7 E-Commerce Checkout Best Practices to Follow

April 26, 2023

Improving your checkout flow with optimization and automation strategies can help you quickly beat sluggish sales. Thankfully, this process is simple when you implement some checkout best practices. The e-commerce specialists at SamCart are here with the insight you need to get started. 

1: Checkout Form Placement

Checkout optimization is about making your products easy for buyers to purchase. One of the most straightforward ways of doing this is with mindful checkout form placement.

It is essential to make the checkout form readily available to potential customers. For example, place the checkout form directly on the product page rather than making customers search for their buying options. 

By putting your checkout form right next to the most compelling details about your product, you can quickly reduce the steps customers must take to convert. 

2: Maintain Comprehensive Payment Acceptance

Requiring customers to find an alternative payment source can significantly complicate the checkout process. Therefore, to optimize and automate the checkout flow, your online business must accept a wide variety of customer payment options. 

With the online payment industry evolving daily, it might seem impossible to keep up with every new payment option. Instead, simply focus on the most popular selections and build up your compatibility from there. 

At the time of publication, the most popular online payment methods include debit/credit cards, BNPL, and mobile wallets. 

3: Eliminate Unnecessary Form Fields

Removing unnecessary form fields is the easiest way to simplify your checkout process. Not only does this make the buying process quicker, but this step also minimizes the window for customer error—which is proven to cause cart abandonment. 

For example, pre-applying customer coupons is an easy way to eliminate a checkout form step. The SamCart database reports that coupons raise conversions by 41%. However, it can be challenging for customers to find a promotion and manually enter information to get a discount. When you pre-apply coupons, you will ease customer hassle while watching your profits soar. 

4: Keeping Up with Website UX

Nothing deters a purchase quite like a slow, overwhelmed website with poor user experience. While checkout UX requires unique considerations, it is unquestionably dependent on your website UX. So take a moment to ensure your website is quick, secure, and user-friendly. 

5: Order Bumps and Upsells

Looking for a seamless way to passively boost your profits? The key is to make the most of each customer order. There are two ways to maximize your average order value:

An advanced e-commerce platform will make integrating these features into your checkout process easy—so you can sit back and watch your bank account grow. 

6: Delivery and Shipping Options

We have all been there: you get to the final steps in a checkout process—only to find the shipping costs are more than you are willing to pay. This frustration can lead to cart abandonment and lost sales. In fact, data from the Baymard Institute suggests 48% of customers abandon their carts due to excessive fees during the checkout process. However, simple shipping and delivery considerations can improve this step of the checkout process:

Shipping for Physical Product Sellers

Shipping can be costly and time-consuming for physical product sellers. Thankfully, there are a few ways to ease the shipping hassles during checkout:

  • Maintain transparency on processing times and when the customer can expect to get their order. It is better to overestimate your processing time than have customers disappointed by late arrivals. 
  • Some sellers find more success when upping the price of items to offset delivery costs and offering free shipping.
  • Offer a few different shipping options to help customers balance their budget vs. delivery expectations. 

Ultimately, you must do what is best for you and your business. However, careful consideration for this step of the checkout process can save customers hassle while boosting your profits

Digital Product Delivery

Naturally, shipping costs are not a concern for digital product sellers. However, delivery timelines and technical delays can create problems during checkout. 

  • Partner with an e-commerce platform that offers automatic delivery for compatible digital products. For example, Auto-Enroll™ technology that delivers customers directly to their online course during checkout helps sellers close 30% more sales. 
  • If your product cannot be automatically delivered, clearly communicate your timeline for customizations and delivery. 
  • Consider offering expedited digital product processing and delivery for a small upcharge. 

7: Follow Up with Customers

After customers pay for a product, they will be eager for your product to arrive. You can put their mind at ease with a follow-up email. 

Automated confirmation emails make customer communication more manageable than ever. You can also turn to AI solutions for email copy—minimizing the overhead work while achieving high-quality results. 

Make Online Sales Easy and Profitable with SamCart

SamCart makes it easy for online sellers and creators to maintain the latest e-commerce best practices. Our checkout automation and optimization features help creators, sellers, and online businesses effortlessly boost profits. 

You can get started for free with a SamCart trial today! SellersProven sellers can also access our free AI workshop to make the most of your online marketplace. 

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