- Nilay Kumar
Checkout Abandonment: How to Put a Tab on Your Customer Drop-Off?
Optimize your customer journey to reduce checkout abandonment and increase conversions
The agony of losing a customer just before a point of payment can’t be put into words but we had to as it’s high time to take on the bull by the horns. When a potential customer is on verge of making a purchase and suddenly abandons the checkout process it definitely hurts and if it happens more frequently then it directly impacts the brand’s business.
So, if you run an eCommerce business, checkout abandonment is something you can’t afford to ignore. Continue reading to learn more about how you can reduce checkout abandonment and increase conversions.
There are multiple uncontrollable factors that lead to checkout and cart abandonment but there are ways to mitigate and improve checkout abandonment. The right adjustments could lead to a massive boost in your sales and increase revenue for brands and eCommerce marketplaces.
How checkout abandonment is different from cart abandonment?
The friction in the customer journey is the major cause of cart and checkout abandonment, the only difference is the drop-off point after adding an item to the cart. When shoppers drop off the website or app during browsing it’s called Cart abandonment, users could be casually surfing with or without the intention to make a purchase. Whereas checkout abandonment is a very different and serious issue as interested shoppers willing to make a purchase ditch right before completing the purchase.
Why do customers abandon the checkout?
The key is simplifying the purchase phase with essentially simplified signup/sign-in, securing transactions, ensuring transparency and security.
Let’s keep the stats aside for a minute and try unraveling why your customers are leaving before checking out. The key area to address is ensuring security across the purchase funnel will build a trustworthy ecosystem.
Here are some key reasons that lead to checkout abandonment across the eCommerce ecosystem:
1. Unexpected additional charges
According to a study - high shipping costs, taxes, and other additional fees are one of the major reasons for cart abandonment. The customers expect absolute transparency in terms of pricing beforehand. Additional charges adding up just before payments prompt customers to abandon the checkout.
The Solution: Be transparent and upfront with customers. Display the total price before the checkout stage including shipping charges, taxes, or any other fees that they will incur. Such transparency will provide the user option to review prices on the cart page rather than getting shocked by a sudden rise in cost. Avoiding surprising customers at the checkout stage will reduce drop-offs.
2. Ease in Sign-up post-adding items to the cart
Do not force account creation or registration – too many steps to create an account at the point of payment often drives checkout abandonment. Convenience is king, to make the onboarding process smooth to ensure an enhanced customer experience.
The Solution: The goal is to keep customers motivated to make a purchase – set up a call to action outside of the checkout process to create an account.
The best way is just to optimize the user onboarding process with OTP-less signups and silent user authentication, reducing the number of steps for sign-ups. Auto-populate data to reduce time to fill up details like a mobile number.
Another key area to improve is to identify and differentiate between human vs Bot sign-up and ensure clean traffic leading to conversion.
3. Complex checkout process
The key reason for the rise in online shopping is the swift and efficient shopping experience. The more time it takes the less appealing and inconvenient it becomes for the customer. The complicated checkout processes don’t save customers time or hassle. Due to this tedious process, the customer will no longer see the value.
An account creation or registration process can be considered an additional or time-consuming process during checkout that could cause customer drop-off without completing the purchase.
The Solution: Streamline the entire checkout process by removing unnecessary steps or clicks. Optimize the checkout process. Reducing manual input steps makes the process faster. Lastly, if the user is not registered or logged in, enable friction-free registration/login to reduce the manual efforts required by the user.
4. BOTS making COD orders
Using a CAPTCHA is a common way to prevent bots from placing orders, including cash on delivery orders, on e-commerce websites. But Bots can bypass CAPTCHA. Yes, the method is not as secure as you think.
It is also important to keep in mind that CAPTCHAs can also be frustrating for users, particularly if they are difficult to read or if they need to be completed multiple times. This could lead to checkout abandonment.
The Solution: To balance the need for security with user experience, eCommerce businesses can consider using alternative solutions in addition to or instead of CAPTCHAs. To ensure seamless checkout deploy a solution that is a combination of both deterministic and probabilistic mechanisms. Employ a multi-level defense mechanism, and analyze each and every request that’s coming in. Also, validate that a genuine user is making the purchase.
By using a combination of these measures, businesses can provide a secure and seamless checkout process for their customers while minimizing the risk of fraudulent orders.
5. Payment security concerns
In any sort of online service, payment security is paramount. Provide a trustworthy system to reduce drop-off before checkout. The focus should be on ensuring full transparency and security in user authentication and the checkout process.
The Solution: High-security measures should be a visible feature for the customers with end-to-end security including secure user authentication and checkout process. Convey the security feature to make your customers more confident about making a purchase.
Quick recap - To help address major challenges causing checkout abandonment.
Make the registration process seamless
Optimize the checkout process
The capability to distinguish between a bot and a genuine user is a necessity
End-to-end secure customer journey
These strategies will help mitigate checkout abandonment rates and will help capture losing revenue from potential customers.
Final Thoughts
The digital landscape is evolving. There is a swift need to optimize and ensure security at every touch point of the customer’s journey. Turn to a mobile Identity solution to optimize your customer journey, ease sign-up and ensure swift checkout.
The mFilterIt Mobile Identity solution enables brands to achieve these goals by validating digital identities ensuring smooth onboarding, silent authentication, and secure in-app transactions by mitigating risk. Schedule a demo with us to know more.
Put a tab on your customer drop-off, edge ahead of your competition, and make a move toward the future in the digital ecosystem.