When a potential customer comes to your website to shop, they want the experience to be as hassle-free as possible. However, many ecommerce websites out there today seem to do everything in their power to make things as inconvenient as they can for the customers. They have constant pop-ups in the hopes to capture emails for newsletters and email lists. They may require signups and registration before a customer can place an order.
Customers do not want to deal with all of those hassles. They just want to buy the product and leave. It should be easier than a traditional shopping experience, but many ecommerce websites do not seem to understand that. In fact, many customers feel that the price of the product is less important than the trouble it takes to buy it. Even if your site has a low price, if you require customers to jump through hoops to make their purchase, they simply won’t buy from you. They will find another seller that makes things easier.
What Must Your Ecommerce Website Do?
Your site needs to do a number of things. First, you do need to have a beautifully designed and functional website with fast loading times and great navigation. You should have great content, including text, photos, and perhaps even videos on the product pages. You want the customers to want to buy the products, and presentation is important for that. Of course, decent prices are also important. Most sites can muster those things without too much trouble. When it comes to checkout though, the troubles set in.
Customers want the checkout to be easy and without registration. They do not want to have to register just to shop. Even if they go through the process, they may not want to come back to your site to shop, just because they equate it with being a hassle.
If you really want people to register for your site, you should still not make it a requirement. Instead, you can make it an incentive. For example, those who register might be eligible to receive discounts from you for use on future purchases. This gives people a reason to register if they want, but you should never require it before you allow someone to check out and make their purchase. If you do, it is a very good way to lose sales. Make your site as friendly as possible to your buyers from the moment they arrive to the moment they checkout with their purchase.
Think about some of the things that you would and would not like from a checkout experience. Pop-ups, required registration, and high prices are all things that would turn you away, and your customers will certainly feel the same way. When you are creating or revamping your website, having help from the professionals at Appath can make things much easier. They can help to ensure you are providing your customer with the best possible experience from the moment they arrive to checkout. This helps to ensure those customers will come back.
Summary: Customers naturally want their buying experience to be a simple and seamless as possible. They do not want to have to register to your site just to go through the checkout and buy their items, but many ecommerce sites today are requiring this of their buyers. It has a tendency to turn those buyers away in droves though. They would rather find a similar seller, even if the price is a bit higher, if they do not have to go through the hassle of registering. Your job as a seller is to make things as easy and straightforward as possible for your customers.
Resource: https://blog.kissmetrics.com/first-step-of-checkout/