// by Colin
Developing an effective and appealing checkout process for customers can be a challenge, especially since it requires an in-depth understanding of the customer’s expectations. Research indicates that an overwhelming 70% of customers abandon their carts, with half of the remaining 30% abandoning their carts at the checkout stage. Surprised? Well, apparently the customer is too.
Converting Web Traffic into Revenue
Customers value transparency and are never happy to encounter an unexpected cost at the checkout, particularly when it’s a shipping cost they hadn’t factored in. Abandoned carts show that customers are interested in what you have to offer, but were frustrated or taken aback by the cost of commitment.
A Conversion Optimisation Specialist called Andra Baragan gives the following example: ‘Consider for a moment that you ran a physical store. Every day you would see people picking up your products, putting them into their shopping bags, walking up to the cashier, and then they would just leave. What would you do?’
Solutions You Can Offer
Be mindful of customer expectations by integrating some of these measures into your checkout process:
- Allow users to enter their postcode/eircode on the product page so that they can view the shipping cost before reaching the checkout.
- Prevent customers from being able to navigate to the checkout page without first including a postcode/eircode. They should be able to view the cost of shipping on their ‘Review Cart’ page before proceeding.
- To avoid this issue entirely and give customers the kind of surprise they like to see, provide free shipping to every single buyer. If you are not in a position to do that, offer a flat shipping rate for all customers. The idea is to make this process as simple and inexpensive as possible, as users are far more likely to abandon their cart if they are not offered free shipping.
