Everyone from beginners and experienced merchants are making significant efforts and investments to bring more traffic to their online store. At the same time what else could be a major addition to the large flow of potential customers leads in the store. But when we look at the statistics and analyze sales, we find that the ratio of the number of purchases came to the number of potential customers in the online store varies by 98% -99.95%. This statistics are usually displayed in the form of a Sales Funnel which displays the entire sales process in both retail as well as in any other business (B2C, B2B) :
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At first glance, it may cause a big surprise. But upon closer examination we can find the causes that lead to such indicators at each stage. Each of the stages of movement of potential customers on the Sales Funnel is a big topic, and has its own techniques and tricks to reduce the loss of customers on each of them.
Here we would like to consider the causes, solutions and tools conversion during checkout process, or in other words, as much as possible to reduce the bounce rate from completing purchases at checkout that is more than 66%
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Reduce the amount of shift from page to page.
Since login till the time of completion of the purchase the buyer will have a long way to go. He has to navigate in the catalog. Next is to choose the item on the necessary parameters to it. Then should get detailed information about the product, the quality and conditions of purchase – which should be accompanied by a detailed description and high quality picture or video products. And repeat this process as many times as he wants to buy the goods. This cycle requires much time, effort and concentration at the transition between the pages. Every step that does not carry any meaning in the selection process or the purchase of goods increases the risk of the buyer refused to complete the purchase. Therefore, when a buyer sees when choosing a debt to their eyes still a long way ordering – there is a high probability of failure of the completion of the purchase:
The image below shows a typical checkout flow in magento which consists of 6 steps. All 6 steps together are part of the Sales Funnel and also increase the risk to abandon the purchase on each of them. Therefore, the obvious solution is to give up such a complex checkout flow in favor of a simple, one-page, ideally: [PIC HERE] Our analysis and statistics of our customers shows that the transition to the One Step Checkout reduces the failure rate by 59%. This approach allows the buyer to see and modify all the information about the product on the same page.
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Change the number of fields and validators on the checkout page
Despite the fact that going to One Step Checkout, we can significantly improve the conversion rate – it does not mean that we can rest on our laurels result. We can analyze customer behavior on the site and has already implemented a One Step Checkout. Using the tools for monitoring customer behavior on the site such as Clicktale, Yandex Metrica – which record and store customer behavior on the site in the form of video and thus allow to analyze the challenges faced by customers in completing the form fields One Step Checkout. For example on our website www.iksanika.com/products/ we found that about 50% of buyers faced with the problem fields telephone and fax number.
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We expect that the buyer will enter data into the international format, for example: 1 (408) 490-0777. But from our observations it appeared that since different countries have different input format of telephone numbers – the buyers were trying to enter numbers in the format of banners and they understand themselves. What it is often not introduced in the international format, and as a result of a phone number validator often do not allow an order informing the buyer of error in the field. After several attempts to buyers or leave the site or, less frequently – contact us with a description of the problem for assistance, which also increases significantly the risk of losing customers. Also on site was a field Fax, which as it turned out the analysis aroused even more questions – as most do not have a Fax-and many buyers had difficulty. After identifying these problems – we removed the box Fax, and also made it possible to enter data in the phone randomly. What ultimately increase the number of conversions by 15%.
Also, it was evident from the statistics that the buyers do not often want to enter the field, Last name, and we decided to do one experiment make one Full Name field instead of the two First Name and Last Name. According to the analysis of conversion to Google Analytics, we found an increase in the conversion of 5%.
Also, it was evident from the statistics that the buyers do not often want to enter the field, Last name, which must be filled in and we decided to do one experiment and make one Name field instead of the two First Name and Last Name. According to the analysis of conversion to Google Analytics, we found an increase in the conversion of 4.5%.
In this case trade ecommerce solutions for magento platform – magento extensions, we are working with files, which means we do not need the real data address as the buyer receives purchase data for horse racing elemtronnoy mail. This fact allows you to delete an entire section to remove the Shipping Address and Zip Code of Billing address, which reduces our Checkout process up to 7 input fields 6 of which are required to enter.
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In some cases, in a similar situation can be removed and the field Country and City Town, as they are not binding for the purchase of the buyer, but may be useful for your internal data store.
It is also worth paying attention to the choices provided in the lists for customers, such as the Country field. If you are working with a limited number of countries or working in the local market in a single country. It is necessary to reduce the number of countries in the list provided to those with whom you work or delete the field at all, if you are working within a single country. It would seem that the standard field – but 7% of cases, this field can cause difficulties for the buyer.
Summarizing the situation described. The buyer does not like the complexities and variations – the buyer wants to quickly and without any hassle to make a purchase. Therefore, our task at this stage to make the purchase process as easy as possible and as quickly as possible. Therefore, carefully think about the information collected at the checkout page,
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Avoid the compulsory registration at the time of ordering
As you may seem obvious – every buyer is obliged to register in your online store. It would seem that it is quite natural, but the procedure may take a couple of minutes and completely switch the focus of the buyer on extraneous problem that increases the risk of leaving the buyer to complete the purchase. To avoid this risk – Give your customers the possibility to make quick purchases as ‘Guest’ or do it the only option for making purchases and completion of the purchase offer the buyer to register to monitor the delivery of the order. What looks more natural and reduces Rist leaving your store
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Removal of external links, navigation, and other foreign elements
As you may have caught the basic idea – that any extraneous or unnecessary action element can be triggered reporting to the care of the client with the checkout page. According to our statistics, and statistics of our customers – about 12-16% of buyers click extraneous links and elements that are often placed on the checkout page of the store. These are navigation links in the header and footer and banner ads. They also may include links that are generally placed on the logo of the store. We must make the page so that the customer is completely focused on the completion of the purchase – so removing unnecessary links unrelated to the checkout process should be removed and the page should be only one reference vvide dedicated Call-to-action (CTA) button, which will complete the process Ordering.
Also, please be careful to add additional fields such as surveys, coupon codes and more. In some cases, these fields are a good supplement and, in some cases, an additional obstacle in the process of completing a purchase. Therefore, we recommend that the A / B testing and analysis tools to use consumer behavior on your site to draw conclusions about what works and what does not for you.
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Use security protocols TLS / SSL and add recognized security site seal
A large number of Internet frauds makes customers to be more susicious to shop online. A lot of coustemers pay attention to the safety of online shopping stores. To protect customer data and credit card information you need to take care of the protection of data during their acceptance by the buyer, you can provide through the use of TLS / SSL encryption. For those customers who are less prepared in technical terms, and information on an encrypted connection doesnt mean nothing to them, in this case the main factor in the completion of the purchase may be the presence of recognized security seal on your site. As shown by the 2013 survey results most prestige among customers would be such security seals as Norton, McAfee, TRUSTe, and BBB.Defferet feedbacks from our customers show that the presence of the title site McAfee Secure Badge ckeckout conversion increases by 4-6%.
The presence of the phone number and working hours – adds more credibility to the store, because it gives a sense of human presence with security that in case of any problem it will give a quick solution to any question which can arise from the buyer.
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Information which made customer confident about finishing the purchase
Most of customers are worried about the return policy, products guarantee, delivery period and time, privacy policy, charge back guarantee and additional services included. A good practice is to add small icons on the page in purchase or checkout page, which informs about the basic guarantees of the order. Understanding of your client needs by giving him a warranty will reveal his anxiety – so the buyer can complete their purchase without being distracted by the search for answers to their questions. So the feedbacks from our customers shows that such guarantees increase checkout conversion page by 7% -15%.
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Mobile devices compatibility
Today, there is increasing proportion of purchases via mobile devices. Most online stores do not take this into account, and thus lose almost 85% of customers who make a purchase via their mobile devices. To keep these customers the design of your online store should be adapted to different extensions of computer screens and mobile devices through the responsive design.
How to increase checkout conversion rate in Magento
At first glance it may seem that to implement all the points will take a lot of time in the standard magento, but in practice it is easier because you can use a ready magento extension such as One Step Checkout by Iksanika. This extension allows you to combine all 6 points in one page, and manage each of the sections and all the fields. Also this magento module implements responsive design, which allows your customers to make registration of orders using mobile devices. One step Checkout allows you to implement and manage all of the above aspects, but not limited to, significantly increasing checkout conversion of your magento online store.
As an extension of additional features allows you to add additional fields – such as comments, ask a question and get an answer, enter coupon number, proof of terms & conditions, sign to newsletter, additional to the order to add gift wrap more.
Some of our customers seek to increase the conversion of up to 99% and incresing of sales by 60%.
Conclution
As we can see – a complex buying process is the most important factor from the facts that online merchants are losing sales on the checkout stage. We have identified a number of key and typical aspects. In each case, the individual features can play a big part in it. But today there are quite a big number of tools allowing to identify the places where you lose your customers or purchase. So with the help of Clicktale, Google Analytics, Yandex Metrica you can determine the current performance and to find places where your customer will experience problems when ordering. Based on these data, you can make the appropriate changes. If you are the owner of online store that works on magento, you can use tools like One Step Checkout by Iksanika to optimize your checkout process. What will give a significant increase in conversion and sales. Do not forget to test your changes and observation to understand what works best for you and your customers.