7 Easy Steps to Optimize Your WooCommerce Checkout Page
An optimized WooCommerce checkout page can drastically change the amount of sales you make. These 7 easy tactics will help you convert more visitors into customers. Stop losing visitors that could easily be sales
Today I’m going to show you 7 easy techniques to make your WooCommerce checkout page turn your visitor into sales.
Studies have shown that the difference between a great checkout experience and an awful one can be huge. Cart abandonment can range from 60% to 80%.
The benefits can be huge, the same study shows that an e-commerce site can gain a whopping 35.26% increase in conversion rate.
That’s a ton of opportunity sitting on the table. I’m sure you’d like some of that.
I’m going to show you the 7 steps to optimize your WooCommerce Checkout Page
1 Reduce the number of fields on your checkout page
2 Clearly display ALL costs, no hidden surprises
3 The Single page vs Multi-page checkout myth
7 Remove distractions at checkout
Reduce the number of fields on your checkout page
Checkout pages that are too long can seriously kill your sales. In fact over ONE QUARTER of cart abandonment has been linked to overly complicated checkout pages.
The king of e-commerce Amazon does a great job with this. If you are a Prime member you literally do not have to fill anything in you can literally buy with a single click.
Amazon actually got a patent on this so nobody else can use this technique! Smart eh? That patent has expired now so if you can set up a single click checkout – have at it!
Now you might not be able to achieve that level of checkout optimization – but there is a lot you CAN DO.
The average checkout form can contains 14.88 fields for the customer to fill out. If you have ANY optional fields you need to seriously consider do you really need them? Is it important that they opt-in to your newsletter at the critical moment you are asking for their credit card number?
There are better ways to achieve that – and boost your sales at the same time.
Can you move any of those fields to AFTER the transaction has taken place? Offer to opt them in after you’ve made the sale.
Ask the customer if you can save their credit card details after the sale is confirmed.
Get creative and remember your goal is to close the sale not find out when their wedding anniversary is!
Clearly display ALL costs, no hidden surprises
Nobody likes to be cheated. You hate it when the phone company or the cable company nickel and dimes you with some stupid fee that you don’t understand
Well your business is no different. Your customers don’t want to have you slip in some unexpected charge when they are not looking. Don’t try and surprise them with some extra cost – they are more than likely to just leave your site
They should also no have to go wandering all over your website to find the shipping charge. Make sure it is EASILY accessible from product pages, FAQ’s etc. And make sure your checkout page shows it EARLY. Customers hate having to wait until the last minute of the checkout process to find out how much shipping costs.
3 The Single page vs Multi-page checkout myth
This debate has gone on for a while and will continue for some time I suspect.
Research suggests that a well optimized on page checkout will perform as well as well optimized multi-page checkout. The key there is the optimization of either one will have a much greater effect.
One point worth considering is several smaller pages may in effect perform better on a mobile device. They load faster and have less scrolling. So if you are generating a lot of your sales thru the mobile channel then this is something you want to consider.
The generally accepted wisdom is you need to test it for your business. There are some that a multi-page checkout is almost expected
Social proof
Social proof is just incredibly powerful. Just take a look at the reviews on Amazon – these drive huge amounts of sales. Similarly for your store you can use social proof to boost your sales.
It doesn’t have to be the traditional 5-star reviews of products either. Believe it or not, one great source of social proof can be your support/ticket system. When you get the opportunity to address a customer’s concern they are often very very grateful. For example let’s say a customer has an issue and you respond very quickly and resolve their problem.
I’ve done that MANY times – often they will say something like “Wow your support is fantastic”.
If I get this kind of reply I simply ask them if I can use their quote on my website. They normally say yes and that gives me GREAT social proof. If you put those quotes in a carousel you can have them rotate right there on the checkout page. Mighty powerful!
Of course if your company has been referenced in any notable media, then recognizable logo’s work like gangbusters.
Take a look at the 4-hour workweek book from Tim Ferris – look at all the social proof on the page: Amazon, New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and so on
Account vs Guest checkout
One study indicates 34% of shoppers abandoned their cart because they were asked to create an account. That’s a huge amount of money to lose which I am sure is not made up from having an account
Simply allow guest checkout and you can resolve this. You can easily add a page after the order is complete that allows them to create an account.
If there is some really important reason for them to have an account, then offer them an incentive after the sale is closed to open an account. You can do that on the confirmation page or in a follow-up email.
Security and safety
Similar to social proof, showing your customers that it is safe and secure to make purchases through your site is critically important.
In today’s world identify theft and fraud are part of what we live with. People want to feel that they are dealing with a safe and reputable company.
So you need to give your customers signals that they can trust you. This is typically done through displaying a logo or trust deal that demonstrates some sort of security on your site[/fusion_text][fusion_imageframe image_id=”5999″ max_width=”” style_type=”none” stylecolor=”” hover_type=”none” bordersize=”” bordercolor=”” borderradius=”” align=”center” lightbox=”no” gallery_id=”” lightbox_image=”” alt=”” link=”” linktarget=”_self” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=””]https://jem-products.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/a1-4.png[/fusion_imageframe][fusion_text columns=”” column_min_width=”” column_spacing=”” rule_style=”default” rule_size=”” rule_color=”” class=”” id=””]
Research shows that 61% of people have NOT purchased something because trust seals were missing.
They need to be security brands that your customers recognize. Some good examples are:
- Common credit card logos
- SSL seals
- Better Business Bureau
- McAfee Seal
- Norton Seal
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7 Remove distractions at checkout
Once you have your customer at your checkout page they have signaled their intent to buy. At this point you don’t want them distracted or slipping off to do something else.
Notice how on Amazon when you get to checkout the entire navigation? You can bet they have tested this and this is what works best for them[/fusion_text][fusion_imageframe image_id=”6001″ max_width=”” style_type=”none” stylecolor=”” hover_type=”none” bordersize=”” bordercolor=”” borderradius=”” align=”center” lightbox=”no” gallery_id=”” lightbox_image=”” alt=”” link=”” linktarget=”_self” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=””]https://jem-products.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/a1-5-800×112.png[/fusion_imageframe][fusion_text columns=”” column_min_width=”” column_spacing=”” rule_style=”default” rule_size=”” rule_color=”” class=”” id=””]
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You do need to be careful here. You don’t wat to trap your customers – the may still want some information or have a question they need answered – make it easy for them to find it.
Bonus Tip
Test test test!
Whilst these are good general rules each customer audience is slightly different and what works well for one store may not work for every store.
Take some time run some tests. Remember only change ONE thing on your page at a time and you’ll be able to see exactly what impact it had.
Just a few small changes can skyrocket your sales and reduce the dreaded cart abandonment
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In summary there are many things you can do to optimize your cart.
Are you regularly going through your checkout experience? Maybe you should hire a ‘mystery shopper’ and get feedback on how the experience was for them. If you would like us to take a look at your checkout experience feel free to reach out to us here and we’ll happily give you our feedback
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