leave the cart. 

It takes a lot of A/B testing and experimentation to find the perfect formula that reduces the cart abandonment process. With a tiny bit of work, you’ll see your conversion rate rise over time.