Deliver the Best Ecommerce Checkout Experience in 15 Simple Steps

Did you know that over 70% of people abandon their shopping carts? That’s a lot of lost sales!

As owners of several successful online stores, we have learned a thing or two about making them profitable.

In this post, we’ll share:

• Reasons why cart abandonment matters
• 15 ways to improve the checkout experience

By the end, you should have all the information you need to optimize the checkout experience and boost store profits!

Cart Abandonment and Why It Matters

Checkout is arguably the most important process in any eCommerce store. It’s where you seal the deal and turn a visitor into a paying customer.

Product pages are important, but it’s after that where the money is made.

According to the Baymard Institute, the main reasons people abandon their cart include:

• 47% Complain of extra costs too high (shipping, tax, fees)
• 25% Don’t like it if you need to create an account
• 24% Said delivery was too slow
• 19% Didn’t trust the site with credit card information
• 18% Experienced a long or overly complicated checkout process
• 17% Couldn’t see total order cost up-front
• 16% Said the returns policy wasn’t satisfactory
• 14% Experienced website errors or crashes
• 11% Complained there weren’t enough payment methods
• 6% Said the credit card was declined

Of those ten reasons, 5 are directly related to the checkout experience. The rest can be influenced by the overall purchase process.

Those findings match our own experience.

As soon as you put a blocker between a person and a purchase, the chances of cart abandonment increases exponentially.

That same study from the Baymard Institute tells us:

“$260 billion worth of lost orders are recoverable solely through a better checkout flow and design.”

That’s 260 billion reasons to deliver an exceptional checkout experience!

15 Powerful Tips To Improve the Checkout Experience

The tips below all address the reasons people abandon their carts and what to do about them.

We use each of these checkout page best practices in our own eCommerce stores and they really work!

This video walks you through modernizing your checkout:

1. Remove Distractions

Addresses: 18% Experienced a long or overly complicated checkout process

The more work someone has to do to get what they want, the less likely they are to do it.

That’s why the first step in improving the checkout experience is to remove unnecessary distractions.

We want to make it as simple as possible to complete checkout.

We recommend:

• Using a flexible WordPress theme that lets you customize everything
• Building a minimal header and footer for the checkout process
• Keeping the process as short as possible
• Removing social media buttons
• Removing links to other pages, popups or anything that doesn’t funnel to the checkout

Using a header and footer without navigation helps keep the journey familiar while removing distractions.

It can prevent a customer going back and browsing for more items but it can also prevent them from being distracted and not completing checkout.

We use this strategy across all our stores and find it works well.

In our opinion, a checkout page should only include:

• A streamlined checkout form
• Order summary complete with shipping charge
• Shipping information including time and method
• Trust signals
• Large checkout button

That’s it.

You can upsell, cross-sell or offer coupons on other pages. The checkout page should let the customer pay for their items and nothing more.

2. Streamline the Checkout Process

Addresses: 18% Experienced a long or overly complicated checkout process

For the best eCommerce checkout experience, the process should be as short as possible and ask for minimal information to complete the purchase.

We want the customer to be able to select their item and buy it before something gets in the way or they change their mind.

We recommend:

• Using as few steps as possible between item selection and checkout
• Not asking for unnecessary information
• Allowing users to log into their account before the checkout page
• Auto populating data (more on this in a second)
• Having ‘Pay with PayPal’ or ‘Pay with Stripe’ options
• Using social sign-in where possible
• Allowing guest checkout
• Using a progress indicator if there are multiple steps

Use some or all of these eCommerce checkout flow best practices and you’ll drastically improve the customer journey.

You’ll hopefully end up with more sales too!

3. Pre-Populate Form Information

Addresses: 18% Experienced a long or overly complicated checkout process

We recommend pre-populating customer information in the checkout form for customers who have accounts.

Even if the customer is using guest checkout, if they have to fill in their billing address once, auto-fill the delivery or invoice page with those details.

Alternatively, use a checkbox with ‘Delivery address same as’ or similar wording.

It’s a little thing but has a significant impact on the customer experience.

We recommend:

• Configuring your checkout process to use provided data in subsequent fields
• Auto-filling forms for logged-in users
• Using data from payment gateways for forms where possible
• Using a checkbox to select the delivery address as the same as billing

For example, adding a PayPal payment gateway allows you to use the ‘Pay with PayPal’ option that can autofill many form fields.

Other payment gateways are available and will do much the same thing.

4. Make Sure Checkout Is Mobile-Friendly

Addresses: 14% Experienced website errors or crashes

Use a reliable WordPress theme and you can prevent many errors and crashes.

Downtime costs money and reputation. Doing everything you can to avoid it is a great investment in your store!

Once you have a reliable theme and web host, we need to turn our attention to mobile.

• Over 55% of website traffic comes from mobile devices.
• 92.3% of internet users access the internet using a mobile phone.
• There are approximately 4.32 billion active mobile internet users.

(Source)

Those are three very good reasons why your store should be fully responsive and work perfectly on mobile.

The web design itself is one thing, but your form should also be mobile friendly.

We think mobile-friendly checkout should:

• Be easy to read on mobile
• Form fields should be simple to select and complete
• The checkout button should be large and easy to use

Test the entire customer journey thoroughly to make sure it works perfectly on small screens.

5. Allow Guest Checkout

Addresses: 25% Don’t like it if you need to create an account

It’s amazing how many online stores don’t offer a guest checkout option. If you don’t, you’re missing out.

Customers concerned with privacy, are in a hurry, or just want to buy and go, may all have a problem with creating an account.

Plus, if they don’t anticipate returning to your store anytime soon, they may not think it’s worth it.

That’s why guest checkout is one of the most requested features in eCommerce.

There’s no reason not to allow it if you use payment gateways. Use PayPal or Stripe and you can use the ‘Pay with…’ button that doesn’t require an account.

There’s nothing wrong with promoting accounts earlier in the checkout process, but do it early and do it once.

6. Allow Social Sign-In

Addresses: 25% Don’t like it if you need to create an account

Social sign-in may not be something you want to include, but you can bet a portion of your audience will want it.

‘Sign in with Google’ or ‘Sign in with Facebook’ are both examples of social sign-in and make it quick, easy and convenient for someone to buy from your store.

It has the same advantages as guest checkout so we won’t labor the point again here.

7. Offer Multiple Payment Methods

Addresses: 11% Complained there weren’t enough payment methods and 6% Said the credit card was declined

Choice is everything. While most people have a PayPal account or a credit card to use with Stripe, it would be a mistake to assume that’s enough.

We recommend:

• Offering Stripe and PayPal as options
• Accepting debit and credit cards
• Assessing your local payment options and including one of those
• Adding Apple Pay and Google Pay if possible for mobile shoppers

The more payment options you accept, the more likely you are to offer something the customer uses.

If you want you use PayPal with WooCommerce, this video explains everything you need to know:

8. Avoid Hidden Costs

Addresses: 47% Complain of extra costs too high (shipping, tax, fees) and 17% Couldn’t see total order cost up front

Nobody likes hidden costs, so called ‘drip fees’. We have a right to see the full price upfront and not see a headline price that gradually increases as fees are ‘dripped’ into the total.

These are illegal, or soon will be in some countries.

They are also incredibly unwelcome.

We all expect to pay shipping for some purchases. We don’t expect to be charged admin fees, restocking fees, packing fees or any other fee.

We recommend:

• Avoiding hidden fees completely
• Build any operating costs into the price of the product
• Making shipping costs clear early so they don’t come as a surprise

If anything was to turn someone off a purchase, it would be seeing extra hidden fees added to the total as you move towards checkout.

Avoid it at all costs.

9. Make the CTA Button Easy To Understand

Addresses: 18% Experienced a long or overly complicated checkout process

Design a big and bold colored call to action that tells visitors exactly what is going to happen when they click the button.

Will they “Continue” to the next page?

Will they now have a chance to “Review Order”?

Will they finally “Complete the Purchase”?

Make buttons descriptive. Make them beautiful.

Don’t mess around with placement. Buttons should go directly at the bottom of the actionable part of the page or form.

We recommend:

• Making CTAs crystal clear so they can be understood by everyone
• Creating a ‘journey’ with CTAs to funnel customers towards checkout
• Using faded-out CTA buttons to indicate a missed step

Approach calls to action from the perspective of your target audience and make it as clear as possible what the button does and what you want them to do.

10. Use Form Validation and Error Notifications

Addresses: 14% Experienced website errors or crashes

Form validation is a simple way to show customers what they missed and where.

Most WordPress form plugins and eCommerce platforms support form validation and we strongly recommend using it.

Even a simple ‘Email address is required’ within a form makes it faster and easier for a customer to complete a purchase.

We recommend:

• Using prompts inside form boxes so a customer knows what goes where
• Using simple error messages to flag incorrect or incomplete entries
• Avoiding using scare tactics or anything that might offend or frustrate customers
• Keeping messages short and to the point
• Not using danger signals like stop signs or red lights

Design your forms like you would like to see them. Use polite guidance for form fields and informal error messages if necessary.

11. Offer Multiple Shipping Options if Possible

Addresses: 24% Said delivery was too slow

Slow shipping is a constant annoyance and not always something you can do something about.

As we see it, you have two main options. You can alert customers to the time shipping will take nice and early.

This sets expectations and prevents (most) frustrations with slow deliveries.

Your other option is to provide multiple shipping options. For example, standard delivery that takes a few days and an express option for next day delivery.

We recommend the latter as it provides options and adds another revenue stream.

It’s fine to charge for express delivery. We all expect to pay a little extra.

It’s not fine to keep the fact it will take days for the item to arrive to yourself and not communicate it clearly.

That will just result in bad reviews and we don’t want that!

12. Make Sure Shipping Costs Are Clear and Transparent

Addresses: 47% Complain of extra costs too high (shipping, tax, fees) and 17% Couldn’t see total order cost up front

The way to deliver the best customer experience would be to highlight shipping options and costs on the product page.

You can then repeat it on the checkout page to make sure the customer absorbs the information.

We recommend one or all of the following:

• Including a shipping element on product pages
• A shipping information box on the cart page
• Mention the courier if possible

Most successful eCommerce stores will have a box on the checkout page with shipping costs and timescale.

This ensures customers know exactly how much they are paying for delivery and when they can expect the package.

Setting expectations clearly like this is the best way to manage shipping!

13. Explain the Shipping Timeline

Addresses: 24% Said delivery was too slow

If you explain upfront how long an item will take to be delivered, you set expectations. This can avoid a lot of the dissatisfaction with slow deliveries.

While we would all like items delivered immediately, most of us realize that isn’t possible. We also don’t usually mind slower delivery times if we know ahead of time.

We recommend:

• Including shipping timescales on the cart page
• Explain any reasons for slow delivery such as items made to order
• Provide a way to track deliveries if possible
• Combine shipping timelines with shipping options for best effect

If you combine a time estimate along with the option for express delivery, you cover all your shipping bases!

14. Display Trust Badges Prominently

Addresses: 19% Didn’t trust the site with credit card information and 16% Said the returns policy wasn’t satisfactory

Many consumers are concerned about how secure their information is when shopping online.

While you might know that your web host provides SSL certificates, DDoS and malware protection and that your WordPress security plugins aim to cover everything else, customers cannot see that.

So, how do you instill trust at checkout?

You include recognizable trust badges.

Trust badges come in many forms such as McAfee Secure, PayPal Verified, Norton Secured, BBB Accredited Business and so on.

We also recommend adding any money back guarantees you may offer. This is a legal obligation in many regions so it’s well worth doing.

The below is the trust badge we use on the Astra website. We display it on the pricing page and on the checkout page to make sure everyone knows their purchase is safe.

We recommend using:

• Trust badges on pricing pages and/or on product pages
• Badges from payment gateways and their security protocol at checkout
• Reviews and testimonials where possible
• Details of the money back guarantee you offer before and at checkout
• Links to your terms and conditions and privacy policy pages
• Reviews or testimonials somewhere customers can easily see them

How and where you place trust badges depends on your store design. We would suggest adding small trust badges throughout product pages.

We would also suggest placing a larger set of badges on your pricing page if you have one and/or your checkout page.

Reviews and testimonials can appear anywhere, including your homepage, product pages and anywhere you like except checkout.

15. Make It Easy To Come Back and Complete a Purchase

Addresses: 14% Experienced website errors or crashes

There are many reasons why someone would leave your store before completing checkout. By implementing a way to complete a purchase upon return, you mitigate against all of them.

Whether something happens to your site, the customer lost connection, the site crashed or something else, if a customer can recover their order, they might complete it.

You can do this in a couple of ways:

• Store cart items in your database
• Use a cookie

Use whatever method works best for your store. Just be aware that you may need to comply with cookie consent legislation depending on the region you cover.

Bonus Tip: Use CartFlows To Reduce Cart Abandonment

If you use as many of the techniques on this page as possible, you’ll go a long way to improving the checkout experience.

Use CartFlows and you can influence customer behavior even further!

CartFlows includes:

• A sales funnel builder to help direct visitors to a sale
• Checkout page optimization tools and templates
• Upsell and cross-sell tools to improve profit per purchase
• Dynamic offer tools so you can improve relevance to customers
• Cart abandonment tools to help recover lost sales
• Insights and testing tools to continually improve your store

CartFlows is a premium plugin but use it well and you’ll make your money back in no time!

Wrapping Up

Store owners have so many tools available to ensure the best checkout experience. We recommend using as many of them as you can.

At the end of the day, all you really need is to provide a safe, quick, and convenient experience.

Shoppers just want to be able to select a product, add it to their cart and pay with minimum fuss.

Deliver that and your checkout experience should result in happier customers and more profit!

What techniques do you use in your checkout experience? Do you have any tips to share?

Checkout Experience Optimization FAQs

Have more questions about the eCommerce checkout experience?

What makes a great checkout experience?

A great checkout experience gives the customer what they want, when they want it, how they want it with minimum effort. The shorter you can make the checkout page, the shorter the form and the less a customer has to do, the higher the chance of conversion. If you add multiple payment options, set delivery expectations and use trust signals to allay any fears, all the better!

How do you get people to the checkout?

You get people to the checkout by creating an attractive store and funneling visitors to products and then to checkout. Make the flow from arrival to checkout as smooth as possible and your store should begin converting more customers.

How can I make my checkout better?

You can make your checkout better by following the tips on this page. Optimize the customer journey, keep the checkout page short, offer multiple payment options, offer multiple shipping options, make sure all costs are transparent and give shoppers everything they need.

What should be on a checkout page?

There are a few things that should be on a checkout page. A checkout form that only asks for essential information, payment method selection, an order summary, delivery options and a full cost breakdown that includes delivery, taxes and any extras. Finally, a large, obvious checkout button should make it clear what the customer needs to do.