By Jim Clanin
Good design is vital to the success of an ecommerce website. The last thing you want is to do is lose a sale because the checkout process was too confusing for the customer. It’s important that your customer knows where they are, where they need to go, and what they are buying every step of the way. In this blog, we’ll discuss some specific ways you can make sure your e-commerce website is setup in a user-friendly way so that every shopping trip a success.
Keep Focused!
Once your customer has found their way to checkout, it’s important to keep them moving forward to confirming their order and making payment without any distractions. Make sure the header, footer, and navigational links in the checkout area of your ecommerce website are all related to items they are purchasing and getting through the checkout process. Simply stated – keep your customer focused on finalizing their purchase without distractions.
Right this way please!
Help your customer navigate through the checkout process without confusion. At every stage of the checkout process, it should be easy for the customer to know what stage of the checkout process they are in and what needs to be done to complete the purchase. One simple way to do this is by including a progress bar at the top that shows each step of the process, highlighting the step they are currently on.
Can I double check something?
Customers may want to go back a step or two to double-check something, so it’s important that they can do this without losing information they’ve already entered. Make sure the browser back button works properly without giving any error messages and that there are no other glitches with moving forward and back.
Now, what did I buy ?
Minimizing your customers’ need to go back and forth during the checkout process can be done by keeping the contents of their cart visible all throughout checkout. Make sure to include product details, discounts, taxes and shipping charges.
Tick Tock
If there is any concern about an item’s availability, make this obvious to the customer. It can be very frustrating for a customer to put an item in their shopping cart and then later find out that the item is actually out of stock. If the supply is very limited, be clear about how many are in stock and tell your customer how much time they have to make their purchase before the item is released for someone else to buy.
Guests Are Welcome Too!
Many customers just want to purchase their item and be on their merry way. They don’t want to register, confirm their registration through email, keep track of their login information for your website, and then receive your email newsletter every week. Allow those customers to get in and get out by offering guest checkout. It will benefit you in the long run. And who knows! Making it easy may make them want to come back to you again.
Confirmation Before and After
Give a clear summary of the order, the payment method, and shipping information just before and directly after the payment is completed. This gives the customer absolute confidence about their purchase before and after it’s completed.
Following these steps will make the transaction as easy as possible for your customers, while leading them to the finish line. If you need help with your ecommerce website, contact DoubleDome today at (888) 799-6067!