If you’re trying to build a successful ecommerce business, you’ll want to do everything you can to maximise conversions. And as any expert will tell you, a lot of it hinges on creating a seamless and intuitive checkout process. If there are any hiccups when it comes to completing their purchase, customers are likely to abandon their cart.
So what are the most common mistakes that are made at the checkout stage? In October 2022 finance company Stripe paired up with Edgar, Dunn & Company to compile an in-depth study of European eCommerce, comparing data from 800 of the most popular websites and platforms. And their research revealed a common problem — over 90% of checkouts displayed a number of errors at some point in their process. Here are the most common online checkout errors:
Payment information
According to the report, a staggering 64% of ecommerce sites did not give shoppers the option to save their payment details for future purchases. While not every customer will want their details stored in such a way, offering this feature can make the checkout process much quicker for some — increasing their chances of making a purchase each time they visit your site.
Security logos
The next most common error is the omission of security logos from the checkout page — a mistake that 63% of the sites surveyed made. These logos, provided by companies such as GeoTrust and Norton Security, let customers know that their transaction is in safe hands — and they’ve been proven to increase sales.
Buy now, pay later
Thanks to the popularity of services such as Klarna and Afterpay, the buy now, pay later method of shopping is more popular than ever before. Surprisingly, though, 63% of the ecommerce sites surveyed did not offer this option to customers at their checkout page.
Payment flexibility
In 2022 customers have more choices when it comes to payment than ever before — and mobile options such as Apple Pay and Google Pay are becoming increasingly popular. But even though these are now commonplace in physical stores, e-commerce has yet to catch on. In fact, 89% of the sites surveyed did not support Apple Pay, while 86% were unable to accept Google Pay.
Cross-selling
Once you’ve got your customers hooked, cross-selling is a great way to increase your sales. Now you already know what they like, you can use this knowledge to recommend additional products that they might like to add to their cart. Although this tactic has been proven to work, 51% of sites surveyed failed to include cross-selling at the checkout stage.
If you’re guilty of any of the above, don’t panic — clearly, even the experts make mistakes. But each of these errors represents something easy to remedy that will make a huge difference to your business.
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