By John Turner, founder of SeedProd, a popular coming-soon page solution used by over 800,000 websites.
Are you interested in learning how to maximize sales and engagement by optimizing your checkout page? If so, stick around because I have some tips that I believe will help you succeed.
The checkout page is how users finish a transaction with your brand. It’s the pivotal point in a sales funnel when a visitor becomes a customer. If things don’t go as planned, you could lose people at this critical moment. Instead of missing out on lost sales and engagement, consider the benefits of optimizing your checkout page.
As founder of a company focused on optimizing the build of your website, I’d like to show you several quick and practical tips that you can use to create a better experience for everyone who goes through your checkout process.
Add a progress bar.
A progress bar is a quick way to instantly make your checkout page more appealing. Instead of wondering how long it will take to get to the end, users can see an interactive bar that shows how far along they are in the process and approximately how much time is left.
I find this to be great for reducing anxiety and making people feel more comfortable throughout the process. Most e-commerce platforms allow you to add a progress bar to your website. You can also find standalone software if you’re interested in detailed customization.
Generally, the bar should appear at the top of the screen or “stick” in place on the screen if it’s at the bottom. You want to keep it visible so users know how long completing their order should take.
Optimize for smartphone users.
If your checkout page isn’t optimized with mobile users in mind, you could be missing out on significant sales and engagement opportunities. According to Statista, in Q1 of 2023, 63% of all online orders were placed via smartphone.
You’ll want to be sure your website theme and page builder come with mobile-responsive design options and templates. If they do, all you have to do is use the other options to design and build a checkout page specifically for smartphone users.
Many page builders feature a drag-and-drop builder and block elements, so you can optimize your checkout page for these customers in just a few hours.
Let people choose how to pay.
There are now more payment methods than ever before. Debit cards, Venmo, PayPal, Apple Pay and many other options exist. So asking someone if they want to pay with Visa or Mastercard isn’t going to cut it anymore.
If a customer has to move their money around to a different account just to place an order, there’s a good chance they will leave instead of taking action. But if a user only has money in PayPal and has the option to use their account when buying from your site, they will be able to go through the checkout process without missing a beat.
Keep your options open and let customers determine how they want to pay for your products or services. Offering many different choices will help you turn more casual visitors into first-time customers.
Allow users to edit their cart.
Have you ever made it to the end of a checkout page only to realize that you needed to change something? Most of us have, and many of us can also relate to the frustration of finding out we can’t edit our cart without going back several pages.
Instead of putting your customers in this situation, I recommend adding an option to add or remove items up to the payment page. Some shoppers want to compare prices; others may decide to get another product if they’re close to free shipping. And others still may decide they don’t need a particular item.
It only takes a few minutes to add this option to your site, and I’m positive you’ll find it well worth the time.
Show trust and security signals.
Trust and security signals are also critical in the checkout process. If potential customers feel like they can’t trust your business with their information, there’s a very good chance they’ll leave without completing their order. I suggest adding these features to your checkout process to make visitors feel comfortable and confident with their payment information.
One example is a trust badge, which is essentially a seal of approval from a well-known company like PayPal or McAfee. Businesses can get these by visiting the website and filling out an application for a badge.
You’ll also want to include your contact information and refund policy so people can feel good about doing business with you.
Back to you.
As you can see, there are plenty of small but meaningful ways to optimize your checkout page. But before you make any changes, I suggest reviewing your analytics data so you can measure the results before and after. I’ve found this strategy helpful for fine-tuning my checkout pages over time.
