ONE-PAGE CHECKOUT

Online merchants have been kicking around the idea of single-screen checkout as a better, faster process for years now, and many marketers have in fact implemented it. But consumers accustomed to multiple-page checkouts have not entirely embraced the technology. And for merchants that offer different ship-to options and gift services, it’s not a viable option.

One-page checkout, also called one-step, single-screen, or single-step checkout, is an online checkout portal that is self-contained on one page. As with most other online checkouts, customers are asked to login as either a registered user or a guest and then directed to a single page to complete the transaction. Some pages use top-tier tabs for each portion of information gathered with varying labels, similar to Microsoft Word’s “page setup” dialogue box. Others use Flash-based dynamically moving sections that swoosh open and shut, for instance, revealing shipping cost information once the send-to address is given. But the concept is the same: A one-step checkout allows a consumer to enter all of his billing, shipping, and payment information within a solitary, and typically Flash-based, page without having to deal with a series of slow-loading HTML pages.

Outdoor clothing and gear merchant BentGear.com, for example, uses a dynamically refreshing shopping cart that automatically prepopulates certain fields such as “name on credit card” when a customer types his name in the billing information section. If the name on the customer’s credit card is different from his billing information — for instance, the credit-card name includes a middle initial — he can make changes in the payment section. After the shopper selects the box indicating that the shipping and billing addresses are the same, a new section appears listing delivery methods as well as the shipping cost.

Portals for purchasing

Similar but not technically considered one-page checkouts are portals that also allow customers to register and create a profile with their billing, shipping, and payment information. When a customer returns to make a second purchase, he will begin the actual one-step checkout process by signing in and being directed to a single page to review that the personal information and the shopping cart data are correct before receiving a confirmation page. Amazon.com offers the best-known of this model of checkout; registered users can “Buy now with 1-Click” as soon as they register.

Lauren Freedman, president of Chicago-based e-commerce consultancy the E-tailing Group, sees a benefit to this type of profile portal because the customer isn’t required to reenter his personal information each time he returns. “There’s a retention component there,” she says. “You know it’s there, you know it’ll go through, and it’s like you didn’t even shop.”

Getting in step

There seem to be about as many disadvantages as advantages to one-step checkout, so you should evaluate options carefully. Whether it’s right for your business depends on your size, what you sell, and perhaps most important, whether your customers are ready for single-screen checkout.

On the plus side, one-page checkout is — or should be — simple. Ken Burke, president of Petaluma, CA-based Web-development firm MarketLive, believes that online merchants should take their cues for checkout from Google’s stark home page, in that it gives visitors limited options of how to proceed.

“I think the same thing holds true for checkout,” Burke says. “If done right it can be simple, because it’s convenient and all on one page.”

One-step checkout is also faster — at least, it is for users familiar with the technology. One-page checkout is especially attractive for the more sophisticated customer who is not intimidated by learning and using new technology, says David Fry, president/founder of Ann Arbor, MI-based Fry, an e-commerce design, development, and services provider. “If you’re able to make it an easier process for a more tech-savvy customer, making it faster, then it’s worth it,” says Fry. “It’s all about how technologically advanced your user base is.” Customers of consumer electronics merchant Newegg, for example, would take to a single-screen checkout more readily than customers of older-skewing Carol Wright Gifts.

On the downside, one-step checkout can be needlessly complex. During its short-lived foray into e-commerce in 2004, Framingham, MA-based discount retailer T.J. Maxx used a one-page checkout form that allowed users to add and remove items and change size, color, and quantity of items in the cart even as they were checking out.

“People were more likely to begin the checkout process than they were the traditional checkout process,” Fry says, “but they were also much less likely to complete the checkout process” because the learning curve was too high. If your single-screen checkout is more confusing and slower to use than a multipage checkout, it will likely reduce conversion rates and eventually drive customers away from your site.

While you have to consider your customer base’s reaction to just about any new technology you want to implement, Burke says you need to be particuarly cautious when it comes to the checkout process, because when customers are giving sensitive personal information over the Internet, they may bail out of a purchase if they’re feeling unsafe or confused.

“The fancy stuff confuses the heck out of them,” says Burke, so it’s often best to stay within the norms of industry until most users catch up with the technology.

MarketLive doesn’t create many one-page checkouts, Burke says, not so much because of concerns about alienating customers but because most of its clients are gift catalogers that require a more complex process. And that brings us to another drawback to one-screen checkout. Marketers that offer consumers the opportunity to ship parts of an order to different recipients or gift wrapping are not suited for one-page checkout because of the multitude of information needed to complete the order. All that information simply can’t fit on one page without making it unreasonably slow and complicated.

Less is not always more

When deciding to move forward with a one-step checkout, remember that “sometimes it’s not that you have to have fewer clicks, it’s that they need to be efficient and logical in what you’re doing,” says the E-tailing Group’s Freedman. For instance, a five-click checkout, although it takes customers through more pages, might provide a better gifting experience because it enables consumers to ship products to more than one person. (See “Multiple-page checkout guidelines,” on left.)

Even so, Fry predicts that one-page checkout will likely be standard among consumer merchants within two years. “As users of the Internet become more acquainted with the technology that’s used and accomplishing more on one page…then a single-screen checkout will become what they expect,” he says.

As for business-to-business merchants, they may well adopt single-screen checkout even sooner, says Fry. Companies whose clients visit their Website several times a month, he explains, will likely make the investment in teaching customers to use one-page checkout and to then use the convenience and speed of the process as a selling point.

One-page checkout guidelines

If you have implemented or are considering implementing single-page checkout, here are a few best practices:

  1. CREATE CLEAR DELINEATIONS OF SECTIONS

    Regardless of whether you create a Flash-based checkout with sections flying open and shut or one with navigational tabs and pull-down menus for each section, experts agree that each section should be distinguished visually from the next so that customers know they are moving through a process.

    David Fry, president/founder of e-commerce design, development, and services provider Fry, says that customers should confront only one issue or requirement at a time; for that reason he suggests using top-tier navigation so that only the shipping address, billing address, or payment method section is visible at once. Ken Burke, president of Web development firm MarketLive, says merchants could also use background color blocks or thin lines to segment each group of information collected.

  2. CREATE CLEAR ERROR MESSAGING

    Error messages, those pesky little red notes that tell a consumer when he has forgotten or mistyped something, need to be easy to see and understand. Burke cautions that consumers tend to look for visual cues of what is missing rather than read text. To counteract this, he recommends highlighting wrong or missing information by putting the whole information cell in color rather than providing a simple text message at the top of the screen. Alternatives include pop-up boxes or a colored box around a text message.

  3. KEEP IT SHORT

    A one-page checkouts that stretches on for a half-dozen screens is just as user-unfriendly as a 10-page checkout. “The longer the page is, the harder it is to deal with,” says Burke. He recommends keeping a single-page checkout to no more than the length of two screen shots. If you need to make it longer, opt for a multipage checkout instead.

  4. OFFER AN ALTERNATE MULTIPAGE CHECKOUT

    Because of the differences in consumer comfort levels with the single-screen checkouts, you should offer customers the option of checking out using a traditional multipage checkout instead of the newer one-page checkout. “If you’re building a consumer Website, you should give consumers a way of bailing out to go to a more traditional Website,” says Fry.
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Multiple-page checkout guidelines

  1. LIMIT THE NUMBER OF PAGES

    “Not all checkouts are created equal,” says consultant David Fry, but a checkout process with too many pages is sure to turn off most shoppers. Multipage checkouts, he says, typically stretch across four pages, including a recap of the order as the final page — and that’s as long as they should go. Ken Burke, president of Web development firm MarketLive, agrees that any checkout that uses five or more pages is a bad idea. You have to keep the checkout easy to navigate and intuitive — and make sure that nothing falls below the scroll, he says.

  2. COLLECT INFORMATION IN A LOGICAL ORDER

    Perhaps more important than the number of pages in the checkout is the overall flow of the checkout elements. Burke encourages merchants to include a summary of the order, including merchandise, quantity, shipping and sales tax estimates, and subtotals, that is continuously updated throughout the process.

    The checkout process should begin with a page where registered customers or guests can sign in, but it shouldn’t require shoppers to create an account prior to proceeding through the checkout, Burke adds.

    The second page should collect a shipping address and include a check box to designate if the billing and shipping addresses are the same. Customers should also be able select the shipping method on this page. You should include a full list of prices and delivery timelines for each shipping method, says Burke.

    The third page should include billing information, prepopulated if the checkbox on the previous page was selected. A space for source and promotional codes should be provided on this page.

    The fourth and final page should include a review of the order and a “submit order” button. The customers should be able to edit all fields from this page without having to go back to a previous page.

  3. INCLUDE A PROGRESS METER

    Customers like to know where they are in the grand scheme of things, which is why Lauren Freedman, president of e-commerce consultancy the E-tailing group, says you must be sure to include a progress meter in your multipage checkouts. “Merchants have realized that people liked to see ‘You have four steps left in the process’ or ‘Five steps left’ messages because they can see where they are in the process,” says Freedman.

  4. PROVIDE CUSTOMER SERVICE LINKS

    “What’s important with this is making sure you’re making it efficient for the shopper, making sure you have good customer service links out there,” says Freedman. Those include prominently promoting and positioning “worry-free shopping” elements, such as site security information, product and brand guarantees, return and privacy policies, and a customer service contact. You should also consider integrating security certification logos such as HackerSafe or VeriSign. “At the end of the day it’s all about efficiencies in checkout,” says Freedman.
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