An online store must have the usability factor to avoid shopping cart abandonment and make the purchase process easier for the customer
It is well known that usability is essential in eCommerce and especially if we talk about the critical moment that is the purchase process for an online business. An online store that does not provide the customer with this process of acquiring products or services is condemned to abandon the cart by this annoying user who probably will not return. For this reason, in today’s article, we explain why it is so important to highlight factors such as payment methods, facilitate that purchase process and even not have to force an exhaustive registry on that possible client that scares him and back.
Usability in eCommerce: mandatory
There are several important points that involve the factor of web usability, therefore, Idealo has carried out a study on the level of usability in online stores in Spain. 50 online stores were analyzed and 16 factors were highlighted throughout the purchase process. The conclusions obtained were divided into four phases: product selection, shopping cart, registration, and checkout.
Currently, 28% of online stores continue to send the potential customer directly to the shopping cart after they select a product. It is true that this trend has decreased since 2015 (they did 46%) but it is still counterproductive since we reduce the possibility of them continuing to add products to the shopping cart by actually leaving the cart multiple times to continue adding products. Or even give it up altogether.
Luckily, 44% of e-merchants thought it was a better idea to leave the potential customer on the page they are on so they can continue their purchase without any interruption. 86.4% of businesses tell the user that the item they have selected has been added to the cart through some kind of pop-up window or animation, and 28% let the customer decide between continuing shopping or completing their purchase with a pop-up
As eCommerce owners, we must bear in mind that the shopping cart is vital for conversion, so much so that all the stores studied include an image of the products selected in the cart in addition to the price and quantity added. Most of the stores include the additional costs in the cart, such as the shipping cost if there is one or some type of charge for using Paypal-type payment platforms .
If you want conversions, include the payment methods in the shopping cart
It is much more effective if the payment methods are included in the cart because you offer the various alternatives that the customer has to pay. Only 44% of the stores in this study carry it out. 66% of e-commerce add a discount code, for example, and 24% include two types of buttons to start the checkout above and below the list of products selected in the cart, thus facilitating the conversion.
Forget the tedious registration
An extensive registration that supposes that the user must complete endless fields, most of them very personal such as the DNI, causes the potential client to abandon either due to laziness or because they do not want to provide that type of data. 34% of stores offer registration with a guest account which makes things easier. It is interesting to know that if you still opt for mandatory registration, you can offer the alternative of logging in through social networks, a quick and easy method for the client.
The trend that most online businesses are applying is to show the entire purchase process on a single page, greatly simplifying all the checkout steps that have gone from 4 steps in 2015 to two at most this year. 2017. What is certain is that if we do not provide the user with a way to buy over the internet, they will leave our portal to go to another online store where they feel comfortable and safe to buy.
