Getting visitors to your website costs money.  In competitive markets that sum of money can be very significant.  So the more visitors to your site that convert into customers, the more it means you’re getting bang for your buck. Plus of course, it means your business is making more sales!

So maximising conversions is a never ending game of testing and tweaking.  And even surprisingly small changes to your site can in some cases make very big differences to your bottom line. So let’s focus on changes you can apply to your site at the checkout part of the process:

A Slow Website Means Lost Orders

With internet connections getting ever faster, website visitors just don’t tolerate slow sites any more, and frankly there’s no excusive for having a slow site these days. And in particular, if the process of placing an order is slow and cumbersome, you’re going to lose a lot of sales.  Just think:

Page one, the visitor enters their name and address, clicks through to page two, which takes a few seconds to load.  That page is asking them for their shipping address.  Then onto page three, a few more seconds…

And they’ve given up.

Overwhelming Forms

Order forms that ask for too much information, or don’t make incredibly clear which text fields need to be filled in and which can be ignored, are going to either confuse your website visitors into paralysis, or put them off filling in the form at all.

Plus mistakes in your forms need to be corrected too.  For example, many websites still have out of date or incorrect lists of counties, or even countries!  That certainly needs to be fixed.  There’s many websites that for whatever reason don’t show Berkshire as a county, even though it very much exists just outside London!

Don’t Force People to Register!

The first screen when going through the checkout process should not be to log in!  If they’re not registered on your site, it just confuses them, and makes them rethink the whole thing.

Get them started on the process of entering their details, but also make clear that if they’re a returning customer, they can log in and all their details will be filled in automatically.

But registration should be automatic the first time they place their order.  Forcing people to set up an account just distracts them from the order they’re trying to place.

Let Them Know How They’re Getting On

Make it clear to the person filling in the order forms which part of the process they’re on and how much further they have to go. Being presented with screen after screen of options, but not knowing exactly when they end, will make people click away in droves!

So remember – everyone wants things to be quick and easy.  So if a visitor on your site actually wants to spend money with you, make it quick and easy for them to order.  Don’t confuse them, don’t force them to do what you want them to do… but instead get them to the end of the checkout process as quickly as possible.