Have you ever noted a steady decline in your sales graph enough to cause alarm? Slipping sales can give any business owner sleepless nights.
But before you hit the panic button, have you tried comprehensively examining your checkout process?
This critical aspect of your ecommerce enterprise can single-handedly trigger a decline in sales or propel a business to new heights.
Sales are the lifeblood of any commercial venture, but what happens when your sales start spiraling downward?
The answer – elevate your visitor’s checkout experience.
In this technologically driven world, neglecting mobile users is akin to turning away potential sales. A well-optimized mobile shopping experience encourages purchase completion and increases customer satisfaction.
Requiring customers to register on your website before they can complete a purchase can be a substantial deterrent. It’s time to cut this red tape and streamline the checkout process to alleviate impediments to sales.
Understanding the Downward Sales Spiral
Several factors can trigger a downward spiral. Some of these culprits can be fierce competition, ineffective marketing, poor customer service, and an unappealing online checkout experience.
What’s worse is the impact it can bring to any business, which includes but is not limited to dwindling sales, diminishing profits, damaged reputation, and in the worst case, business closure and hitting the brakes on this damaging trend involves a mix of strategic plans and consistent follow-ups.
Enhancing Visitors’ Checkout Experience
Can you imagine going through a strenuous shopping process to abandon your cart because of a discouraging checkout process? Ugh!
Believe us. We have tried and seen it over and over with various e-commerce websites and businesses. And as marketers, we can’t help but sigh at the situation, as this already accounts for lost leads and sales.
That’s how vital a smooth checkout experience is. It can be the fine line between a sale and an abandoned cart.
You spend thousand of dollars for organic and paid lead magnets and
stuff to get them to FINALLY check out but lose them because of a crappy (oops!) checkout process?
Spell FRUSTRATING!
But, of course, we are not here to rant and complain. We have some tips for elevating your checkout process; it’s not a long and hard list. Here is our advice:
1. Streamline the checkout process.
2. Remove unnecessary distractions and steps.
3. Make it simple, swift, and secure.
You might think this sounds too general and simple, but if you think about it, are you really providing your customers the BEST checkout and shopping experience there is?
Strategies to Curb Downward Sales Spiral
Downwards is never a good direction, especially if you are selling products or services! This pattern can break your momentum, marketing, and, yes, the business. So how do we resolve this?
By starting to streamline our checkout process on our websites and landing pages.
Optimize for mobile (Never ever neglect the mobile experience)
In our increasingly digital world, where smartphones have become omnipresent (try asking anyone if they DON’T have one), optimizing your checkout process for mobile users isn’t merely an afterthought – it is an absolute necessity.
It holds immense potential to halt any upsetting sales decline and turn the tide in your favor.
1. Ensure that your website will load seamlessly in a mobile or tablet setting.
2. Test out buttons to see if they all work on both desktop and mobile.
3. HOT TIP: Don’t forget the loading times! This is a deal changer for most users whenever they try to checkout and the loading time on their mobiles is too slow. Yes, thank us later!
Stop asking people to register/sign up (on your shitty website)
Pardon our French, but this is a MAJOR turn-off with a LOT of websites we have been on!
Of course, they are interested in your products and services, in fact, they want it so badly that they are ready to check out. But why do they need to create an account to buy your products?
It’s a surefire bottleneck for your business that could lead to your prospective buyer jumping off the ship, and who wants that?
Creating an account is already a downer, but making it compulsory is a double whammy and is the last thing they want to do.
So do yourself a favor, allow guest checkouts, and make it seamless for your potential buyers and customers. They will eventually create their respective accounts if your products or services provide the best customer experience and help them with their lives.
Stop asking people to sign up for your sh*tty newsletter.
Oops, we did it again…
We get it. You want to get the customers inside your list so you can nurture them. This is an age-old tactic that marketing ‘gurus’ have taught us time and again. We don’t disagree, but the fact of the matter is you should choose your battles well.
Do you want them to buy your product? Or do you want them on your list?
You should stick to your business goal instead of incorporating all of them in one marketing move.
Hitting two birds with one stone doesn’t apply to the checkout process. The only focus should be to have the customers BUY your product or service, so give them a seamless and no-frills experience.
Simplify Payment Gateways
This strategy is pretty straightforward.
There is no bigger turn-off for customers if the only available payment option is logging in their precious credit card numbers, what with all the fraudulent transactions going on nowadays, especially when these customers are first-timers on your websites and landing pages.
Start by offering Paypal as an option; yes, you need to shoulder the fees.
Take it as a part of your overall investment and operational expense. Paypal is a much safer way for your customers to use their debit and credit cards to buy stuff online without the third party seeing the details of their cards.
If you feel a bit generous, provide COD (cash on delivery) options too! This can have the effect of sincerity to your customers that you really mean well and want them to get their items easily.
HOT TIP: Ensure the process is 200% secured. Transparency is also advised. Do not incur hidden charges etc. Be upfront about everything from shipping and handling to taxes.
Display progress indicators (number of step indicators) prominently.
Nothing spells confusion more than a complicated (multiple pages and steps), unclear checkout process. Like duh?
Progress indicators are like runway signals for your planes. It’s a clear and transparent indicator for your customers to see where they are in their checkout process. It makes them anticipate what’s next or if they can finish the task at hand in a certain time frame which leaves them free to decide.
Remember, transparency is king in the arena of customer experience.
Use high-converting cart abandonment emails.
One of the best follow-up strategies for ‘almost’ lost customer sales is cart abandonment emails.
We say almost because these are not lost customers just yet. You still have a chance to turn them into a successful purchase if you know how to send compelling cart abandonment emails.
Ramp up your emails by incentivizing them and making them fun and engaging. You can do this by offering limited-time discounts, free shipping, or personalizing your emails with recommendations based on the items in their carts.
So don’t give up on that sale just yet, go and send those emails away!
Cart abandonment emails have around a 41.18% open rate, which is way higher than a typical marketing email at a 21% open rate.
That is saying a lot, right?
Hire an Expert
Yes, you got that right. If all else fails in love and war, you should hire an e-commerce or website conversion expert for the job.
While our tips can help you identify and act on certain stuff, some of the nitty gritty and more complicated issues can be spotted by someone who is an expert in the field.
If your website is still not improving, you might as well invest in having it checked and diagnosed well for you to save your downhill sales and for you to save time and energy on something else.
Final Thoughts
Your checkout process is one of the most influential factors whether you make or break that sale, be it a service or a product.
Keep everything easy, seamless, and transparent, and always put yourself in the customer’s shoes so you can ask yourself questions like, what will I feel if I have to put up with a LOT of steps to purchase the product or service I need? Do I want to sign up for a newsletter before paying for a product?
And many more questions that may come up if you empathize with your potential customers.
Additionally, ensure that you consider the customer’s journey from the moment they click on an ad until they decide to purchase on your website. Guide them through the journey without being too pushy and salesy. Sprinkle some ‘magic dust’ onto your user’s journey: special discount vouchers, free shipping promises, and loyalty cards.
Also, don’t neglect the importance of constantly evaluating your sales process, from acquisition to nurturing. Update yourself with the latest trends and techniques to help you with the overall growth of your sales and processes.
Finally, don’t hesitate to invest your time and resources with an expert.
These people (ahem, us!) have already done and dusted several instances of these kinds of problems, from the top of the funnel to the bottom. And it would help you free up your time to focus on the business instead of burying yourself with the highly technical stuff that will leave you confused and disoriented.
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