Checkout is an often overlooked aspect of ecommerce. It’s easy to prioritize flashy sales and marketing campaigns, then optimize your product pages for user experience.
But the checkout flow is where all of that hard work can go to waste. The checkout experience impacts how likely a potential customer is to actually purchase the products they’ve added to their online cart.
This guide shares 10 different techniques, ranging from guest checkout and one-click options to checkout customization features within Shopify.
What is checkout experience?
Checkout experience is the experience a customer has during the final stage of their purchase experience. This usually happens on the checkout page of an ecommerce website where the goal is to collect a customer’s key information and process their payment.
What are the benefits of a smooth checkout experience?
A seamless checkout experience has the potential to recoup sales you’d otherwise lose. People abandon the checkout process for a plethora of reasons, from a lack of trust in the website to uncertainty on whether they’re making the right purchase decision. Optimized checkout page designs that address these concerns improve the entire checkout experience, giving ecommerce customers the confidence to hit “complete purchase” instead of exiting the checkout in search of a competitor that does.
A smooth checkout experience can also influence how likely a customer is to return. A PwC report shows that 32% of customers would stop purchasing from a brand they love after a single negative experience, including those that occur on the ecommerce checkout page. This can be a huge revenue driver considering repeat customers only account for 21% of a brand’s customer base but drive 44% of total revenue, on average.
How to create a good checkout experience
1. Use one-click checkout
Name, billing address, payment details—there’s a lot of data that you need to collect on a checkout page. Including all form fields by default could be destroying your checkout experience. Baymard’s shopping cart abandonment report found that 22% shoppers will abandon their online cart if the process is too long or cumbersome.
One-click checkout allows shoppers to complete this process in a single click. There’s no need to manually enter their personal details into the checkout form. The less time potential customers linger here, the less time they have to second-guess their purchase and abandon the checkout altogether. “We have a one-click checkout system that has a very high conversion rate with extreme growth,” says Jarod Steffes, cofounder and CEO at Muddy Bites.
No longer a rare find, three-quarters of shoppers are more likely to complete a purchase with one-tap checkout. Some 37% of adults use mobile one-click checkout monthly or more frequently, and younger demographics are more likely to opt in. Almost one-third (31%) of 18–24 year olds use one-click checkout once a week or more.
The best part? Shopify merchants already have access to one-click checkout on their online store. If you had 5,000 people abandon their cart and your store has an average order value of $50, for example, just toggling on this feature could improve the checkout experience and recoup over $55,000 in otherwise lost revenue.
2. Add a guest checkout option
Forced account creation during the online checkout process is a touchy subject. On one hand, forcing customers to create an account gives you a way to communicate with them. Customers can track their orders, and it’ll speed up the checkout experience on future orders if they’re already signed into their account.
But it’s a double-edged sword: 26% of people have abandoned their checkout because the site required them to create an account. This is where the option for guest checkout, which allows people to skip the account creation process, helps build a more enjoyable checkout experience.
Balance the two options by prompting people to create an account but showing an obvious option to skip this and checkout as a guest. It’ll help you get the best of both worlds and cater to people who do (or don’t) have the interest in creating an account.
3. Show a progress indicator
Sometimes the advantages of collecting more customer data outweigh the need for guest or one-page checkout. If you’re selling to wholesale customers through your B2B storefront, for example, you’ll likely need to collect more information, such as the business’s name, payment terms, purchase order number, preferred delivery date, and shipping details.
Including every required form field for a B2B order could seem intimidating if it’s all presented on a single checkout page. If a distributor is entering multiple pages worth of information, each new page is another string in their bow that influences them to leave.
A progress indicator, however, plays on psychology principles like the Zeigarnik effect: the concept that our brains are hardwired to complete unfinished tasks. It improves the checkout experience because customers know how long they’ve got left to complete the unfinished task.
4. Demonstrate social proof
The checkout experience is your last chance to convince someone that your products are worth buying. Don’t assume that your marketing campaigns and product pages have done this for you; a quarter of shoppers have abandoned their checkout because they didn’t trust the website with sensitive payment information.
Social proof has its place at the checkout to give customers confidence that buying your product is the right decision. This could include:
- Endorsements from trusted professionals or influencers
- The number of five-star reviews you’ve accumulated
- How many customers you’ve served
- Security badges, such as SSL certificates
Take supplement brand Obvi. They employ a short headline beneath the order summary that explains why over 250,000 customers trust the brand. The message covers:
- Their 90-day satisfaction guarantee
- That orders are made in the US
- That their manufacturing facility is FDA regulated.
These answer three common questions someone might have during checkout: What happens if I don’t like the product after buying it? Where are the supplements made? And are they FDA approved?
5. Offer multiple payment methods
Payment technology has evolved to give customers more flexibility in how they pay for products and services online. While debit and credit cards are still the most popular payment method, about 70% of shoppers would prefer shopping at a merchant that provides their preferred method. This includes:
- Debit and credit cards
- Mobile wallets such as Shop Pay, Google Pay, and Apple Pay
- Buy now, pay later options like Shop Pay Installments, Klarna, and AfterPay
Bear in mind that preferred payment methods might differ by geographical location. Like in the Netherlands, where iDEAL accounts for more than half of all ecommerce transactions—more than credit or debit cards.
6. Highlight your returns policy
Returns are an inevitable part of selling online. While it might sound counterintuitive to tell people how they can return products before they’ve even bought them, shoppers are actively looking for return policies at checkout. The same Baymard report found that 18% of people who exit during checkout did so because the retailer’s returns policy was unsatisfactory.
You don’t have to dive deep into the specific terms and conditions of your returns policy throughout the checkout experience. Simply mentioning the fact that items are returnable—and the window in which customers can do so—can go a long way toward offering a smoother and more enjoyable checkout experience. Potential shoppers don’t have to exit the checkout in search of that information.
7. Cross-sell and upsell related products
Shoppers have a positive checkout experience when a brand proactively delivers the information they need to make an informed decision, without exiting the site to find it. This applies to cross-sells and upsells—two techniques that’ll not only improve your average order value, but decrease customer risk. Shoppers know they’re choosing the right product for them, thanks to your personalized recommendations.
Car Mats is just one example, cross-selling their car first aid kits to people who are buying car mats through their ecommerce site. It’s a similar, related item that doesn’t draw customers away from the item they’ve chosen.
Shopify apps like Selleasy and OrderBump can add cross-selling and upsell opportunities to your Shopify checkout with minimal coding.
8. Offer multiple shipping options
Shipping is one of the most challenging logistical aspects of running an online business. But modern consumers don’t just demand free delivery—they expect it to be fast. Some 23% of people abandoned the checkout process because delivery was too slow.
This is where working with a third-party logistics (3PL) partner, such as the Shopify Fulfillment Network, can pay dividends. By outsourcing the picking, packing, and shipping process to a company that specializes in it, customers can get their orders faster. You can also take advantage of discounted shipping costs and faster order fulfillment times that a 3PL can offer, and pass these onto your customers to prevent extra costs from contributing to a poor checkout experience.
9. Highlight total savings
Inflation is causing customers to become more price sensitive. More than half of households plan to save money this year by reducing expenses. Online shoppers are deviating from the traditional shopping journey to compare prices, wait for sales, or buy from cheaper brands amidst inflation concerns.
Pricing strategies that involve discounting shine here—not just at product page level. While product bundling and price anchoring can convince someone to take the first step and enter the checkout process, the messaging must be consistent throughout the checkout process.
If a customer has used a discount, or you’re offering product bundles where customers can save money if they buy items in bulk, showcase how much money they're saving on the checkout page. This simple tactic can alleviate any price-conscious customers who are unsure whether your product is worth the investment. They can clearly see that they’re not paying full price.
10. Clarify future commitments for subscriptions
The ecommerce subscription industry is booming. Studies estimate that 39% of millennials have at least one active retail subscription. Customers who opt into subscriptions get continuous service without having to repeat the checkout process every month. Brands also get consistent revenue, which helps with cash flow.
Yet Issues arise when the future commitment is unclear at checkout. Some 21% of customers abandon their online shopping cart because they couldn’t see or calculate the total order cost upfront.
When will a customer next be billed for their subscription? What payment schedule are they agreeing to when they complete a purchase? Answer these questions at the checkout process to prevent unexpected surprises when the next payment date arrives. It’ll not only prevent potential customers from exiting the checkout flow in search of answers, but also combat unhappy emails from unassuming customers who didn’t know what they were signing up for on their first order.
11. Facilitate charitable donations
Customers are becoming more aware of the impact that their shopping activities have on the planet. Some 12% of customers will pay more to shop with brands that are sustainable—another 45% are more likely to buy from a brand that gives a cut to charity.
But customers are calling out brands for “green washing”— the act of overexaggerating their commitment to social causes like climate change just for consumer attention.
Instead of telling people what you do to support causes close to your ideal customers’ hearts, help shoppers feel as though they’re doing good by facilitating charitable donations at the checkout. It doesn’t deter from your profits since the donated amount goes directly to the non-profit organization.
Soda brand Olipop is one retailer using this checkout optimization strategy to deliver positive customer experiences. Shoppers can tick a box to donate money and support global forestry projects, which caters to the 11% of shoppers who will make a purchase decision based on carbon footprint data availability.
Examples of checkout experience
Peepers
Peepers is an eyewear retailer that migrated to Shopify after learning that the brand was going to be featured in The Oprah Magazine. They needed the ability to make custom changes on the fly and capitalize on a huge spike in traffic—while also converting those new shoppers through a smooth checkout experience. This included a custom free shipping motivator that convinced people to spend more in order to qualify for free shipping.
“The ability to customize with Shopify really allows us to push it to the limit and create a custom checkout experience customers can trust and be confident in keeping their personal and payment information safe,” says Peeper’s ecommerce manager John Hart. “It really makes customers feel like the site is going to take care of them.”
These changes made a huge impact on the business. Since customizing their checkout experience and migrating to Shopify, Peepers’ average order value grew by 20% and the site’s conversion rate increased by 30%.
Schleich
German toy manufacturer Schleich has a 90 year history of selling children’s toys, but their previous ecommerce platform offered limited flexibility and long implementation times that made it difficult to optimize the checkout flow.
Their head of digital commercial enablement, Alexander Wahl, said the Schleich moved their US and Canadian storefronts to Shopify “because the speed of development is significantly faster. Shopify is simply an absolute innovation driver in the field of ecommerce.”
Thanks to Shopify’s extensive checkout customization features, Schleich removed friction throughout the checkout experience and improved their cart abandonment rate by 31%. Orders also increased by 25%.
Everlane
Everlane is a Shopify brand that tapped into the power of Shop Pay to increase checkout conversion rates. “Before implementing Shop Pay, we faced several issues with our checkout,” said Anna M. Peterson, Everlane’s product lead. “Our self-built checkout process was not only complex but also resource-intensive.”
Everlane had one goal in mind when making the switch to Shop Pay: to make sure customers didn’t question the checkout experience. Anna says, “We didn’t want our customers to continue having to enter their address or credit card information, or spend time making an account. Most people want to avoid signing up and giving you their password. We wanted to make it seamless and easy for them to purchase quickly.”
Everlane now offers multiple payment options and express checkout—two small changes that boosted their conversion rate. Within just 30 days of launching Shop Pay, 15% of the brand’s US transactions were processed through the Shop Pay mobile wallet. And based on Shopify's internal measurement of Everlane's performance, Shop Pay has achieved conversion rates of up to 70%.
Use Shop Pay to provide top-notch checkout experiences
With Shop Pay, any business can upgrade their customer experience without having to rip and replace all of their existing commerce infrastructure. And according to a study by a Big Three global management consulting firm, Shop Pay can convert as much as 50% better than a typical or guest checkout—a no-brainer if you’re looking to increase conversion rates and refine the checkout experience.
If you’re not yet convinced, consider this: for US-based brands, nearly a quarter of all orders are processed with Shop Pay. And when Shop Pay is available as a checkout method on the online store, Shop Pay users choose to checkout with Shop Pay 68% of the time.
Read more
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- B2B Ecommerce Features for Acquiring, Selling & Retaining Customers
- Instagram Influencer Marketing in Ecommerce: Everything You Need to Know
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Checkout experience FAQ
Why is the checkout experience important?
What makes a good checkout experience?
What are the three important functions of the checkout process?
- Show items in the shopping cart
- Collect customer information (such as shipping address and billing information)
- Process payment
