Most people love shopping online, and why not? When you shop online, you can compare more products in an hour or so than you’d ever be able to in days of visiting “brick and mortar” stores. There’s no hassle finding a place to park, no worries about inclement weather, and no salespeople to contend with. So, given the allure of online shopping, it’s important that Internet merchants don’t lose their customers because of poorly thought out processes and badly configured order management software.
You’ve devoted a lot of time and effort to making your online store visually appealing, and that’s great. Now you have to make it easy for your customers to buy. They want to find what they need, buy it, and get back to playing Candy Crush. So don’t expect that they’re going to want to fill out registration forms or get stuck in a lengthy checkout procedure. Here are some suggestions for how to keep your customers.
- Don’t Make Them Register
Of course your customers are going to have to provide you with some basic information – their name, address, etc. And they’ll happily do that once they get to the checkout. You shouldn’t be asking them to spend time filling out forms – they want to shop, not register for an account.
If you feel that you absolutely must have your customers register for an account, have them do so after they’ve finished shopping – if you expect them to do it as soon as they’ve arrived on your site, they may just hit the “back” button on their browser and go elsewhere.
- Make Sure Your Customers Know What’s Available
Your inventory management software identifies which items are available, on back order, or out of stock. Your customers need access to this information early on in the game. Don’t make your customers go through a bunch of steps, only to find out that they actually aren’t going to be able to purchase the item they want today. Make sure that your stock levels are shown on the search results page, not just on the product pages. You should also offer the option of pre-ordering items that are temporarily out of stock.
- Make it Easy to Modify Orders
Make sure that it’s easy for customers to change quantities or remove items from their shopping carts. Mistakes are bound to happen, and it’s important that customers aren’t frustrated by order management software that makes it difficult to effect modifications.
- Offer Real-Time Support
Ideally, your order management software would make your page so user-friendly that support wouldn’t be needed. In the real world, however, it’s reasonable to expect that some users are going to become confused, and have difficulty using the interface. FAQ pages, of course, can be helpful, but sometimes there’s no substitute for readily available help via phone or online chat. Obviously, if users need help and can’t get it, chances are they’ll just leave the checkout and go elsewhere.
- Show Photos and Specification for Items In the Cart
Your customers are going to want to review the contents of their shopping cart before they complete their purchase. With large orders, it’s often hard for a customer to remember exactly what was ordered by means of a text description alone. With effective inventory management software, there’s no reason why you can’t add a thumbnail photo of the item and a product description to customers can easily see what they’ve ordered and make any necessary changes or deletions.
- The Back Button
Make it easy for people to go back – sometimes, even if you’ve provided adequate thumbnails and descriptions on the checkout page, people are still going to want to go back to a previously viewed page before completing their order. Let them do just that, and make sure that your shipping management software retains the information in the checkout form, because if your customer comes back and finds his entire order needs to be re-done, it’s very likely that he just won’t bother.
Basically, it’s just a matter of courteous service. No lengthy registration process, easily modified and automatically saved orders, and good inventory practices will keep customers on your site, and keep them coming back.
SUMMARY: Customers hate having to register in order to shop, so don’t make them do it. The easier it is to order, and the easier it is to check out, the more likely it is that customers will buy from your online store.
Sources:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/05/28/12-tips-for-designing-an-excellent-checkout-process/
http://conversionxl.com/how-to-design-an-ecommerce-checkout-flow-that-converts/#.