By John Brackett, founder of Smash Balloon. Smash Balloon provides social media feed plug-ins for WordPress.
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Are you tired of losing customers on your checkout page? If so, keep reading!
According to Statista, nearly 70% of online shoppers add items to their shopping cart, leaving before finalizing their purchase. As you can imagine, losing around two-thirds of potential sales is not great for business.
Despite the statistics, you can convince more people to stay on your site and complete their ordes if you fine-tune your checkout page. Most people who abandon their cart do so on the final step of the process, which can be very frustrating, especially for new business owners.
So today, I’m going to share five quick strategies you can use to reduce shopping cart abandonment and maximize conversions on your checkout page.
Let’s get started!
Use a mobile-responsive design.
One reason people leave websites without completing their purchase is they simply can’t use the checkout page. You could have the best-looking payment page on desktop devices; if it doesn’t work well on mobile, you will lose customers.
Luckily, there are a few quick ways to ensure your page (and the rest of your website!) is mobile responsive. Here are a few options:
- Use responsive themes and templates
- Enable autofill
- Show a progress bar
- Allow for mobile payment options (like Samsung Pay)
- Test your page using Google’s Mobile-Friendly tool
The average person expects a page to load in two seconds or less while having the accessibility features necessary for buying things online. Use a mobile responsive design, and you’ll see more order completions.
Remove unnecessary distractions.
Distractions can cause people to wander away from your checkout page, which means they directly contribute to your cart abandonment rate. If you can minimize distractions and keep users invested in what’s happening on the page, you can improve your conversion rate.
One strategy I use is to remove sidebar add-ons, like popular posts and email sign-up forms, on our checkout pages. We saw a significant portion of our audience leave our payment page only to read a blog post. You guessed it—a majority of these users didn’t come back to complete their orders.
You don’t have to remove everything for this technique to work. Sometimes, minimizing obtrusive parts of your site, like your navigation bar, can tremendously impact sales.
Showcase social proof.
Social proof is a surefire way to win over visitors and convince them to buy a product or service from your website. For our purposes, social proof is evidence that other shoppers and brands trust your company.
When potential customers can easily see that other people love your product, they think "I’ll probably have a great experience too!”
Now, let's talk about how to showcase social proof on your checkout page. One obvious way is to highlight user reviews. I like to highlight three to four glowing reviews from real customers. When prospects see that we are trusted and respected by the community, they are more likely to follow through on their order.
You can also use trust seals to build social proof. Trust seals, also known as trust badges, show that big-name companies like PayPal and McAfee acknowledge your business and believe that you deliver a top-notch product or service.
Leverage the power of discounts.
Everyone loves a good discount, right? You can use this knowledge to win over customers who are stuck on your checkout page.
There are quite a few ways to present your offer and captivate would-be customers. My favorite strategy is to use a situational pop-up that appears when a user is getting ready to leave our site from the payment page. As they get closer to the red X in the corner, a pop-up appears that asks if they want 40% off their first order.
We’ve had tremendous success using this type of discount to improve sales and email signups, and I believe you can, too.
You can also use social media and email to deliver exclusive coupons to visitors after they visit your site. For instance, retargeting ads are an excellent way to connect with users on social media who left your checkout page without hitting the pay button.
Highlight support options.
There’s a good chance some people on your site are not going through with their orders because they have questions. Your support team can absolve these concerns and convince users that your product is the right choice.
But here’s the thing: Most people who need to talk to support don’t bother making an effort. So to turn these visitors into subscribers, you have to highlight support options and actively reach out to users on your checkout page.
One way to do this is by including a live chat bubble on your page. Encourage visitors to reach out if they have questions or simply want to know more about your products.
If you’re willing to ask visitors to connect with your team, many will take you up on your offer. If you want to boost sales, I suggest making support an integral part of your checkout page.
Business leaders and marketers across all industries should optimize their checkout pages at least once a quarter. I recommend reviewing your on-site analytics and customer feedback so you can make decisions that result in an intuitive, positive experience for your audience.
