However, if your ecommerce metrics keep showing your visitors dump their carts halfway, or worse, never finalize their purchase, then you have a fundamental issue to fix.<\/span><\/p>\n Baymard Institute estimates <\/span>seven out of ten people abandon their carts<\/span><\/a> at some point in the ecommerce purchase funnel. These statistics may seem overreaching, but considering that other survey statistics from Barilliance and SaleCycle provide even higher figures, it\u2019s important not to downplay it.<\/span><\/p>\n There is, however, a subtle difference between cart abandonment and checkout abandonment. With checkout abandonment, visitors abandon their carts at checkout stage rather than midway when \u201cbrowsing through.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Nevertheless, you\u2019re leaving money on the table when visitors abandon their carts at any point in their sales cycle. How do you fix this, and optimize your checkout processes for success?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Well, read on!<\/span><\/p>\n In this blog post, we\u2019ll be looking at seven ways to optimize your ecommerce checkout flow to bring you a step closer to higher conversions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As with every other online shopping platform, customer experience is critical. A significant part of customer experience is getting visitors from one purchase stage to another without distractions that could fuel doubts.<\/span><\/p>\n You want to ensure that your visitors take <\/span>specific and straightforward <\/b>steps when completing an ecommerce purchase.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n For clarification, here\u2019s what a simple purchase sequence looks like:<\/span><\/p>\n As you can see, an ideal purchase sequence follows a linear path from the product page down to order confirmation. Cluttering your e-commerce site with unnecessary tidbits only delays the checkout process, and makes it complicated.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n According to Baymard, you could lose nearly one out of five visitors to cart abandonment if the checkout flow is longer than 14 elements.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n So, here\u2019s what to do:<\/span><\/p>\n Shoot for a checkout flow that\u2019s below five steps to motivate visitors to check out.<\/span><\/p>\n Adidas gets the simple checkout flow with only four steps.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Once visitors click the checkout button, they\u2019re taken to the next page. Moreover, shoppers fill in their shipping and contact details in one form, compiled into a single page, to reduce load time.<\/span><\/p>\n By making <\/span>simple design changes<\/span><\/a> like these\u2014and more, you could improve the ecommerce checkout flow and drive ecommerce conversions sustainably.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Do you know how they say people now have a short attention span? Yup. It’s everywhere and on the internet too.<\/span><\/p>\n Following a Google page study for mobile, a page with 1-3 seconds loading speed has a bounce rate probability of 32 percent. Add two more seconds to make it five, and it goes up to 90 percent!<\/span><\/p>\n What does this tell you? Quick web pages are the standard, and two seconds could make all the difference in your checkout conversion rates.<\/span><\/p>\n According to Amazon, each time a page takes 100 milliseconds longer to load, the company loses 1 percent of its revenue. Google also factors site speed into its search result rankings.<\/span><\/p>\n Furthermore, an optimized loading speed is essential to improve your customers’ shopping experience since 80 percent of users will never return to a site that takes over 3 seconds to load, according to a study conducted by HostingManual.<\/span><\/p>\n Here are some best practices to optimize your page loading speed:<\/span><\/p>\n CDNs distribute the load of delivering content using a network of servers. The purpose of multiple locations is to provide users with faster and more reliable access to your site by storing copies of your website at multiple data centers.<\/span><\/p>\n Images improve the aesthetics of your website and increase the quality of your content. However, larger images may load slowly. Compress and optimize your images without a visible drop in quality, using plugins like Smush or Optimole to increase page load speed.<\/span><\/p>\n Additionally, you can compress your entire website with Gzip to reduce load speed by 70 percent. It\u2019s also important to run compression audits on your <\/span>ecommerce website<\/span><\/a> regularly to know when a web page is above 150kb. This helps to keep your page speed in check and sustain conversion rates.<\/span><\/p>\n People expect convenience when shopping, and they prefer routes that save them time and energy. If you force customers into an unnecessary registration process, you’re stopping the conversion process in its tracks. Moreover, 23 percent of shoppers will abandon their cart if they create a new user account.<\/span><\/p>\n Let customers sign-up or register via their social networks. Through a pre-existing account, users can verify their identity and collect personal information from their social profiles.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n With social media logins, you make the user experience smooth and increase your chances of ecommerce checkout flow conversion. You also need to avoid forcing customers to register before they can complete their purchase. Don\u2019t keep them longer on the site longer than they’d like to be.<\/span><\/p>\n Alternatively, request only necessary information such as their email address and any extra data that you need to process the order. Pro tip: You should also clean your emailing list, using <\/span>email verification tools<\/span><\/a> for better results.<\/span><\/p>\n Before making a purchase, customers want to know what they\u2019ll spend. Additional charges decrease the likelihood of the customer completing the purchase. Include any additional costs and the cost total at the shopping cart or billing page.<\/span><\/p>\n The last thing you want is for customers to abandon their carts at checkout because of unexpected charges. Displaying all the costs and charges upfront increases customer trust and reduces the chances of cart abandonment.<\/span><\/p>\n An abandoned cart at checkout doesn’t necessarily mean you lost that business (well, it doesn’t have to be). That’s where abandoned checkout emails (like this example below) can help.<\/span><\/p>\n You can send something similar, but for best practices, make sure to:<\/span><\/p>\n Send cart abandonment emails in a sequence<\/b>: Do not bombard visitors with more than three emails in a sequence. Send them the first email one hour after they abandoned their carts and the second one in two to three days. If they don\u2019t checkout, you may send the third email in three to five days. One of the major email marketing mistakes is to send too many emails one after another.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Use social proof:<\/b> Customer testimonials are another practical approach to win back customers and improve your ecommerce checkout flow. Social proof plays an important role in the decision-making process for 55 percent of shoppers, reassuring them they\u2019re on to a good choice.<\/span><\/p>\n Offer discounts: <\/b>Sometimes, you may need to be creative to convince customers to return and complete their orders by offering discounts, gifts, or coupons. However, don\u2019t overdo this, else it might be counterproductive. Shoppers appreciate a good deal. By offering discounts on items already in their cart, you incentivise them to buy.<\/span><\/p>\n Checkout abandonment emails also help to gauge customers’ feedback about their experience on your site and checkout process. The information you gather from these emails can help improve your checkout process and <\/span>boost conversion<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n One of the main reasons for checkout abandonment is the fear of credit card fraud, data theft, and privacy concerns. An estimated 15 percent of shoppers abandon their shopping cart because of <\/span>security concerns<\/span><\/a>. Further, one-third of online shoppers are concerned about credit card fraud and data theft.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.webdesign-inspiration.com\/article\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/1-300x170.jpg\")
<\/p>\n1. Make the Purchase Sequence Simple<\/b><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.webdesign-inspiration.com\/article\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/2-300x95.jpg\")
<\/span>Source:<\/span> the good<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.webdesign-inspiration.com\/article\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/3-300x54.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.webdesign-inspiration.com\/article\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/4-300x156.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.webdesign-inspiration.com\/article\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/5-300x147.jpg\")
<\/p>\n2. Improve the Loading Speed<\/b><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.webdesign-inspiration.com\/article\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/6-300x182.jpg\")
<\/span>Source: <\/span>Think with Google<\/span><\/a><\/p>\nUse Content Distribution Networks (CDNs)<\/b><\/h3>\n
Compress and Optimize Images and Website Files<\/b><\/h3>\n
3. Don\u2019t Make Registration Mandatory<\/b><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.webdesign-inspiration.com\/article\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/7-300x140.jpg\")
<\/p>\n4. Remove Additional Fees at Checkout<\/b><\/h2>\n
5. Send Checkout Abandonment Emails<\/b><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.webdesign-inspiration.com\/article\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/8-300x249.jpg\")
<\/span>Source: <\/span>Pinterest<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.webdesign-inspiration.com\/article\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/9-300x119.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.webdesign-inspiration.com\/article\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/10.jpg\")
Ian Loew is a web entrepreneur and inbound marketing expert, and the Owner & Head of Business Development of <\/span>