Are you looking for ways to improve your checkout page design? If so, you’ve come to the right place! In this article, our digital marketing agency will discuss the best practices for creating a powerful eCommerce checkout page design. We’ll cover topics such as reducing distractions, streamlining the checkout process, and making it easy to navigate. By the end of this article, you should have a good understanding of how to design a checkout page to enhance the shopping experience for your customers and maximize conversion rates. So let’s get started!
Table of Contents
- What is a Checkout Page?
- 4 reasons for shopping cart abandonment
- Is high-quality checkout page design important?
- 8 best practices to provide users with a seamless checkout experience
- Final thoughts
What is a Checkout Page?
The checkout page is the final page in the shopping process on e-Commerce sites. It is where customers enter their payment and shipping information to complete their purchases after exploring your product pages. On the checkout page, customers will enter their credit card or other payment information, shipping address, and any additional information required for the purchase. After the payment is processed, customers will typically receive a post-purchase page with a summary of their order, along with an order number. The checkout page is the culmination of the online shopping experience and is the last step before customers can complete purchases on your online store. The quality of your checkout flow can mean the difference between made and lost sales. That makes checkout page design one of the most important parts of the e-Commerce site creation process.
There are two general types of checkout page design:
- One-Page Checkout: allows customers to purchase products or services online on a single page. It is a great way to reduce the time and effort it takes for visitors to complete purchases. One-page checkout allows customers to quickly fill out their information and select payment options without having to navigate multiple pages. However, keep in mind that collecting a large amount of information with this type of checkout design can be challenging.
- Multi-Page Checkout: requires customers to fill out multiple pages of information before completing their purchase. Multi-page checkout can be more time-consuming, but it can also give you a clearer picture of your customers and their purchases, which you can use to improve their shopping experience.
What causes shopping cart abandonment?
Shopping cart abandonment is a problem that all online retailers experience. Even when customers try to find the products they want, add them to their cart, and start the checkout process, they often abandon their carts at the last minute. Research suggests that the cart abandonment rate is nearly 70 percent. That can be incredibly frustrating for online store owners, but understanding why it’s happening can help them create better checkout pages and fix the problem. Most people abandon shopping carts for the following reasons:
Lengthy form filling
Lengthy forms can be very off-putting to customers and cause them to abandon their cart before they complete purchases. Forms with too many fields can be intimidating and make customers feel like the process is too complex and time-consuming. Additionally, customers may be wary of giving away too much personal information and may be reluctant to fill out all of the fields due to privacy concerns. Lengthy form filling can also be a challenge for mobile devices, as the customer has to scroll through the entire form and may be unable to remember what they have already filled out. As you can probably guess, not many of them will reach your post-purchase page.
Performance issues
When a customer visits a website with slow loading times, pages that don’t render correctly, or bugs that interfere with the checkout process, they are likely to get frustrated and abandon the purchase. Poor performance can also make customers feel that the website is untrustworthy and that their personal information might not be secure.
Inadequate payment methods
A lack of acceptable payment methods can cause high cart abandonment rates because customers need convenient and secure payment options to complete their purchases. If customers do not feel secure or if the payment process is long and tedious, they are more likely to abandon their carts and find a different retailer. Furthermore, customers need payment methods tailored to their specific needs, such as mobile payments, online wallets, and different currencies. If these payment options are unavailable, customers may not feel comfortable making the purchase and will move on to another e-Commerce site. That’s why you need to understand your target audience in and out. Conducting comprehensive web design market research will help you with that.
Hidden Additional Costs
Hidden additional costs often lead to cart abandonment because shoppers are unaware of the full price of their purchase until just before payment. These hidden costs create a sense of distrust and frustration among shoppers, leading them to think that the company is trying to deceive or take advantage of them.
To find out what exactly causes high cart abandonment rates on your online store, make sure to use website visitor tracking tools.
The importance of high-quality checkout page design
A good payment checkout page design is vital for online stores because it can directly impact their customer’s satisfaction and the success of their business. Here are the benefits of creating high-quality checkout page designs:
- More satisfied customers – A streamlined checkout process is essential for the overall customer experience. That will also help you create a positive impression of the brand, as customers who have a positive experience are more likely to return to the store and recommend it to others. Building customer loyalty will benefit your business in the long run.
- Better conversion rates – A good checkout flow can help to reduce cart abandonment rates, which can be a major source of lost sales for an online store. Enhancing how your website process orders will ultimately increase your e-Commerce site’s conversion rates.
- Enhanced performance for your e-Commerce site – By making your checkout pages mobile-friendly and following other best practices, you can drastically improve your overall e-Commerce site performance. However, to achieve high website speed, you’ll need to make sure that the code behind your website is clean. If you lack coding knowledge, our web development company in Chicago can help.
8 best practices to provide users with a seamless checkout experience
If you want to boost user experience and improve conversion rates on your online store, consider the following eCommerce checkout page design tips and best practices our web design agency in Chicago prepared for you:
Consider Upselling and Cross-Over Purchases
Upselling and cross-over purchases are an essential part of the checkout page experience because they allow customers to take advantage of offers and discounts on related items or services, thus increasing their overall cart value. Upselling helps customers get more value out of their purchases, while cross-over purchases allow customers to save money by purchasing additional items related to the items they are already buying. That encourages customers to purchase products that they may not have considered before. And to draw back in those who intend to abandon their shopping cart, you can provide them with an exit intent pop-up offer or send them an abandoned cart email with their order summary if possible.
Ultimately, upselling and cross-over purchases help businesses increase their website ROI while still providing customers with a better shopping experience.
Design Easy-To-Follow Checkout Flow
The overall usability of your checkout page design should be marked as a high priority on your design QA checklist. That is because complex checkout processes can frustrate your customers and make them give up on the deal at the very last moment. By simplifying the checkout page design, you’ll secure a smooth checkout flow and improve conversion rates on your online store.
Here are some of the best practices when it comes to designing an easy-to-follow checkout process:
Remove visual distractions
Too many visual distractions, such as banners, ads, and pop-ups, can be overwhelming and take people away from the goal of completing the purchase. Additionally, these distractions can ruin the professional and polished look of the checkout page. Removing visual distractions allows people to focus on the task at hand and complete it with ease and confidence.
Minimize the number of fields
When customers have to fill out fewer fields, they are more likely to complete the purchase and less likely to be put off by a complicated checkout process. By reducing the number of fields to only the absolutely necessary information, customers can quickly enter their details and complete their purchase, thus improving the checkout flow and increasing customer satisfaction.
Implement data validation
Data validation is a great way to improve customer experience, as it can provide customers with helpful feedback and save time for them. That will also help you ensure that all the information provided is accurate and complete, preventing errors that could result in failed or delayed orders.
Provide repeat customers with a one-click purchase option
By storing customer information, such as billing and shipping addresses, customers can quickly purchase items without having to re-enter the same information over and over again. That makes it easier and faster for customers to make purchases, ensuring a smoother and more efficient checkout experience.
Provide various payment methods
Providing various payment methods can help you improve checkout flow by making it easier and faster for customers to complete their purchases. By offering multiple payment options, customers can quickly choose the option that works best for them. That can reduce the amount of time it takes for customers to complete their checkout, resulting in fewer abandoned carts and a more streamlined checkout process. Additionally, offering multiple payment options can increase customer satisfaction, leading to repeat customers and customer loyalty.
Provide Guest Checkout Options
The guest checkout options are an essential feature for online stores because they offer convenience for customers. It eliminates the need for those interested in your products to go through a time-consuming account creation process. Customers who use the guest checkout options are more likely to complete purchases. And as the survey suggests that 43% of people prefer this option, you should definitely consider implementing it on your e-Commerce site.
Create a Mobile-Friendly eCommerce Checkout Design
It is increasingly important for checkout page design to be mobile-friendly in order to meet the needs of the ever-growing number of customers who are accessing websites and making purchases from their mobile devices. Mobile devices are becoming increasingly prevalent, and customers expect a smooth, fast, and secure checkout process no matter what device they are using.
With a mobile-friendly checkout page, customers can quickly and easily complete their purchases without having to switch to a desktop device or search for a website that is compatible with their device. That makes the checkout process more seamless and reduces the risk of customers abandoning their carts before completing their purchases. A mobile-friendly checkout page also increases customer satisfaction and builds trust in the brand. And it is worth noting that having a mobile-friendly checkout page can help improve a business’s SEO rankings, as search engines are increasingly favoring mobile-friendly websites.
Here are some tips that can help you enhance the checkout flow for mobile visitors:
- Mind the space between fields and buttons
- Make buttons wider than on the desktop version
- Make sure your checkout page is easy to use with one hand
- Design a multi-page checkout process for mobile devices
- Implement auto-fill feature
- Use expandable menus for additional information to avoid sending visitors away from your checkout page
Show Trust Badges on your Checkout Page
With many scams happening online every day, people have become increasingly cautious about leaving sensitive information on websites. Business owners need to invest efforts into building trust with their potential customers. By showing trust badges near credit card fields, you can reduce shopping cart abandonment rates. Trust badges represent a sign of trustworthiness and safety, providing shoppers with the assurance that their personal data and payment information is protected. This way, you can show potential customers that your business is legitimate and reliable and that their orders will arrive safely.
Use Progress Indicator to outline Checkout Process for your customers
The progress indicator on the checkout page is an essential feature because it allows customers to easily track their progress through the checkout process. It provides visual feedback to the customer, letting them know how many steps remain in the process and how far along they are. That helps to reduce confusion and frustration, as customers will be able to keep track of their progress without having to guess the next step in the process. You will make customers feel more in control, as they’ll be able to visually follow their progress and feel more assured that the purchase process is being handled correctly.
Highlight Benefits and Make Support Available on your Checkout Page
It is important to highlight benefits on your checkout page to help customers understand why they should complete the purchase. This way, your customers are more likely to feel they are getting a good deal. Highlighting benefits on the checkout page can also help to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty, leading to more repeat business and increased overall sales.
Here are just some ideas of benefits that you can highlight on your checkout page:
- Money-back guarantee
- Free Shipping
- Fast delivery
- Discounts
You should also make support easily available on the checkout page. At the final stage of the customer journey, it is crucial to ensure that customers can quickly get help if they run into any issues. If a customer encounters a problem or has a question during the checkout process, your team will be able to help and save the deal. That could mean the difference between a satisfied customer and a frustrated one. Having support available on the checkout page can reduce friction and increase conversion rates.
Design A Post-Purchase Page
By designing a post-purchase page, you can thank customers for their purchase and give them answers to any potential questions. You can also use the post-purchase page to provide a customer with an order summary and other helpful information. Additionally, you can use this page to collect feedback from your customers, which is a great chance to improve the shopping experience and improve the quality of your products. That makes post-purchase pages a powerful tool for boosting user satisfaction and fostering loyalty. But which best practices should you follow during the design process?
Creating a post-purchase page design should begin with understanding the customer’s journey. What did they do before they made the purchase, and what did they do after the purchase? That will help you identify the key touch points and opportunities to create a post-purchase experience that is both compelling and rewarding for your customers.
From there, you can develop a strategy for building a page design by focusing on creating engaging visuals, offering relevant and helpful content, and providing clear and concise calls to action.
Finally, remember to test your post-purchase page design to ensure it is delivering the desired results. The best practice is to realize several checkout design inspirations and then use A/B testing to find the best combination of design elements.
Final thoughts
We hope this article has opened new horizons for you and given you fresh checkout process design inspiration. If you want to increase conversion rates on your online store, you need to provide visitors with the smoothest checkout flow possible. However, besides creating a powerful checkout page design, there are also many other things to consider when building an eCommerce website if you want to secure success for your business.
In case you are looking for a professional web design agency to build your e-Commerce site from scratch, feel free to contact Alpha Efficiency. With years of experience designing online stores, we’ve helped many businesses connect with wider audiences and stay on top of their online competition. Here is what you’ll get by joining forces with our experts:
- SEO-friendly website design
- Fully custom eCommerce web design
- Top-class Page Speeds
- High-level of Security
- Expert 24/7 Support
To start your digital journey, schedule a call and introduce us to your company and its goals.
