The most crucial element of e-commerce. It's also one that many sites fail to get right. There are six stages, and if you get the sequence wrong, your customer may complete the sale, but might not come back a second time. And e-commerce, like any other business, functions most effectively if you get repeat business rather than lots of one-time transactions.
Once the checkout button has been pressed, here's the correct sequence.
- Billing information: Show the items the customer has selected, the price of each item and the total cost. If a single item has been selected in multiple quantities, try to show the subtotal for that item rather than just the price per individual piece.
- Shipping information (delivery): Present the shipping options, delivery times and costs. If you suggest a choice through a default mechanism, keep the customer in control and avoid making it the most expensive option.
- Payment information: Collect the customer's credit card details and other identity information. Don't collect additional marketing or demographic information at this stage. It will make the process longer, when you should be making it as brief as possible, and it may also annoy privacy-conscious customers. Make it crystal clear that this page, and the transition to the next page, do not finalize the sale — that will come later.
- Review: Present a summary of the transaction that's about to be performed and the options chosen. Include delivery costs and the grand total.
- Confirmation: A single button at the end of the review page, clearly marked as the button that finalizes the sale, allows the customer to confirm that the transaction shown in the review should now take place. If the transaction will take time, say how much.
- Receipt: Tell the customer the transaction was a success and give them an order tracking number.
It's common for one of these stages to be left out, or for them to appear in the wrong order. Many sites miss out the review stage (4) and complete the transaction the moment credit card details have been received. This gives the impression that your site is a little too eager to grab money, especially if your customer has used other shopping sites that include the review stage.
Another common mistake is asking for credit card details too early, especially before the shipping details have been sorted out. Customers may decide to opt out when they see your shipping charges and delivery times, and will resent having given their credit card details first. It's bad enough losing them over the shipping issue, without adding a second reason for them to stay away.
Other classic errors include giving the shipping information as an afterthought at the end, and completely missing out the last stage altogether, so the customer has no idea whether they've just bought something or the entire transaction was gobbled up by the gremlins in the ether and they need to start again.
Fast-track purchase systems that allow customers to buy with one or two clicks are an option for regular customers, but an option only, not suitable for first-time buyers. All customers should be offered the six stages whenever they want them.
Checkout is a Tunnel
The checkout sequence is sometimes called The Tunnel. That doesn't mean it's dark and damp, it means there are no side turnings or distractions on the route from the beginning to the end. Apart from links to security, privacy and other policy information, avoid side turnings. This is not the place to offer more goods or place adverts.
It may seem incredible, but some shopping sites include adverts within their payment sequence. What happens if the customer likes an advert and clicks through?
Distractions are more an issue of good commercial sense than usability, but they can reduce ease of use too. Asking for unnecessary details during the payment process is one example. Extra identity details may reduce the retailer's risk, but they should stick to establishing identity, not collecting shopping preferences. If you want to discover more about your customer, ask them when the process is over, as an option not a requirement, and explain how they will benefit by giving you the information.
Dealing with Errors
Unfortunately, Web technology isn't 100% reliable, but you can improve the usability of your site if you deal with errors well.
If you've shopped extensively on the Web, you've probably had that wonderful experience of selecting a product and going all the way through the tedious checkout process, confirmed the sale, and then been presented with a white page and a single line at the top, beginning, "ODBC error…"
And of course that error message makes perfect sense to any non- technical user.
You should expect errors and find the best way to deal with them. If your payment process has stalled, try to notify customers at the shopping cart stage. If you phrase your apology well, your visitors will recognize you're doing them a favor and the damage will be less than if you allow them to waste their time on a transaction you can't fulfill.
Also try to give meaningful error messages whenever possible. If the transaction times-out at the final stage, make it clear that it's failed and no charge has been made, rather than relying on the few lines of technical mumbo-jumbo normally returned by a timed-out server.
Error handling is important when e-commerce forms are filled out too. There are plenty of other usability issues when it comes to forms, and that's what the next article in this series will cover.
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