Did you ever stop to think that not hearing any feedback about your business’s e-commerce checkout experience is a good thing? That’s because an e-commerce checkout flow (the set of steps a customer takes when shopping with you online) should be a seamless and painless process, ensuring that the customer doesn’t even have to think about it. Ideally, they find the payment options and information they need, they find the user experience to be simple and sensible, and — the most important part of all — they can complete their shopping experience with ease and satisfaction, confident that everything went smoothly.

Do you know with certainty that your company’s e-commerce process inspires that kind of customer happiness? Or could it use some tweaking to maximize the customer experience — and your sales? In either case, implementing the following best practices and tips can help optimize your e-commerce capabilities and all but ensure repeat business from your customers.

Mobile-Friendly Checkout 

Given the increasing number of customers using smartphones and tablets for their online shopping, your checkout flow should be optimized to give your customers the best, most seamless shopping experience possible in today's mobile-dominated world. At minimum, you should ensure that the layout of your mobile pages are responsive and the integrated call-to-action buttons are easily clickable on smaller screens. But on the whole, consider making it a policy to design your checkout page primarily for mobile users, and then adapting it for desktop users.

Include a Guest Checkout Option

While customer retention is important, don’t overlook the significance of one-time shoppers. After all, the point is that they choose you when they were looking to meet their needs at that time. And there are some customers who will not be interested of going through the process of opening an account or going through all kinds of extra steps just to shop with your business. This could be for one of many reasons: Maybe they’re not interested in offering up all of their personal information. Maybe they want to try your product first. Or maybe they just don’t have the time at the moment.

Offering a guest checkout option allows customers to make quickly finish shopping without going through extra unwanted steps. This is as simple as providing a simple form where one-time shoppers can input their email address and continue with their shopping experience. If you still want to encourage account creation after the checkout process by offering incentives, such as exclusive discounts or personalized recommendations, that’s totally doable — and may be even more successful.

Minimize Unnecessary Information 

“Simplify” may be one of the most important actions to apply when your goal is to enhance the customer experience on your e-commerce site. Let’s be honest: No one wants to fill out lengthy forms and be forced to go through unnecessary steps, and including them in the checkout flow may even deter users from shopping with you entirely. Simplifying the process by collecting only the essential information you need may be the most important and appreciated thing you can do for your customers. So when creating your site’s checkout workflow, minimize the number of fields to fill out as much as possible (ideally, make it a one-click checkout system), putting the focus on gathering crucial details for order processing and delivery.

At the same time, we don’t want you to miss out completely on capturing valuable information for future marketing efforts. So rather than just removing steps, just be more strategic about them. For example, consider asking for the customer’s email address early in the checkout process. This allows you to build your email list while ensuring a streamlined checkout experience.

Multiple Payment Methods

Providing multiple payment options instills confidence in customers, as they can choose the method that is most convenient and familiar to them. Start by incorporating the most popular, widely used and easy-to-follow payment gateways (such as credit cards, PayPal and digital wallets). As your business grows and expands, consider integrating additional payment gateways — like Acima Leasing — to cater to a broader range of customers! Not only is Acima Leasing a great alternative for customers who want to pay a little at a time without using credit*, but with a variety of lease-to-own solutions you’ll also be able to cater to customers who have no credit or a poor credit history, thereby expanding your customer base.

Avoid Surprise Costs and Fees 

Transparency is always key to building trust with your customers, but especially so at the decision stage of a customer’s shopping experience. The alternative is to risk cart abandonment and customer dissatisfaction once they discover hidden costs and unexpected fees during the checkout process that they didn’t sign up for when they hit the “Add to Cart” button. Is the chance for the company to make or save a few extra dollars worth taking that risk? (The short answer is: Rarely, if ever.) 

To mitigate this scenario, you’ll want to ensure your e-commerce site relays as much upfront information as possible about the total cost of the product. Clearly display the subtotal, taxes, shipping fees and any other relevant charges. Consider offering a shipping cost calculator early in the process, allowing customers to estimate the total cost before proceeding to checkout. You wouldn’t want your own business to be blindsided by surprise charges by vendors, so it’s crucial to provide customers with the same respect and transparency that you would want for yourself.

Make Sure Your Cart “Auto-Saves”

Pressure-based sales is a good way to make sure customers don’t come back. Most customers feel more comfortable when allowed the time to think about why they are shopping with you. By implementing a cart-saving feature or enabling “auto-save” in the e-commerce journey, you’ll give customers that “out” to leave your website before they finish shopping, ensured by the knowledge that their cart content will not be discarded. You thereby make it convenient for customers to resume the checkout process at a later time without having to start all over again.

Additionally, consider sending gentle reminder emails to customers who abandoned their carts, enticing them to come back and finish shopping with personalized offers or discounts. Often, customers forget to go back and shop with you — so the reminder email is often appreciated and effective.

Post-Payment Order Notifications 

Once a customer successfully finishes shopping with you, it's essential to follow up with a post-payment order notification and thank-you message. Typically sent via email and/or text (letting the customer choose their preference is another great service to provide), this communication should summarize the details of the order, including the subtotal, shipping information, taxes, item details, final total and estimated delivery dates. Make sure to also include any necessary information or instructions the customer may need, such as tracking numbers or return policies. Most importantly, express your gratitude for choosing to shop with you and emphasize your commitment to customer satisfaction.

Optimize, Simplify, Succeed

By implementing the best practices mentioned above, you can streamline your site’s checkout process, reduce friction and increase customer satisfaction. A smooth and user-friendly checkout flow not only enhances the overall shopping experience but also encourages customers to finish shopping with you, ultimately leading to higher conversion rates and increased revenue for your business.

Simultaneously, it can be the make-or-break point where the customer will ultimately decide to finish shopping with you and become a valued customer. Offering Acima Leasing to your customers can help you increase your customer’s shopping power even more! And we have everything you need — from a portal to manage your customers to the marketing materials — to hit the ground running on your way to increased happy shoppers and revenue!