Almost every eCommerce business has struggled with poor conversion rates at some point in time. Even in today’s digitally transformed world, cart abandonment is a problem that has business owners scratching their heads. It is something that businesses have found hard to get rid of entirely.

According to Sale Cycle, 8 out of every 10 people leave a website before purchasing anything. The exact average Cart Abandonment rate amounts to 81%. This high number might surprise many readers, but it isn’t unrealistic, considering most of us do this in real life. 

We add something to the Cart and decide not to purchase it. This might result from various constraints on our behalf, like high product prices, hidden charges during Checkout, delayed delivery dates, etc. 

Let’s dive deeper into cart abandonment, conversions, and checkout page optimization from a business’s point of view and determine what you can do to get the best out of your eCommerce business.

Cart Abandonment and Conversions: The Polar Opposites

The eCommerce sector thrives on cut-throat competition, making it a fast-growing sector, but this growth poses a significant threat to store owners. The competitiveness and ease of finding alternatives in the market make customers spoiled for choice. In fact, it has become so competitive that the slightest inconvenience to your site visitors can drastically affect your conversions.

The room for error in eCommerce is minimal. Thanks to the success of D2C, customers are now treated as royalty. So much so that their expectations are off the roof. Businesses have a hard time fulfilling their unrealistic demands. Even for the industry’s big game players, it is impossible to satisfy every customer.

But what bothers your customers? Apart from the quality of products and services, your store’s checkout page is your website’s most essential yet overlooked section. 

Your store’s checkout page is the place where prospects become your customers. A poorly designed checkout page can nullify your valuable efforts and increase cart abandonment rates. In short, the checkout page is what brings conversions.

Conversions are one of the most important metrics related to eCommerce. Reducing cart abandonment helps you improve the conversion rates of your store. The higher your conversions, the better your store’s performance.

Although it is almost impossible to eradicate cart abandonment, it is quite possible to reduce it. This article will guide you through 10 effective checkout page optimization techniques to reduce cart abandonment and improve conversion rates. 

10 Checkout Page Optimization Techniques To Boost Your Conversions

Most businesses overlook the possibility of optimizing their Checkout Page to drive conversions. Instead, they focus on front-end optimization to push customers down the sales funnel. 

Although these processes are essential for improving your store, converting shoppers into paying customers may be challenging if they grow agitated throughout the checkout process or if their demands are not addressed. 

We have listed below the best ways in which you can effortlessly optimize your checkout page.

1. Offer Guest Checkouts

Shoppers are generally very impatient when it comes to shopping online. They don’t want to go through the tedious process of creating an account to make a purchase, especially for customers who wish to make a one-time purchase. 

Mandatory sign-ups are responsible for the majority of cart abandonment cases. According to research, 31% of people exit your website if they have to create an account to make a purchase. But why are companies so reluctant with this strategy? Well, it’s a no-brainer. They do so to collect customer data and improve their marketing campaigns. 

Brands usually tailor their marketing campaigns based on the customer data they collect. This allows them to send personalized messages and offers to customers via email or mobile notifications.

Despite being an excellent strategy to boost marketing efforts, mandatory sign-ups significantly affect your conversions. We recommend you offer guest checkouts to your visitors to enable them to purchase products without creating an account. Guest checkouts don’t require the customers to create an account. They just have to fill in their contact and address details to complete the checkout process.

You can also enable signups through social media or Google accounts to collect customer data to facilitate a purchase. Instead of filling up personal details, the customer can register through their preferred social media account, which usually takes just one click. This short process eliminates the need for customers to create an account while enabling the business to get the customer’s email id. 

2. Simplify Your Checkout Page

As we have mentioned earlier, online shoppers are impatient. The more complicated your checkout process is, the more likely they will exit your store. You should be careful while crafting your checkout page; anything you include on your checkout page should be relevant. 

Recently there has been a huge debate among eCommerce connoisseurs on whether a single checkout page is better than a multi-checkout page. 

Well, you might be thinking, isn’t it evident that a single checkout page is more efficient as it requires fewer clicks compared to a multi-checkout page? 

Actually, it’s a bit more complicated. A single checkout page might require fewer clicks to complete the process, but since the information is stacked on a single page, it makes it quite lengthy. The user has to scroll endlessly to fill out the form, which might take longer than filling out a multi-checkout page. 

So which one should you use in your store?

According to research, single-page checkouts resulted in 21.8% more conversions than a multi-page setup. This study is an example and doesn’t prove the efficiency of one format over another. We recommend you comprehensively use both types of layout and test which one works best for you. 

If you decide on using a multi-page checkout layout, ensure that you display a progress bar. Including a progress bar gives customers an idea about the steps involved and the time required to complete the checkout process. Multi-page checkout pages can take longer to complete; users might get irritated if they have no idea how long the process will take.

To simplify your checkout page, you must be transparent with your visitors about your checkout process and provide them with a seamless shopping experience. We cannot stress this enough– customers hate lengthy and complicated checkout processes. Try to follow a definite sequence, shorten your form fields and make the checkout process as streamlined as possible. 

3. Utilize Exit Popups

An exit popup usually appears when a visitor attempts to exit the page. It essentially serves to convince the visitor to stay on the page. The pop-up initiates if the pointer moves outside of the browser’s active area, which is the window containing the page’s actual content. It essentially serves to convince the visitor to stay on the page. 

Exit popups are a great tool to persuade customers who have added products to their cart but have not yet completed the purchase. Usually, an exit popup should include persuasive messages to entice the user to complete the purchase. Depending on the user’s profile or the webpage they’re seeing, you can adjust the messaging. 

J.Crew uses an exit-intent popup to encourage customers to sign up for their website. The data collected by exit popups can be of great value in understanding customers’ pain points. The collected data from exit popups may reveal some overlooked areas. Customers would tell you directly what changes they want to see made to your online store, and you would know exactly what to implement to increase conversion rates.

4. Provide Multiple Payment and Shipping Options

You must provide a wide range of payment and shipping options to cater to customers’ preferences. Customers have varied preferences when it comes to payment. Most of them don’t prefer to pull out their bank cards to enter the details; they might prefer digital payment options to complete their transactions. Others might go for more secure options like bank cards or COD. 

Consider including a wide range of payment options to give flexibility to your customers. Having options like credit/debit cards, digital payment options (PayPal, Venmo, etc.), cash on delivery, and finance options reduce the chances of people exiting your website and improves conversions.

You can also include Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) payment modes to give even more flexibility to your shoppers. BNPL, no-cost EMIs, and split payments are becoming increasingly popular. These options help your customers buy your products by paying later or by paying small installments instead of the whole amount at once.

In the same vein, you ought to offer various shipping options. Users should be allowed to choose how quickly they want their purchase delivered because different shipping providers have varied delivery schedules. Options like one-day delivery are becoming more popular than ever, especially in today’s market, where people are impatient. 

5. Avoid Hidden/ Additional Costs

Hidden costs are annoying, and we all hate them. These costs include taxes, currency conversions, handling fees, and shipping fees, accounting for 55% of cart abandonment cases. You must either reduce or eliminate these costs to improve conversion rates.  

Due to high demand, most retailers are content with free product shipping and have adapted to it. However, it might not be easy for everyone. Some businesses find it challenging to avoid these costs, as removing them negatively affects their bottom line. So, what can they do?

It is a standard eCommerce best practice to be transparent about your additional costs with your customers. Avoid catching clients off guard with additional taxes and fees at the checkout, as they might feel tricked and eventually exit the page. Be honest when it comes to shipping, handling, and tax costs. You can include these details on the product page instead of surprising your customers during checkout. 

Another way to solve this issue is by providing free shipping on a minimum order value. This conversion tactic entices your customers to explore other collections and purchase more. 

Some store owners follow a rather interesting route. They slightly increase the prices of their products to compensate for free shipping. You might be wondering, isn’t the cost still the same? Yes, the cost remains the same, but the idea of getting free shipping makes your customers feel that they are getting value out of the purchase. When the price of a product remains the same throughout the buying process, customers feel a sense of joy that no additional costs are involved.

6. Make Sure Your Website Is Mobile Friendly

Digital transformation has witnessed a rise in the number of mobile users. Mobile commerce has become an inevitable part of online retail. According to a report by Statista, mobile commerce accounts for a whopping 72.9% of all eCommerce sales. You wouldn’t want to miss out on such a large chunk of prospects. Would you?

You would be surprised to know that mobile users contribute to 85.65% of cart abandonment cases. If you want to convert mobile users into customers, you need to optimize your website for mobile devices. 

Some ways in which you can optimize your checkout page for mobile users:

• Use more prominent buttons for Checkout, Add to Cart and Save Item buttons to avoid accidental taps.
• Design the checkout page for one-handed navigation. 
• Optimize the images, text, and other elements for smaller screen sizes. Minify your code to enhance your page loading speeds.
• Use larger font and form fields for better readability.
• Make sure your checkout process is divided into different sections. Jamming everything into a single page can be a catastrophe as users may experience difficulty while navigating.

Along with optimizing your website for mobile users, you can design a native app or PWA to provide a better user experience to your visitors. While optimizing your store’s checkout page, always prioritize providing the best user experience to your customers.

7. Offer Live Chat Support

Some customers have queries related to delivery dates, discounts, or refund policies. Don’t let these questions remain unanswered. Customers who have queries about your products are more likely to purchase them. 

If your customers are confused about something and don’t get the desired answer, they will probably exit your store and look for better alternatives.

Use a chatbot to address customer issues or queries to ensure a seamless shopping experience. 

Rather than having all the information on the FAQs section on your checkout page, install a chatbot to answer customer queries. This speeds up the loading speed, avoids information overload, and takes the pressure off your customer support team. 

You can read our article on how eCommerce chatbots can help you boost your sales.

8. Use Psychological Triggers To Persuade Customers

You can use psychological triggers to influence customers to check out more products from you. Sounds interesting? Let’s get you going. 

When we say psychological triggers, we mean using phrases that will entice your visitors to buy from you. Your customers are always searching for value. While shopping, several thoughts run through their mind– is this product worth the money? Do I need it? You need to answer these questions to trigger them to buy from you or check out your other collections. 

For example, during the checkout process, you can create urgency by showing your visitors something like “grab before stock runs out” or “Order within 30 minutes to get a 10% discount”. Adding some kind of incentive or creating a scarcity usually persuades your customers to purchase from you even when they don’t need your product at that particular time. 

You can also show them related products or new arrivals to entice them to explore your other collections. Display items that complement the products your customers have added to their cart.

For example, if a customer has added a t-shirt to their cart, you can show them matching trousers or shoes. Cross-selling strategies like these work wonders in boosting your revenue.

9. Display Security Seals

Trust is the pillar that supports your entire online commerce operations. Shoppers are often skeptical about purchasing products online because they cannot physically see or feel them. Around 17% of cart abandonment is due to a lack of trust signals. If your website looks shady, your customers might straight away exit your website. 

Store owners must validate their website’s security. Displaying security badges and trust seals can evoke a feeling of trust among your customers. Some of the badges you can include are:

• SSL Certificates
• Antivirus badges
• Money-back and safe refund guarantees
• Payment badges
• Relevant business certifications

Use these trust signals on your checkout pages to gain customer trust and improve conversions.

Social proofs and reviews are a simple way to improve your store’s conversion rates. People tend to trust websites already tried and tested by others, so ensure you include customer reviews on your product pages and marketing materials. 

10. Add a Wishlist Option

Customers sometimes like a particular product but don’t buy it right away. They will use your store’s cart to save products if you don’t have a wishlist or a “save product” option. The saved items contribute to the cart abandonment rate when they exit your store.

By providing a wishlist option, you will experience a decrease in cart abandonment as customers have a section to save products. This method usually works well as customers who save products on their wishlist are genuinely interested in buying. 

You can also send personalized messages and emails to people with items on their wishlists, reminding them to purchase a product. 

Closing Thoughts

Cart abandonment is an unavoidable part of eCommerce. We can’t always anticipate and control why customers exit a store without purchasing. In this article, we have mentioned ten easy yet effective ways in which you can optimize your checkout page to improve your store’s conversion rates.

The checkout page optimization strategies mentioned in this article might not work for everybody similarly. You must carefully implement these strategies into your business and test them repeatedly to understand what works for your store. 

Testing and measuring your campaigns is the best way to grow your business. Checkout Page Optimization takes a lot of time and effort. Use A/B testing to determine which strategies can help you achieve the best conversion rates.