Learn how to improve the conversion rate of your checkout page [with examples]

Do you know that 7 out of 10 shopping carts are abandoned?

What happened to those missing customers?

Why did they leave at the last minute?

The answer lies at the heart of your eCommerce site.

Amidst all the hustle of creating wonderful site experiences and merchandising products, the importance of a well-designed checkout page usually takes the backburner. But last impressions are as important as first ones! Sorry for that cheesy line but giving your customers a great checkout experience will make them complete their purchases.

Here’s how to create a checkout page that minimizes friction, reduces abandoned carts and improves conversions.

Build trust

Trust plays a key role in making customers complete their purchase. Because despite more than 20 years of eCommerce people are still a tad hesitant to divulge their credit card numbers and email addresses. To get past this bottleneck use trust signals throughout the checkout page.

Use trust seals such as:

• SSL certificates and credit card logos
• Use third party security validation such as Norton
• Business accreditations
• Easily accessible links to your returns and exchange policies

The best trust seals to use according to the Baymard Institute are consumer facing security brands such as Symantec and Norton. They score 2x higher when it comes to perceived trust.

Uncomplicate your checkout process

Imagine standing in a long queue at a crowded supermarket. You feel bored, distracted and restless. A complicated checkout process makes your customers feel the same way. The difference?

After taking the trouble to drive down to the supermarket and finding an empty parking slot people aren’t going to leave behind that cart and walk away.

But online shoppers are just going to click away if they find the checkout process to be too complicated.

Let’s see how you can save your business from spaghetti checkouts.

Rule #1: Don’t force your customers to register before checking out. Offer a guest checkout option. A forced registration creates friction and hinders checkout.

Rule #2: Ensure your checkout pages are mobile optimized and easily navigable.

Rule #3: Convey all additional costs in the checkout page.

Rule #4: Have a live chat button. This will provide your customers with the comfort of knowing that they can clarify their doubts before heading home with your products.

Rule #5: Never display promo codes or discount codes. It will tempt your customers to leave behind their cart to go find offers. Display offers on your product pages instead.

Rule#6: Try to add customer reviews in your checkout page.

Here are 5 great checkout pages we so love. (And we’ll tell you what we love about them)

Here’s what we love…

• The progress indicator helps customers know where they are in the checkout process.
• Clearly displayed order summary.
• Important information such as Help lines, Delivery information and Returns info is clearly displayed.

Here’s what we love…

• Trust badge is displayed prominently.
• Neat navigation and simple layout.
• Prominent and clear CTA.

Here’s what we love…

• Minimal and attractive design.
• Easy to understand form.
• Clear input fields.

Here’s what we love…

• The smart “Add to cart” option.
• Clear and unambiguous CTA at the bottom.
• Crystal clear breakdown of costs.

Here’s what we love…

• Beautifully optimized for small screens.
• Neat, uncluttered layout.
• Clear CTA.

Here’s what we love…

• Attractive exit intent pop up.
• Quick-fill form.
• And of course the overall fun vibe.

Okay, this is not exactly the checkout page. But we thought we’d end this article with an example of a smart exit intent pop up. Yes, this kind of page-level targeting improves conversions and overall engagement.