If you want to increase conversions and sales, a good place to start is to make it as easy as possible for them to pay for your services or products. If your checkout page isn’t easy to use, it won’t matter how good your products or services are. Your checkout page is where they get to hand over their hard-earned cash. Customers who were happy to window shop, are now being asked to pay. There are several things you can do to make the payment experience a good one. Here are a few ideas.
Offer a Range of Payment Methods
This might sound a little obvious, but spend some time looking at various e-commerce sites, and you’ll be amazed at how many only offer one payment option. There’s no possible way you’d be able to include all payment options. However, you should at the very least aim to offer those preferred by your target audience. Including all major credit cards is a good place to start. Also, consider including the most popular online payment methods.
Use a Consistent Design
Some online payment providers will offer a ready-made front end, but this means you lose control over the look and feel of your checkout page. Keeping the checkout page the same as the rest of your site is important if you want to maintain their trust.
Top Tip: When using an e-commerce website builder, use the same colors, fonts, and design on all your pages. A consistent design will also raise brand awareness.
Don’t Make Opening An Account Obligatory
Insisting on customers opening an account is just putting a barrier in the way of a sale. For first-time customers, it can be a real turnoff. For many customers, it can be very confusing. They don’t need to open an account when they buy from a bricks and mortar shop so why is it a requirement when shopping online? Another downside is that it just lengthens the purchasing process. It will be far easier to let them sign in as a guest and make a purchase.
Include Assurances Relating to Security and Privacy
It pays to let your customers know there are security measures in place. If a potential customer has any concerns about payment security, they are going to look elsewhere. Ideally, you should have a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate for your website.
What does this mean?
This means that there is a secure connection and credit card information is encrypted. It will also be to your advantage to comply with the standards of the PCI Security Standards Council. The council is responsible for managing security standards for those who store, transmit, or process cardholder data.
One final piece of advice
Don’t leave people guessing what to do next. Give them crystal clear instructions throughout the payment process. Be specific and don’t be ambiguous.
When you’ve finished your checkout page, spend some time testing it out. Try some A/B testing and see what works best. Get your payment process right and you increase sales and make the purchasing experience an enjoyable one.