Customers are sometimes lost during the checkout process, which is the primary concern of all online store operators. According to the Baymard Institute, the average online cart abandonment rate is nearly 70%. Many times, consumers add goods to their shopping cart but do not complete the transaction. As a result, you will miss out on potential earnings.
To help you save these revenue losses, we will discuss some tips about how to optimize the checkout process, and this article is for merchants on the BigCommerce platform.
Overview
Avoid ‘surprise’ extra costs
When purchasing on an eCommerce site, online shoppers sometimes discover hidden costs such as taxes and shipping charges, which results in higher costs than expected. To solve this issue, businesses should either inform customers before the checkout process or directly add these costs to the items’ prices.
Regarding extra costs, free shipping has been found to be a huge attraction for online shoppers. In fact, 9 out of 10 consumers say that free shipping is their top reason to go online shopping more. This is why online retailers should use this strategy to boost revenue.
If your business model cannot accept free delivery, consumers should be clearly informed of the final price before the checkout process. On the other hand, if your website offers free shipping, low delivery costs, and returns, this information should be included on the home page to attract more customers.
Upsell/cross-sell
Another way to optimize the BigCommerce checkout process is to give customers some suggestions to purchase more, either with a more expensive item (upsell) or with a similar product (cross-sell). This alternative can include the following:
- Customers can see similar products to what they are about to purchase in the related product section.
- Customers place an order in your online shop and are offered an upsell.
Use mobile-friendly design
Mobile significant commerce revenues are projected to account for 54% of all e-commerce sales by 2021.
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Having this in mind, you should maximize the usability of mobile checkouts to avoid losing sales. Customers should be able to shop on their phones/tablets in the most convenient way possible. To make the checkout page more mobile-friendly, businesses can follow these options:
- Integrate a BigCommerce POS system that is compatible with mobile devices
- Check to see if your mobile checkout is operational
- Reduce the number of steps in the checkout process
- Offer check out as a guest (without logging in)
- Show the status of the checkout
- Make use of autocomplete
- Make mobile payment options available
These suggestions can help you increase conversions and customer satisfaction in your online store. Keep in mind that the shopping process on mobile devices should be consistent with those operate on PCs.
Consider single-page checkout
Businesses can use the One-Page Checkout option to optimize their BigCommerce checkout process. It has friction-reducing features and a seamless checkout process to boost sales conversions.
With the one-page checkout process, customers who have a perpetual cart can view and edit products in their cart at any time during the checkout process. They can check out on any page with ease, thanks to the sensitive and minimal design.
Moreover, to speed up the checkout process, a shipping method can be pre-selected or automatically suggested, so that customers can save time choosing it.
Ask for payment information last
Research has shown that the second most popular reason for cart abandonment is that customers are asked to create an account. Although it is necessary to save customers’ details to provide a more personalized experience and for future contact, this activity can sometimes annoy customers.
Therefore, it can be wise to ask for payment information in the last step of the checkout process, when they have fully reviewed their carts, delivery options and total price. This is when personal information is truly required to deliver the purchased products to the right customers.
Send confirmation notification
Customers should be notified by email when their order is placed successfully and when the status of their order changes. Customer order updates are a great way to stay in touch with your customers and give them a personalized experience. You can also use them as a marketing tool to increase sales through upselling.
Remove page distraction
Make the checkout page as neat and simple as possible, and only highlight the most important information such as pricing, delivery options, or customers’ address. Many eCommerce sites add an excessive number of pop-ups in this stage, which may cause annoyance to consumers and lead them to leave the page.
A simple way to solve this problem is placing pop-ups in different stages, such as when they are scrolling or after the payment has been made. Keep the pop-ups short and sweet – your customers may have faced a lot of information while doing online shopping and experience decision fatigue.
Use a POS system for omnichannel checkout
If your company is offering curbside pickups, or any other form of omnichannel shopping, integrating a powerful POS system can help to enhance your checkout process. When you have more than one selling channel spreading from online to offline places, it is essential to have a point-of-sale system to minimize any disparity between different touchpoints.
For example, customers may want to pay online and pick the items up in store. You can do this easily with a POS system. Handling this type of purchase can become challenging without technology, especially when the quantity goes up.
Wrapping up
The checkout process is the determining stage when potential customers become your real clients. In this article, we have provided 8 useful tips to optimize your BigCommerce checkout process.
Last but not least, we believe that the shopping experience cannot be optimized without a powerful POS system. For your information, ConnectPOS offers point-of-sale solutions on BigCommerce and other major eCommerce platforms. Start your free trial today or talk to us for more options.