Several years ago my son, David, and I created a customized one page checkout system for the Miva Merchant ecommerce platform that we named Pimp My Checkout (PMC). Cool name, not so great idea, it turned out.
Many site owners were requesting one page checkouts, so I assumed it was due to customer demand. But the myth of the one page checkout is something site owners and developers perpetuate that has no basis in real world usability.
The reality is, “one page checkouts” are usually no less clicks than a regular checkout process, they’re just all on one page. The number of steps and the number of clicks is the same, it just looks like it’s all happening on one page.
As we set up these PMCs, an amazing thing happened. Customers were not happy. Clicking a Complete Order button is a stressful thing, every time, even for savvy online shoppers. Is it going to process all of this correctly since it’s going to submit all of the information at once? Sites with the PMC began to get complaints, and lower conversions. Customers wanted more feedback from the system in the form of confirmation pages.
It turns out that a one page checkout is not what is needed. A SIMPLE checkout is all that is needed. Customers will go through several pages without thinking twice if they know what they’re doing and the pages are providing feedback about where they are and what still needs to be done to complete the order.
So forget the one page checkout. Here are three tips to truly improve your checkout:
1. Hold your customer’s hand
You see your checkout every day. Your customers do not. They don’t know how it works. They’re nervous and don’t want to have to study your checkout system to understand it. This means you should use graphics as much as possible. Here are three examples of checkout graphics that work:
2. Hold off on the Create an Account option until the order is complete
During the PMC experiment, we learned that skipping the account creation decision helped increase conversions. During checkout, asking customers to create an account is a major decision — a decision that stops some people cold. They wonder what it means to create an account. It’s asking for a commitment too early. By skipping the account creation option until the customer has given you their money, conversions increase, and more customers ultimately create an account.
Once they’ve completed the sale, they’ve gotten past the trust issue, so creating an account is less stressful. It’s all about keeping your eye on the goal — to make the sale — and putting off decisions that aren’t necessary for that goal.
3. Don’t use the words “coupon” or “discount”
As I type this, I have a browser window open to Espresso Parts USA. It’s been open at the final checkout page for two days now. I haven’t completed checkout because it has a Coupon/Gift Certificate Code field, and I can’t find a coupon code through Google. Like most online shoppers these days, I like getting the best deal possible.
If your customers see a Coupon Code or Discount Code in your checkout, many will jump into Google and search for a coupon code. If they find one, they get a discount that didn’t help make the sale. Worse, if they don’t find a coupon code, they get upset because they know that some people are getting discounts and they’re not.
If you have a coupon code field on your site, change the prompt to something like “Tracking Code,” “Advertising Code” or even “Promo Code” to avoid this pitfall.
How to Further Optimize Your Checkout for Your Target Market
I could give you a dozen more tips for improving your checkout process, but they may not fit your target market. It’s up to you to determine what works with your customers. Ask some neighbors and some not-too-close friends to shop at your site with you looking over their shoulders. Watch where they pause, note what questions they ask you, and ask them to tell you what they’re thinking along the way. You’ll be amazed to find that they don’t think like you at all.
For more information about usability and self-testing your site, get Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
Well done! You’ve boiled down this topic to the most essential advice. I would only add:
1. Your graphics emphasize that breadcrumb navigation is a key element of holding your customer’s hand. I agree! Just thought I would throw that keyword—breadcrumb navigation—in to improve your clicks from search engines for this topic
2. Usability (another popular keyword for this topic) is positively impacted by setting account creation aside. Giving the customer what they want—a shopping cart process—and setting aside what you want as an option for later is good usability.
3. Some feel coupon fields are best made available at the beginning of the order process—where they can be more effectively hidden
In that case wording to the effect of “discount applied at checkout” needs to be added. Then you can promote via coupons without making non-coupon buyers feel they are getting less of a deal.
Great thoughts, Dave, thanks!
I don’t usually worry about SEO for checkout pages, and, in fact, I block search engines from them, as they would have no real value as landing pages. In an overall usability/SEO analysis, though, I agree completely about using text-based breadcrumb navigation, and may write something about that at some point. Great thought on the coupon field thing, too. I normally have used the Miva Merchant shopping cart platform, which uses modules, so I’m not sure if it’s possible to move the field away from checkout – but it’s worth looking into. I hate distractions at checkout – and coupon codes are often just that.
Agree on ignore SEO for shopping cart pages. However, blog comments help SEO for blog articles
Hey Dave, thanks for the great info. I really enjoyed this article, as I was reading the 3 points, I thought “that makes sense, I do that” I googled “one page shopping carts” to get to your site, now I understand that all I need is an “easier” shopping cart solution, not one page…
Thanks again,
Hi Dave,
I completely agree with your premise of this article that a one page checkout does not outweigh a simple checkout with multiple pages.
However, I don’t fully agree with all of your supporting points. I’ve worked on checkout processes with coupon code fields and while I don’t disagree that users will search for a coupon code when they see that field, I have not see any adverse affect on sales. Actually the contrary since once you have the ability to use coupons, you can drive higher volumes of business with the codes and getting more people to buy even at a lower rate CAN often be advantageous. So, I would not consider this a usability tip for all, but instead one that should be weighed against actual sales numbers.
In addition, I disagree with leaving the account creation until the end. I’ve conducted a number of usability studies on this and have found that while users PREFER to not have to create an account (a guest path is preferred) that putting the account creation at the end often creates more confusion than having it first thing with a sign-in and/or guest checkout option.
All in all, it’s always valuable to test these various methods with your sites users to validate which actually work best for them.
Cheers,
Scott
My name’s actually Chuck – Dave is a commenter, unless you meant to address him.
I agree that no solution is appropriate for every site. I was speaking in generalities, but every site should do testing to determine what works best for their market.
My apologies Chuck. I was addressing your post, but I guess I looked wrong and Dave’s name stuck in my head.
I’m curious about your learnings on the leaving the account creation until the end. I definitely agree with the feeling that it can be off-putting to the user to have to create an account to progress. However, I’m curious if you feel the user would still feel the same way if they HAVE to create an account in order to finish checking out. For instance, the product being purchased has to have a username/password associated with it to be activated. In my previous testing on a product that didn’t require the username/password association the users said they’d rather create the account up front, but the path also gave them a guest checkout that didn’t require creating an account so they had an easy way to finish without creating an account.
I’m curious your perspective on this.
Thanks!
Scott