Shopping online can, and should be, a great experience. It provides consumers with the luxury of not having to leave their house and having their item of choice delivered straight to their doorstep. But some eCommerce retailers don’t make the online shopping experience an easy one for consumers, which causes shoppers to abandon their online carts, head to a competitor and never look back.
Our recent survey examined the most frustrating aspects at the most critical stage of the funnel shared by both mobile and desktop shoppers – the checkout page. The 1,300 online shoppers who were surveyed called out the elements they feel made for a great online shopping experience, and over 75 percent cited the importance of an easy checkout process.
With consumers busier than ever, eCommerce businesses must eliminate any reason that could cause shoppers to abandon their carts. Why do all the work of getting them to the finish line just to see a sale go to a competitor due to an overly complicated or distracting checkout process? In order to convert browsers to buyers, let’s examine four primary aspects of the checkout process that must be optimized to avoid cart abandonment.
Checkout Forms – One Will Do
Having to fill out the same information twice was the top choice selected as the most frustrating part of online checkout, as expressed by 63 percent of mobile users and 53 percent of desktop users. Checkout is not the stage of the shopping cycle where you want to add work for your customers. They have already decided what they want to buy, and from who, so keep it simple and don’t give them the opportunity to change their minds by prolonging the purchase process.
The Dreaded Back Button
Many shoppers may forget to add an item to their cart before completing checkout and 36 percent of mobile shoppers found that the back button doesn’t go to the previous page, causing them to have to re-enter all of their information. The back button must direct shoppers to the immediate previous page and not require duplicate efforts, otherwise it contributes to a negative experience that could make shoppers leave the site.
Navigation Needs to be Seamless
Along with making your back button functional during checkout, your entire website should be easy to navigate. Nearly half of online shoppers (46%) consider website navigation to be a make or break factor while shopping on an eCommerce site. Whether a consumer is shopping on desktop or mobile, retailers should make the journey as optimized as possible. If your website is too complicated from the start, how can you expect shoppers to even make it to the final stage of checkout?
Prevent Unauthorized Pop-Up Ads to Protect the Customer Journey
Unwanted pop-up ads and distractions are major contributors to consumers abandoning their cart right before making a purchase. Twenty-nine percent of consumers agree that pop-up ads at checkout are distracting and negatively impact their view of the retailer. If a retailer’s website has competitor pop-ups, banners and advertisements from other sites, consumers feel bombarded and will close their tab or move to another retailer’s site without these distractions. Additionally, 62 percent of respondents indicated that these ads suggest the customer experience is not a priority for that retail site – damaging not only sales, but brand reputation.
As mobile continues to take a larger piece of the pie when it comes to visitors and conversions, eliminating friction before, and even more importantly, during checkout becomes that much more important. Preventing frustration for both desktop and mobile users will help you reduce cart abandonment rates and deliver an experience today’s consumers have come to expect in order to click the ‘buy’ button over and over again.
Remember these four key influencers as you design – and redesign – your eCommerce site for an optimal checkout experience.
Ohad Hagai is SVP Marketing at Namogoo