With any online retailer, process to turn visitors into customers is a real challenge. Checkout is the last obstacle on the way to your goal. To enhance the ability to successfully and overcome this obstacle, the user experience in checkout process is what retailers need to focus on improving.

The poor customer experience will likely to make customers drop their shopping carts and abandon purchase. So, how can you prevent that? Here are some advices for you:

1. Keep it clear and simple

In business, time is a very precious thing, many customers are time poor. Moreover, they are very easily distracted by a wide-range of other brands (your competitors) who always try to vying for their attention. So, don’t let them to use a complex or lengthy checkout process, it could send them to your competitor.

Too many steps in checkout process will lead to a higher risk for cart abandonment. More steps in checkout mean more frictions also. The average number of steps in checkout process today is 5. So, consider to use the step-indicator, which gives customers a clear view of their progress. Using one step checkout is also a great solution to create a great checkout experience.

2. Minimise queuing time

The online stores have some similarities with bricks and mortar shops; one of them is the store always try to prevent customers from waiting in a lengthy queue to make a purchase. The online stores can do this by adding ‘guest checkout’ option into their checkout process.

The guest checkout will help store owners can reduce checkout processing time; customers don’t have to register and sign-in in order to complete their purchase. Requiring sign-in to checkout may help you to collecting the customer data, it’s very important to engaging with customer and also personalised offers in the future.

However, try to use it in the most reasonable way because it has a direct impact on the sales number of 33% of retailers, who don’t offer guest checkout.

3. Avoid last minute, unexpected surprises

The unexpected costs at the last minute are very dangerous to your conversion rates. Make the prices are clearly as possible, don’t hitting customers with total cost which higher than they expected at the end of the checkout process. It will make them feel frustrated and abandoned their carts.

Using promo codes, offer free shipping or discounts will be the great ideas to encourage customers to purchase. Remember that if you allow customers to apply the promo codes early in the process, it can help to reduce the risk disappointment at checkout. Will be better if you display preview of the shopping cart with associated costs, including shipping costs. And make it as clearly as possible during the checkout process.

4. Remind customers what they are missing

Using the automated abandoned cart messages is a great way to recapture the customer’s interest, it will remind them that why they visited and what are they missed.

The studies show that the reminder strategy can recover up to 25% of abandoned revenue. But very surprising that 59% of retailers don’t do this at all. Besides, there is 22% of retailers send only one reminder while the experience shows that a series of messages is more effective.

Using Abandoned Cart Emails is an effective way to improve your sales and recover the revenue from those who abandon their carts. With the happy experience at checkout of customers, you can go a long way toward becoming a retailer that customers come back to again and again.