5 Tips For Streamlining Your Shopping Cart And Checkout Process

The Checkout Process Plays A Crucial Role In The Customer Experience

Many ecommerce store owners focus solely on website design in order to attract and encourage new customers to shop. But while design is important to your overall digital marketing strategy, functionality plays a critical role as well.?

After all, if customers find it difficult to navigate their shopping cart or experience problems while attempting to check out, they may decide to abandon their cart altogether. But what do you do to prevent these issues??

Let’s dive into a few tips on streamlining your cart software, more effectively taking payments, and launching a subscription-based service.?

1. Make It Easy For Them To Get In Contact With Customer Service

Let’s face it: no business is safe from potential bugs or glitches that could affect your shopping cart. While preventative action is the best possible solution, you simply can’t guess when a problem may arise.?

That being said, customers should be able to easily address these issues when they encounter them. Whether they have a question about the website itself or one of the products they wish to purchase, make sure that customer service is within reach.?

This can mean automating some of the easier questions with a chat feature installed in the corner of your website or offering various live chat options.?

The easier it is to reach out to a live human being to answer any questions or concerns, the easier it is to retain customers who want to purchase something from you.?

Pro Tip: If you want to go a step further, have your outbound sales agents call your customers in real-time. If your website, cart software, and contact center software are all integrated (like it is with WebForce), you can notify your agents that the customer is on the page or is having an issue making an online payment. The chances of closing the deal and increasing your AOV are way higher with this technique.

2. Simplify The Shopping Cart And Offer The Features Your Customers Truly Want

We’ve all fallen victim to the slow shopping cart feature that just brings you to another web page filled with drop-down menus and advertisements. Much like a lack of customer service may drive away customers, so too will a shopping cart that is bogged down by unnecessary items.?

Instead, focus on a minimalistic design that gives your shoppers the speedy checkout process they’re looking for. You should also focus on implementing tools that help them see other products they may wish to purchase at the last minute or a feature that helps them clear items from their cart in a matter of seconds.?

Ask yourself: what do others tend to value in shopping cart software? What do I personally value when I’m online shopping? Then, implement those features to create the perfect cart for your target customer!

3. Be Transparent With Your Customers

Some online stores wait to inform customers about tax and shipping until they’ve almost completed the checkout process. While this may seem like a great way to get customers to the finish line, the truth is that it may drive customers away instead.?

If they go beyond their budget and don’t discover this until they’re almost ready to pay and check out, the last thing they want to do is go back to the website, clear out their cart, make adjustments, and spend more time shopping. This can be time-consuming and drive away potential customers.?

Instead, be transparent about how much the order will cost before customers begin the checkout process. This can mean having their calculated tax displayed right in their shopping cart as well as including a tool to help them determine their approximate shipping costs based on location (if applicable).?

Of course, transparency is something that can apply to various items in your cart, like recurring subscriptions for certain services. Letting your customers know exactly what they’re getting with each subscription, how often they receive their products, and when they can expect to receive them is crucial as well.?

This level of transparency saves your shopper time and will be greatly appreciated.?

4. Provide Payment Options But Do Not Overwhelm?

Some niches require ecommerce stores to think outside of the box to offer payment solutions. However, most stores will be able to offer the various credit card, debit card, and digital payment solutions (PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, etc.) that customers need.?

To accommodate all shoppers, try to incorporate the major payment solutions that make it easy for your customers to buy products/services or subscriptions from your store. That being said, only include payment methods that you’re comfortable with and that your customers want. Having too many payment options can lead to analysis paralysis for customers, which only makes the process of checking out more difficult for them.?

There are other options like eChecks and Bitcoin that may be implemented in some stores, but these options may not be for everyone. At the end of the day, it only matters what your customers want and which options you’re most comfortable with implementing.?

5. Find A Tool That Can Help You Set Up These Solutions With Ease

Building shopping carts and checkout processes is by no means a simple task. As such, you should look for tools that can help you establish this software without having to outsource your needs to a freelancer or tackle it on your own. No matter what you’re looking to create, there are easy-to-use tools out there that can help you!

Get Started With WebForce’s All-In-One Ecommerce CRM

There’s a lot of work that goes into setting up your shopping cart, payment options, and checkout process. That being said, you don’t have to tackle it alone. Instead, you can turn to WebForce’s all-in-one ecommerce CRM for your needs!?

Our CRM solution is designed to help digital store owners simplify the process of setting up a high-quality online store. From helping you set up carts and checkouts to allowing you to offer subscriptions for e-learning content, we’re dedicated to making it easier for you to operate your digital storefront.?

No matter what you need support with, you’ll find that our CRM solution gives you the tools you need to tackle it. Are you ready to make your checkout process more user-friendly? If so, you can learn more about what we have to offer your business by scheduling a demo today!