Think about your online shopping experience. When you go to checkout, the optimal process needs to be easy to use, quick and secure. An e-commerce store sees a 70% cart abandonment rate, a massive hit to your bottom line. While there are strategies you can implement to win these shoppers back, wouldn’t it be easier not to lose them in the first place? While there are numerous styles of checkouts merchants can choose from, our data tells us that one-page checkouts can boost your revenue. Let’s explore the numerous checkout styles and ensure you have the knowledge to optimise your shoppers’ experience and drive revenue.
What is a one-page checkout?
As the trend towards online shopping continues to grow, businesses are increasingly transitioning to e-commerce stores. The customer journey is essential to ensuring your site visitors have a seamless shopping experience guiding them from browsing to purchase, and increasing the likelihood of repeat customers.
A one-page checkout gives merchants the capability to simplify and enhance their customers’ purchasing process. As the name suggests, the checkout is hosted on one page, with the number of steps to complete a purchase significantly reduced, giving customers a streamlined, memorable experience.
As we always say, the voice of the customer is key to ensuring your store is optimised for your target market. You should constantly listen to feedback, observe customer’s digital shopping behaviour and then build a platform that makes their lives easier.
Research from Capterra tells us that 2 in 3 consumers expect to checkout online in 4 minutes or less, while 28% expect checkout in 2 minutes or less. The good news is that with a one-page checkout (specifically, Instant’s Checkout), consumers can checkout in less than 1 minute! This has proven to increase conversions by 40%!
How does one-page checkout increase conversions?
You can boost your revenue by combining all of the fields from a standard checkout process into one-page, reducing the number of steps a shopper needs to take and therefore, making the path to purchase quicker.
The advantages of a one-page checkout:
Clear journey: customers can follow a clearly defined process through to purchase, it is straightforward to input their information and there is less time for buyer remorse.
Save time: the process is short because there are less clicks, less page load wait times and less manual information required.
Reduce abandoned carts: by following the above two points, customers have less time to think twice about their choice. Plus, by eliminating unneeded form fields, the path to purchase is shortened and the likelihood of an abandoned cart is reduced.
Increase conversions: ultimately, when you increase the number of sales on your website, your revenue is boosted.
Repeat revenue: with Instant’s Checkout, when a return customer comes back to your site, they won’t have to input all of their information again, thereby reducing the time to purchase even further, adding to your profits and ensuring customer satisfaction.
While we know this is likely the best way to increase your revenue, we’d be remiss if we didn’t give you a peek at the disadvantages:
Slower load time: there can be quite a bit of information on the checkout page, which increases the time the page takes to load, and may cause the shopper to become impatient and abandon the purchase.
Information overload: there is a lot of information required all at once, if a shopper sees this, it could be daunting and they might decide they don’t want to continue.
Tracking info: for the merchant, it’s important to understand site usage and fallout points. This can be hard to identify when the whole process is on one-page, therefore, more complex tracking may be required.
The different types of one-page checkouts
One-page checkout refers to exactly that - one-page. However, sites can use a one-page checkout and display the fields in different ways. This can be to reduce overwhelm, or simply to ensure the journey is clear. While each do in fact reduce the time to purchase, let’s explore the benefits and limitations of other styles of one-page checkouts:
Accordion checkout
Combining the multi-page approach with one-page, this checkout is designed to reduce buyer overwhelm by guiding the user through the purchase and only showing the relevant step when it’s needed. The following steps are collapsed in an accordion style. The buyer can progress to the next step only when all required fields are completed.
False single-page checkout
Displays all of the fields at one time, reducing the number of actions a buyer needs to take. The drawback can be that this style can lead to confusion if it is not made clear that data fields must be completed in an order, and the user is unable to progress to the next field if there is incorrect or missing information.
Before we move onto other checkout options, we feel we need to say that no matter which style of checkout you choose, you need to constantly listen to your customers’ needs and adapt to suit your target market. As time and digital behaviour evolves, so too do merchants need to accommodate their customers and ensure the least point of resistance in the purchasing process.
Multi-page checkout - the other side of the coin
For many, this is a simple, classic way to purchase products online. The steps of the checkout journey are split into multiple pages, each consisting of short and concise steps. While these styles of checkouts are familiar to most, they aren’t the fastest, with constant wait times for the next page to load.
The advantages of multi-page checkout:
Guided journey: the shopper must complete one step before moving to the next. This is an intuitive way to guide a buyer gently through to purchase.
Merchant insights: after the buyer submits each page, the website can store information already completed even if the shopper abandons the cart. This means the website is able to grow its database and market appropriately to promote relevant products.
Cart abandonment: while the likelihood can be higher, the store is able to see at which stage of the journey the shopper dropped off, highlighting possible friction points. This can help the merchant understand more about the buyer journey and optimise the site to increase conversions.
The disadvantages can include:
Lengthy process: the numerous steps that can be involved could see a high rate of cart abandonment.
No clear expectations: unless a progress bar is included, the buyer has no idea how long they will spend in the purchasing process, what questions they will be asked and what information they’ll need. Many of us have been frustrated with the need to get up off the couch multiple times to go and find that card, or proof of identification - no thanks!
An example of multi-page checkout is Apple, a buyer is guided through the lengthy process of choosing whether we will pick-up or have the item delivered. We then need to fill in more information, and this is all before we’ve even completed our payment. Imagine if the process was optimised…
So, now that we’ve covered the different types of checkouts, let’s explore how to optimise your one-page checkout to ensure maximum revenue.
Less is more
Reduce buyer overwhelm and ensure your checkout process is clean and uncluttered. Aim for a minimalist webpage that is user-friendly, contains clear calls to action and is descriptive. Leave no ambiguity for your customer. Ensure there are no distractions like pop-ups that may risk frustrating the shopper. Upsell items are always a good idea, but think about how this can be subtly positioned on the page, perhaps below the fold… It’s a tricky task to balance the initial purchase with the additional revenue.
No surprises
How frustrating is it when you think you’ve got a great bargain, but then you come to the final payment confirmation to see the price has been increased with shipping rates? Leave nothing to the imagination and ensure you are always providing the buyer with up-to-date information. This enhances trust and boosts loyalty with your brand.
Talking about trust…
Include any security badges and trust seals within the purchase journey to show your commitment to security and build confidence with your customers. This is a subtle pillar in building your brand to be a reputable, trustworthy company in the market.
Mobile optimised
63% of global online shopping orders are generated from smartphones. With only 35% being on desktop. Therefore, websites need to accommodate for this and be mobile-responsive first. This is imperative to ensuring your site is accessible to your customers, no matter their device.
Accessible support
Ensuring customers can get their questions answered in a timely way can be the difference between a sale and an empty cart. Whether you opt for a chatbot, resource centre, forum, email or good ol’ call centre, ensure your customers can get help when they need it.
Complete purchase
The goal is to drive sales, therefore, make sure your payment button is found easily. This is the last step to ensuring the purchase, and so the button should be obvious, with no question as to where the buyer needs to look.
We’ve seen many of our customers boost their revenue by moving to a one-page checkout. You don’t have to do it all by yourself either. By simply integrating with an intuitive tool (hmmm, let’s say Instant for example.) that can minimise the lengthy purchase process for your customers, you can see immediate return on investment. You can read about Wine Direct increasing their online revenue by 37% and Novo boosting their monthly revenue by $137k by integrating with Instant. What’s more, once a shopper has input their information into Instant’s white labelled solution, they never have to put their details in again! This significantly reduces the time to complete a purchase, you can discover how Adorn Cosmetics removed 10+ unnecessary fields and three different checkout pages with Instant. Not only can we improve the form fields, but we minimise the steps needed in the purchase journey, so that all required information is on a one-page checkout, simple and straightforward!