Checkout is the last part of the sales process, but it can make or break a sale. While it is important to focus on sales funnels and on-site conversion rate optimization, it’s possible for the customer to get cold feet at any point – especially when it comes time to enter their payment information.
To ensure your online store has no weaknesses in the buying process, it is important that you create WooCommerce checkout pages that not only help prevent abandoned carts, but also help earn you more sales.
Important Aspects of WooCommerce Checkout Pages
Every business in every industry is different, so the ideal checkout page for your website may vary from someone else’s. However, when it comes to optimizing your checkout pages for conversion, be sure to focus on including the following aspects to close more deals.
Simple Design
With the recent advancements in content management systems, plugins, and other tools that add features and functionality to websites, it is easy to overdo your website. Graphics, text, and tools each have their own place, but if you spam them – especially on a page as important as the checkout page – you’re making it much more complicated for less advanced users to use. This can hurt your conversion rates at checkout, leading to more abandoned carts and less sales.
Your goal is to make it as simple as possible to both navigate your site and complete checkout. A simple design that includes proper whitespace for formatting, clear text labels, and clearly defined points of interest like testimonials or cart information are best. They will ensure that your WooCommerce checkout page doesn’t scare people away or distract them from the important part – paying for their order.
Only Relevant Checkout Fields
One of the easiest ways to lose a sale at checkout is making checkout take too long. With every second that a customer spends at checkout, that is another second that they could change their mind and leave without paying. You literally cannot afford to lose sales this way, which is why your checkout forms should be concise.
Consider the vital information that you need to complete the order, but do not add in more fields than necessary. For example, if you’re selling a digital product you don’t need to know your customer’s address. They may even refuse to give it, cancelling their purchase because they don’t feel like their privacy is being respected. Conditional checkout forms are great for this problem, as you can trigger certain fields only if they are necessary.
Trust Points
(checkout form is in the left column above the red button)
Trust is everything when it comes to being a successful business online. When compared to traditional sales where transactions happen in person, online sales are autonomous for the customer. There is no person or physical location to connect with the business, so people are naturally more skeptical. This also has to do with the fear of identity theft when entering payment information online. Therefore, it’s important that you make your checkout page reflect your trustworthiness so that people don’t get cold feet when it comes time to pay.
Trust points are content at checkout that helps to display your trustworthiness to customers about to enter their payment information. There are many ways to implement this, but two of the most popular are:
Testimonials/Reviews – Just about everything is afraid of being the first customer to buy from a website because they don’t know what to expect. In online business, many visitors depend on the past experience of other customers to determine whether or not they trust you. This means that getting a positive review or testimonial about your business allows you to ease customers’ concerns, showing that others have bought without a problem and they can too.
Security Badges – Do you have a SSL certificate on your website that protects the information from being stolen? Are you certified by the FDA or another corporation that would give customers peace of mind about buying from you? Show them off! Security and reliability are incredibly important to converting customers, so adding your qualifications can help improve the chances of sales.
Cart Information
While it sounds obvious to many, having cart information shown at checkout is a good way to ensure your customer doesn’t feel misled in any way. When you can show the cart, the prices, discounts, and all other information on the same page, it makes it easy for the customer to review their order without having to leave the checkout page. That means they’re less likely to abandon their cart, so more sales for you.
Upsells / Order Bumps
Do you want to make more money? If so, checkout is the perfect place to add an upsell funnel. Upsells are special offers that happen before or after checkout (in this case at checkout). They usually include some kind of discounted offer (BOGO, faster shipping, etc.) for customers to consider before they pay.
They are part of creating an effective WooCommerce checkout page because when done correctly (not too pushy or invasive), upsells can be a mutually beneficial sales approach to earning more sales. By adding it at checkout, you’re offering to increase the value of their purchase, which can help to close the deal because of the perceived value increase.
Sufficient Payment Options
Another simple but incredibly important aspect to consider when you create WooCommerce checkout pages is the payment options you provide. To put it simply, you want your customer’s money. Creating an effective checkout page is all about making it easier for them to pay you, and by offering a variety of payment methods, you’re lowering the chances that someone abandons their cart because they don’t have a way to pay.
Consider PayPal – one of the most popular payment methods in the world – as well as Stripe for credit and debit card processing. Finally, unconventional payment methods like eCheck support or cryptocurrency support can better cover all your potential customers’ needs at little inconvenience to you.
Handsome Checkout: The Simplest Way to Create Effective WooCommerce Checkout Pages
Now that you’re familiar with how to build the perfect checkout page, what if I told you there was a plugin that would make it incredibly easy for you to address every aspect we’ve mentioned?
Handsome Checkout is a conversion-driving checkout and upselling plugin that lets anyone create a custom checkout page – no coding knowledge needed. Included with the plugin are 6 different templates (and growing) that include our above recommendations – clean designs, trust points and more – plus the ability to create and implement upsells at checkout. If you’re feeling creative, you can also edit a template to better reflect your business. The choice is all yours!
For the simplest, fastest, and most affordable way to create WooCommerce checkout pages that convert, look no further than Handsome Checkout. Start your 14-day trial today!
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