A Quick Guide To Understand ECommerce Checkout Flow

Ecommerce Checkout Flow– Every big or small brand is now taking their business online due to the boost in the e-commerce industry. This means, along with the physical store, every merchant now wants to have an online store as well. This is a good idea for a merchant to expand and increase his revenue. However, not everyone is good at handling the e-commerce business on their own. This is because of the competition and lack of guidance.

One of the important aspects of the online business is the checkout process. The checkout process is where your visitors get converted into the customers. If not done right, you can lose the e-commerce business due to excessive loss.

Although, there are many successful e-commerce businesses that are doing really well and you can learn from them. Along with that, in order to boost your business you can take help from experts.

What Is ECommerce CheckOut?

It is a designed interface and a customer must go through it to purchase an item. As soon as the customer clicks on the checkout button the process starts. Generally, it contains steps like entering personal details including name, address and contact information. Other than that, the customer will be asked to choose the mode of payment and enter details depending on the mode chosen.

For example: If a customer chooses to make the payment using the credit card then he will be asked to enter the credit card details depending on the company’s norms.

Once the checkout is completed successfully, the customer will be notified regarding the recent purchase using the contact information provided by him.

How Does ECommerce CheckOut Work?

From the customer’s point of view, the checkout process is as easy as entering the details and getting the products. However, for a merchant, the checkout process is a whole different story.

An ECommerce checkout process is the flow of valuable data that needs to be processed carefully at every step. Generally, a customer goes through following steps during an ECommerce Checkout Flow:

• After liking a product or service, the customer clicks on “Add to Cart” button.
• Then the customer is directed to the cart where the confirmation is asked whether the customer wants to “proceed to checkout” or go back to “continue shopping”.
• Once clicked on “proceed to checkout”, the user will be asked whethere the customer wants to checkout “as guest” or “sign in”.
• After choosing the desired method, the customer will be asked to enter the details.
• Finally, “place your order” will pop up on the screen.
• After clicking on this button, a customer needs to make the payment by choosing the desired mode.
• Once the customer successfully completes the payment, he will receive confirmation of the purchase.

How To Optimize ECommerce CheckOut Flow?

When it comes to designing and optimizing the checkout flow, these data can help you create a successful ECommerce Checkout flow:

Who are your customers and what device are they using?

When you are starting afresh, you need to start small by targetting customers. You need to design everything depending on your customer’s preferences.

Having said that, the customer also has preferences in terms of devices they use. Most people use smartphones for daily internet surfing. You need to design your platform especially the checkout flow based on the device as well.

Do not overwhelm the customer by providing too many details on the same page. Map out the entire procedure and then work on it.

Does your customer prefer Registering or Guest Login?

Another important thing that you need to consider while creating the checkout flow is the sign in process. This is the step where an e-commerce merchant loses most of the customers.

Not every visitor wants to register to your platform due to many reasons like:

• Do not want to create an account or provide personal information.
• Registering means getting loads of messages and emails that can be annoying.
• The customer does not feel that this is a trusted platform.
• Lastly, the registering process is time-consuming.

In order to avoid such issues, you can offer guest login where the customer will not be asked to enter a lot of personal information but only the required details such as:

• Full name
• Contact number
• Address (if the product/service requires delivery)
• Payment mode and information related to payment

This can increase productivity and lead to a trustworthy interaction.

What are the trendy modes of payment?

Another important aspect of the ECommerce checkout flow is the mode of payment. With digitization, the payment options for users have increased exponentially. However, you cannot add all the options to your ECommerce Website or Application.

For that, you need to carefully observe the behavior of your customers. What are most preferred payment mode for the customer that you are targetting? What are the trending payment options?

Based on the answers to these question you can optimize your ECommerce website.

Do you need to provide coupons and gift card?

Special offers, gift cards, and coupons are great ways to attract customer towards your products. Generally, it starts with the demand. This means the product with greater demand can reach to sold-out state if you provide a special offer with that.

Not only that, it helps with popularity and brand awareness of the product as well.

Based on all the data collected by above-listed questions, you can optimize ECommerce Checkout Flow very easily.

Where Can I Take Reference From?

There are plenty of successful ECommerce businesses out there from which you can take references from.

For example, Amazon, they are said to have a very fine ECommerce Checkout Flow. You can study their methods and design something of your own.
Similarly, Apple is also known to provide a very smooth ECommerce Checkout Flow.
Other than that, you can also ask for assistance from an expert. We at Merchant Stronghold offer similar services for the merchant in need. You can contact us using the toll-free number+1 (727) 330 – 3944 or try the email support now.