The checkout page on any ecommerce website is undisputedly the most important. You may get loads of traffic but it’s all in vain, if the visitor abandons his cart.

Here are ten of the most important reasons why a customer abandons his cart according to various surveys –

• Unexpected charges
• Creating an account is required
• Complicated process
• Couldn’t calculate the cost upfront
• Errors and crashing
• Did not want to share credit card details
• Late delivery
• Unfair returns policy
• Unacceptable payment method
• Credit card declined

Talking about high converting checkout pages, it is perhaps not be possible to convert every customer, but these tips will definitely serve to reduce your cart abandonment rate significantly.

Ready? Here goes –
Checkout page optimization is all about keeping your visitor happy and that involves three very basic, but very important things –

• Keep it Simple
• Speed it up
• Add Value

Recommended: How to Improve SEO for Your E-commerce Store to Generate Bucks

Keeping it Simple
When your visitor is done shopping, he wants to find his way out quickly rather than be enmeshed in a web of clicks and links. Most high converting checkout pages therefore are single pages having a direct link to checkout from every product page.

Amazon for instance has their shopping cart at the top of the page – a single click on the image takes the user to checkout – that’s simplicity personified.

Consumer behaviour experts say if you want them to do something, make it easy. When your visitor is done shopping, the last thing he wants to do is figure out how to pay you.

Here are a few things you can do to make your checkout a breeze –

Get the details early on – One reason for cart abandonment is enforced signup. Rather than enforcing, welcome the shopper with a request for his email and invite him to browse. You get the email for follow up and it eliminates an extra step at checkout killing two birds with one stone.

Social Login – Enforcing sign up is not a good idea but you can invite your customer to do so via his social media or Google account – enabling it with a single click. If he is already on board a quick confirmation is sufficient from the security perspective.

Remove Distractions – Keep your checkout page de-cluttered with only the essential items – the invoice, delivery details, and payment options – on it. Keep advertisements for in-store pages and attached to relevant items.

Speed it up
Few things can drive a customer away faster than a slow loading page. Studies show that 10% viewers will leave the page after every second of delay.

To optimize your page for speed –

Auto-fill or social media login / sign up saves time.

Keep images to the minimum and compress, any that you do use.

Most e-commerce websites use plugins to include specific features. Keep these to the minimum – they add to the load even if minimally.

Loading time also depends on the Content Delivery Network (CDN) – or plugin – you use. Magento has a great CDN plugin that optimizes your web pages for load-speed. This is only one of the many reasons why magento is the software of choice for e-commerce.

Use Logos of all payment options – and have plenty of these – so that your customers can quickly find the one they want.

Recommended: 16 Mistakes to Avoid while Designing and Developing an Ecommerce Website

Add Value
Customers are more likely to hit Pay if you offer them free shipping of their order rather a discount on a specific product says a Forrester Study. This is probably because any discounts are forgotten the moment customers see your overheads – such as handling and taxes. If free shipping is not an option, offer a discount on handling costs. If even this is not possible, you could perhaps offer a free or discounted gift.

Whatever you do, present your costs clearly specifying what you are charging for each service.

Reducing the order price is not the only way to add value however. There are other ways to do this –

Exit Popup – Up selling or cross selling at checkout, adds value for the customer giving him the satisfaction of getting something free or at a discounted rate. Your Magento Web Development Company will help you decide the optimum number of offers to make.

Free Upgrade – Once your customer is at checkout, invite him to sign up – if he hasn’t already – along with a discount, gift, or a limited period offer.

Highlight your After Sales –The assurance that they can return a product will likely encourage the customer to add a product he may not otherwise have considered – particularly when upselling or cross-selling.

Choose easy sounding prices – Saying ten dollars is easier than saying nine dollars and ninety-nine cents – to make it easier for your customers to remember prices and compute costs.

Did we cover everything? Oh yes make damn sure everything works as it should – test, test, and test again – and be very clear on when you are likely to deliver. Better to give a later date than make a promise and redact.

Checkout page optimization directly translates to pampering your customer and making his experience in your e-store enjoyable – so that he not only pays but returns for more.

As your Magento Web Development Company, Litmus is here to help make both your own and your customers’ journey stress free and seamless.