Ecommerce checkout audit: Boost conversions

Enhance user experience and boost conversions: An ecommerce checkout audit can prevent abandoned carts and improve conversion rates.

It’s hugely rewarding seeing your audience turn into customers, especially when you’ve put in the time, money, energy, and hard work involved in creating an optimised website to attract customers and showcase your products. However, if the crucial step of your checkout process isn’t user friendly, then all this effort may have been for nothing.

It’s important to spend time doing an ecommerce checkout audit. This is a ‘health check’ on your ecommerce journey, which is to carefully review each part of your checkout process, from the moment a customer adds a product to their cart, all the way to the payment process. To ensure your customers keep returning and buying, you need to ensure that the process of buying from your business is as quick, easy and painless as possible.

When it comes to being online, we know attention spans are short. Having a frustrating or difficult to use checkout process can easily result in abandoned carts and lost customers. You don’t want to send customers to your competitors and an abandoned cart is when a user adds item to their shopping trolly, but, for whatever reason, does not complete the purchase transaction.

The average rate for abandoned shopping carts is a shocking 70%. The good news is a better checkout design can boost conversion rates by 35%.

Who needs an ecommerce checkout audit?

There are multiple areas within a business that can hugely benefit from ecommerce checkout audits.

By completing an ecommerce checkout audit, online retailers, managers and marketers can improve conversion rates and revenue, especially during peak shopping times like the festive season. Web developers and UX/CX (user/customer experience) designers can use these audits to make good design decisions, that complement the checkout process. Audits can allow security teams to check that your process meets legal and data protection requirements.

In a nutshell, an ecommerce checkout audit is a must-have for any business that sees high levels of traffic to their website but low levels of sales. That is to say, reasonable numbers of potential customers coming to their website, clicking on products, adding to cart, but then not completing the buying process.

However, a checkout audit is particularly useful for any business who is looking to:

Prepare for a checkout redesign: If you’re considering a checkout makeover, carrying out an audit before jumping into changes is a wise move. It helps you understand your existing process and gives you a benchmark to measure the success of your redesign.

Understand the user experience: An ecommerce checkout audit is like stepping into your customer's shoes. It gives you invaluable insights into how they use and navigate the checkout process so you can make changes that matter.

Identify usability improvements: An audit will identify areas in your checkout process where users might get stuck or confused. Using this knowledge to enhance usability can increase conversion rates.

How to carry out an ecommerce checkout audit

Now you know why you should complete a checkout audit, but if you’re wondering where to start and how to implement this, our helpful tips below will get you started:

Set clear objectives

If you don’t know what you want to achieve, you won’t know if you’ve been successful. Whether it's performance, design, accessibility, security, or a mix of these, clarity is key.

Website performance analysis

Assess how fast and efficient your checkout process is. Slow loading times are a major turn-off and lead to abandoned carts. And make sure your website infrastructure can handle heavy traffic, like busy shopping times, i.e. Black Friday, or after you send our promotional emails, for example. You should also look at metrics such as basket abandonment rates, and the path the user will take in order to reveal customer drop-off points.

Design and UX evaluation

Take a close look at your checkout page design. Is it intuitive and user-friendly? Pay attention to field placement, pop-ups calls to action, the number of steps, payment options, pricing transparency, shipping costs, return policies and the overall checkout flow.

Check SEO and accessibility

Examine your checkout page for search engine optimisation (SEO), especially for people using smartphones or tablets, and accessibility compliance. Otherwise, you’re pushing away a sizeable number of potential customers.

Security assessment

Online security is non-negotiable. The audit helps you spot potential vulnerabilities so you can ensure your customers’ data and payment information are protected.

Patterns and trends: Review this data to identify common bottlenecks or sticking points during the checkout process.

Creating an action plan with insight: Based on these findings, create a plan that explains specific improvements to be made, like simplifying the checkout steps or offering better payment options to help build an improved customer experience.

Tips for improving your ecommerce checkout

While carrying out an audit of your website may feel daunting, there are a few elements that are going to be key to think about. These are essential steps to review for improvements to the user journey.

Simplify navigation: Make sure each step from basket to checkout is clear, logical and user-friendly.

Optimise load times: Take a look at your page speed times and fix any slow loading issues to prevent users becoming frustrated and abandoning the process.

Improve mobile experience: Review the checkout process on all devices (laptops, mobiles, tablets) to ensure it’s seamless across the board.

Review payment options: Offer your customers a number of secure payment methods.

Fix errors: Resolve bugs or other problems uncovered during the audit.

Update security: Be sure to build advanced security measures into your checkout to build trust and credibility.

Benefits of running a checkout audit

Fewer abandoned carts and more conversions

Tweaking your website’s performance ensures your checkout process runs like clockwork. Customers love a quick and responsive checkout, resulting in fewer abandoned carts, more conversions, and an overall great shopping experience.

Suggestion: consider cardless payment options like PayPal or Apple Pay to make the checkout process even faster and easier.

Happy customers

Your checkout page is the heart of a successful purchase. A user-friendly design, layout and navigation make the trip from cart to purchase simple. That equals happy customers and a healthier bottom line.

Better SEO rankings

A well-optimised checkout process can give you the edge in search engine results. With nearly 60% of organic search visits coming from mobile devices, mobile SEO bumps you up the search engine rankings and helps customers find you.

Become more inclusive

Accessibility ensures that everyone, including people with disabilities, can glide through the checkout process with ease. And you’re not just meeting legal requirements. You’re expanding your customer base and showcasing inclusivity.

Build Trust

By identifying and closing any weak spots in your digital defences, you can ensure your customers can shop safely. This trust factor alone can result in increased conversion rates and customer loyalty.

What do users expect during the online purchase process?

You might have the products they’re looking for and be a brand they connect with, but if your audience struggles at the checkout, they’re unlikely to become a returning customer.

Key elements users expect when purchasing online include:

Secure Account Login: Offer your customers a secure and safe account where they can log in with ease and store payment methods to make efficient purchases. With login options like Facebook and Google, customers can access their account quickly and easily, streamlining the process.

Shipping Information: Customers want to know how much they need to pay for shipping and be offered a variety of options when it comes to costs and delivery times.

Payment Information: From credit and debit cards to PayPal and Apple pay, it’s important to offer as many payment options and provide as much information as possible to encourage customers to purchase.

Offer and Discount Opportunities: Make it easy for customers to input discount codes and pay using gift cards/vouchers.

Confirmation: Show clear confirmation messaging and responsive page speed times to ensure customers aren’t kept waiting after they’ve made a purchase.

Secure Checkout Page: Make sure all pages across your website are secure, especially the checkout page. The padlock icon in the URL bar is a clear indicator that the page is safe and secure.

It’s a good idea to carry out a checkout audit regularly as this will enable you to spot and fix issues before they become bigger problems. Make sure you keep your process up to date, as it’s easier to monitor and tweak regularly and consistently, rather than waiting for a major concern that could then jeopardise and impact important areas of your business, such as sales targets, conversions, and the user experience. An ecommerce checkout audit is a powerful tool and can help make sure you have a great checkout process that ensures customers keep returning.

Want to learn more about how an ecommerce checkout audit could help your business? Get 1-2-1 advice by speaking to one of our V-Hub Digital Advisers today.