Retailers use ecommerce software to establish an online presence and give shoppers options to buy online. Having a site is one thing, however, and having an effective site is another thing altogether. According to the Baymard Institute, nearly 70 percent of online shopping carts are abandoned. While some of this has to do with how customers use ecommerce technology to browse online, website design flaws can also cause shoppers to give up before they check out.

Here are a few tips to create a more successful checkout process:

1. Offer free shipping. Customers are often swayed more by free shipping than discounts, even if a reduced item price would be a better deal, according to the University of Pennsylvania.
2. Make prices visible, but not prominent. Studies have shown that using smaller fonts and excluding dollar signs can encourage buyers, Copyblogger reported.
3. Pre-populate and eliminate redundant fields. Asking customers to enter the same information twice can cause frustration.
4. Avoid ambiguity. Makes sure buttons and fields are labeled with clear descriptors that don't have double meanings, like "Continue."
5. Provide a status indicator. Show shoppers where they are in the process and how many steps are left, Betaout advised.
6. Include trust factors. To reassure consumers at the most important moment, put security logos near credit card fields.
7. Give a guest option. According to Betaout, offering the option to continue as a guest rather than registering is one of the top conversion strategies.
8. Let them go back. Make sure there's a working back button so shoppers can check or adjust their entries rather than forcing them to start over.
9. Use in-line error validation. Luke Wroblewski, CEO and co-founder of Input Factory, Inc., explained that showing errors right after users complete a field can increase satisfaction and reduce the time it takes to fill out a form.
10. Display complete payment summary. Surprising customers with shipping and transaction fees can cause them to drop out at the last minute.
11. Streamline the process. Eliminate unnecessary steps and avoid making customers leave the main checkout path in order to register or add information.
12. Show the goods. Remind customers of the products they're buying. For example, include pictures of some of the items in the cart, Betaout suggested.

These tips can help retailers optimize their ecommerce websites. They should also pay attention to retail customer trends and analyze web traffic data to identify successful strategies. Customer preferences are constantly evolving, so it's important to update websites in order to keep a competitive edge.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Wednesday, March 12th, 2014 at 9:27 am .