The checkout process is an integral part of an online store for two simple reasons: it is where the money is, and it is where most customers leave. This step is an excellent opportunity to sell more products & earn greater profit, but if the checkout process is complicated and confusing, the customer will likely abandon the cart and never return. 

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eCommerce businesses can extensively improvise this area to increase their online store sales. Here are some highly effective ways to make the eCommerce store checkout process more effective and boost everyday sales.

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1) Have a smooth check-out process

A smooth checkout process can decide if you are making a sale or losing a customer. 

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Best practices for smooth checkout process:

Provide product attributes: A part of positive UX makes customers feel confident about their purchase. One way is to provide specific product attributes like product name, image, size, colour, price, brand name and material in the shopping cart so that shoppers can verify that they have selected the right product.

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Provide final pricing view: Over 60% of online shoppers leave the checkout process early due to the sudden appearance of unanticipated costs. By being transparent with pricing, taxes & fees, you can help customers checkout early without friction.

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Provide order summary: The order summary page should show the product image, brand name, size, colour, quantity & availability of the product. By providing these details, retailers can reconfirm the order details with the customer and make checkout smoother. 

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2) Easy account creation process

The account creation process should be over in less than a minute with just the bare minimum information needed to login to the eCommerce website.  Retailers can use simple account login features like using a customer's email account (Google login) or social media channels (Facebook, Twitter login) to capture the necessary customer details like the first name, last name, email id, and mobile number to create a new account.

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Benefits of a simple account creation process:

• Customers can quickly create & login into their new website account

• Customers do not have to spend time typing their important details

• Encourages more users to create accounts as it improves customer convenience

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3) Be transparent with taxes and shipping information

It may happen that a customer has used the Add to Cart button to purchase the product at a lower price, but when they use Go to Cart and see the order summary details. They observe that the eCommerce site has added a couple of additional charges like GST, packaging & shipping charges, which inflates the total cost of the product and makes it much costlier.

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Such missteps can cost a fortune to the company as bulk customers can leave the shopping cart and go to the competition eCommerce website, searching for better pricing, zero taxes & nil shipping charges.

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How to deal with additional charges on eCommerce products?

• Do not make the users wait till the checkout process to see the actual shipping costs. It would be better to communicate high shipping & delivery costs early on the product page itself.
  

• The extra charges should be marked in bold font so that they catch the customer's attention and are difficult to overlook before payment.
  

• The terms & conditions of applying extra charges should be clearly mentioned in the eCommerce website with the details of the type of products covering it.

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4) A trustworthy payment gateway with a convenient payment method

Choosing a payment gateway can be confusing for a new eCommerce business. Here are a few parameters for choosing an excellent payment gateway:

Cost: The cost involved in setting up a payment gateway comes in three types: setup fee, monthly fee & transaction fee. It would help if you considered the volume and value of transactions to find the most cost-effective payment gateway.

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Mobile payment support: As most customers shop using mobile phones, tablets & iPad, it's critical to choose a gateway that accepts payments from any digital device. It gives your customers the flexible option to pay you regardless of the device they use.

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Security: As you are storing customers' sensitive financial information, the security of the payment gateway should be a top priority for eCommerce businesses. They should make sure that the payment gateway they choose is level-1 PCI-DSS compliant.

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Multiple currency support: You need to ensure that the payment gateway can handle payments in different currencies and from other countries If they do business internationally.

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Supports different payment channels: Most payment gateways accept Visa, MasterCard, and American Express as the most commonly used credit cards. Other popular payment methods are Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL), UPI, gift cards, mobile wallets, PayPal and net banking. You must ensure that the selected payment gateway accepts payment from these channels as well.

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5) Always make sure the checkout buttons work

It may happen that the checkout button is not working. There can be multiple scenarios in which the checkout button fails to work.

• The checkout button won’t let the customer proceed to checkout

• The order is not processing on clicking the checkout button

• Popping up of unknown error on clicking the checkout button

• The checkout page isn't available and is just redirecting back to the empty cart

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‍How to make sure the checkout button performs well?

• Do user testing of check out button in peak business or random hours 

• Check if the website navigation is functioning well on clicking the checkout button

• Deactivate specific themes & plugins that create checkout conflict

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Customers are more likely to complete their orders and return to your online store if the checkout process is simple and efficient. It also increases the number of conversions, which boost the sales of the eCommerce store.

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But first, you must identify the key elements causing friction and devise workable solutions for them. It will be a win-win situation for both the brand and the customer if you succeed.

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Fynd Platform helps startups & entrepreneurs launch a sales-ready eCommerce website with excellent conversion rates. If you have any further questions on making your checkout process more effective, please get in touch with us or schedule a demo immediately.