5 Checkout Page Strategies to Improve E-Commerce Website Conversion Rates

For an online retailer, converting a prospect would mean to get the person to buy a product or a service. But, even though a lot of prospects add products to the wish list or cart, a lesser number of people proceed to make the actual buy. There could be a number of reasons for such behavior. But one of the primary reasons is the complexity of a checkout page and inherent designs flaws that they suffer from sometimes.

If you are really serious about improving the conversion rate of your website, you should follow the below mentioned tips to make your checkout page more effective.

Visual appeal is one of the many important aspects of improving the user experience of a checkout page of a website. If the page has structured layout, it improves navigability of the page and encourages the prospect to go ahead with the purchase. Getting the balance of color, white space and content absolutely perfect is the key here. Some of the important design elements are-

1. Add the checkout button at the top and bottom of the page– A checkout button should be colorful, attractive and have animation effects if possible. More importantly though, a checkout button should be placed at the top as well as the bottom of the page so that the customer doesn’t have to scroll up and down too much to find the all important button. Experts state that putting the conversion button above the fold is a very good practice to improve user experience and thus conversion. 

2. Have the option of going back to shopping from the checkout page- When designing the checkout page make sure that you allow the users to return to the main product selection and shopping page from the checkout page. Sometimes, the consumer may forget to select a particular product when they are checking out. If they are not given an option to return to the product selection page and is checked out fully, they may not come to make the other purchase that was on their mind, especially if it requires them to sign in again. Most usability studies would red flag it.

3. Credit card logos and security seals- This improves the trust factor of a website. Include these on the checkout page to communicate to the prospect that transactions on this website are safe and very easy. Also have multiple payment gateway options.

More information on the product and payment options before the final checkout is recommended.

4. Product summary and testimonials– You can include a short description about the product they have selected on the checkout page so that the customer is absolutely sure that they have made the right decision. Hold back nothing. Be transparent. Include some believable testimonials which give the designation and place of residence of the customer who is sharing the testimonial. See that it explains how the customer has been benefited and their experience with this particular website.

5. Include promo code on the website: A lot of websites overlook it. If there is a promo code for a particular purchase, include it on the website itself so that customers won’t have to leave the website to find out the promo code and then return. A lot of them won’t return if they have to find it by doing a quick internet search.

Most of these recommended ideas have been discussed by various experts in the past. There are many more ideas that you can look at. But, these are the easiest points to get started with and implementing these ideas will surely improve the conversion rate of your e-commerce site.