Between 2019 and 2020, the share of global retail trade based on eCommerce grew by three percentage points - which made obvious the impact that Covid-19 had on the digital and eCommerce market. While this has undoubtedly opened up new and exclusive opportunities for entrepreneurs, it has also made the competition a lot fiercer.

And, if you are looking to increase your site’s conversion, lower digital cart’s abandonment rate, and remain competitive in a growing market, following checkout process best practices is just as important as working on your site’s design.

Setting up your online store is the first step - but as soon as your store starts to grow, you should not think twice about perfecting your website checkout system. After all, this is the last level of the sales funnel and represents a decisive step in the consumer’s buying journey. Getting it right can make a difference between a sale and a missed opportunity! Download our latest infographic and keep reading to learn more about key checkout process best practices to follow.

Why Is The Checkout So Decisive?

Many digital entrepreneurs and eCommerce store owners mainly focus on designing a site that is responsive, interactive, and highly competitive. While these are all essential aspects to consider, the website checkout system is not to be underestimated. Placed at the end of the sales funnel, the checkout flow is what confirms a sale - and yet, 69% of e-commerce potential buyers abandon their shopping cart.

Take a look at our infographic for more insightful stats!

Some of the reasons for abandoning a cart included not enough payment options, crushing issues and errors, poor return policy, and slow delivery times. While some of the figures might seem neglectable, increasing your conversion rate by a few percentage points can significantly increase your revenue.

Benefits of a Seamless Checkout Experience

Improving, refining, and simplifying your users’ checkout experience and your site’s checkout page is a crucial success factor. The quality of your ecommerce checkout flow actually impacts various areas of your business such as conversion rates, customer loyalty and many more. Download our infographic for free and get an overview of the benefits you can get from having an optimal checkout system on your website.

9 Checkout Process Best Practices

In order to apply the eCommerce checkout flow best practices, you will need to combine buying behaviour principles, website design notions, and technical upgrades. According to Fogg Behaviour Model, the decision taken by your consumers results from a combination of:

• Motivation to pursue an action;
• Ability to act;
• And a trigger that gets the process started.

So, you will need to implement a checkout process that is easy to complete and avoids annoyance and frustrations in your consumers. To do so, we’ve compiled in this infographic some of the best practices to elevate your site’s checkout flow to a higher-converting system. If you want to dive deeper into each concept, keep reading!

Create Friction Free Checkout Process

Your sales funnel represents an important process in your buyers’ journey to completing a sale. And, it is likely that both you and your marketing team are investing money and effort into creating a seamless, converting sales funnel. At the same time, distractions can undermine your efforts and decrease the checkout conversion power. Some distractions to avoid include:

• Hidden costs
• A long, confusing checkout option
• Security concerns
• Missing out on bargains and discounts
• Unnecessary product recommendation
• Unnecessary call-to-actions and navigation options

Make sure to display the items in the cart transparently and clearly - you don’t want your customers to go back to the shopping page to check if they have selected the right colour and size!

Provide a Guest Checkout Option

As we have seen above, not providing a guest checkout option can cause up to a quarter of your users to give up their order. In fact, not everyone will want to create an account or share their details. While collecting consumer data is important, a lengthy account sign-up process might reduce the chances of a user completing their order and undermining their loyalty.

Optimise For Mobile Checkout

Almost 57% of all internet traffic comes from mobile, and sales deriving from mobile are [forecast to become dominant](https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/mobile-commerce/# why-does-mobile-commerce-matter) over the next few years. At the same time, the cart abandonment rate through mobile is higher than their corresponding desktop rates.

So, optimising your site for mobile can help you secure a higher percentage of sales, increase conversion rate, and, because of the recently introduced Google Core Web Vitals, mobile-friendliness can also help you rank higher.

Use Autofill and Autosave Features

Using features to autofill personal and payment details and autosave their cart allow for a streamlined checkout experience. This can not only eliminate distractions but also help your users to fly through the checkout experience.

Allow For Multiple Payment Options

Today, consumers can benefit from a variety of payment options that ensure online security, payment protection, instalment options, and credit enhancement. If they don’t see their preferred payment option on your site, they might check out a competitor’s one. Some of the payment options to include are:

• Credit or debit cards such as Visa and Mastercard
• Account payments such as PayPal and Stripe
• American Express
• eWallets
• Google Pay, Amazon Pay, and Apple Pay
• Direct debit

In the future, some sites will also need to make available options for consumers to pay through cryptocurrency.

Understand How To Design Your Cart

Your site’s checkout page design matters. Some principles to consider include:

• Make each action taken by the user - such as adding an item to the cart - obvious.
• Show the “add to cart” button and confirmation
• Redirect users to the right page
• Use visual hierarchy principles
• Make sure you provide all information needed by the users on the checkout page.

Lower Your Prices - and Be Clear About Your Fees

Statistics tell us that consumers will abandon your site if you present them with too high or unexpected costs at the end of the sales funnel. Additionally, adding shipping and delivery fees at the last stage of the checkout process can affect your site’s reputation and trust.

Instead, make all fees and the total cost to pay immediately visible at all stages of the process so that your users can make an informed decision.

Use CTAs and Progress Indicators

Long and confusing checkout processes can cause your users to abandon their carts. You can keep them informed by showing a progress indicator bar and clear call-to-action buttons that guide users throughout the process. When asking for information, keep the credit card details for last and reduce the amount of information that needs to be typed in.

Offer a secure Checkout Process and show it

Checkout security is essential for your customers. You can make your site more trustworthy and reliable by adding:

• SSL logo and certificates
• Different background colours for the credit card information
• Allow for a written statement that confirms that it is a secure payment
• Explanations for credit card details that are necessary
• Explain passages in plain terms

Bottom Line

Creating a streamlined, friction-free, and converting ecommerce checkout flow is not a one-time effort, but rather an ongoing process. In fact, new industry and technological developments might cause multiple restyling and designs. Make sure to start reviewing your website’s checkout system today and keep our infographic at hand to make sure you apply some of the checkout process best practices. Don’t let those orders slip away! And remember, we are here to help you deliver them seamlessly. Don’t hesitate to take a look at our shipping management platform or to get in touch with us to discover a tailored solution for your site.