Are you in the e-commerce business? If you are then you will attest to the fact that making sales conversions can be easier said than done. This is especially the case given the stiff competition around the world of online business. Thankfully, there are some few things you can implement to beat of some completion. One of them is to make it very easy for your customers to make payment on your digital channels. As a matter of fact, this is quite important keeping in mind that the checkout is the final step in the route to making a purchase and this is where your consumers are ready to spend their hard-earned cash. So, you do not want them opting out just before they get to the final “tape”. Now, are you wondering how you can ensure easy payments for your esteemed consumers? Well, this article will give you some important tips you ought to implement to allow customers to make payments fast.
Give Your Consumers Options In Terms Of Payment Methods
Most e-commerce businesses would usually limit consumers when it comes to the payment methods they can use to make purchases. This is wrong! Digital customers always crave for flexibility and keeping things rigid would only serve to hurt your business. In other words, you would need to at least capture a good spectrum of payment methods. Of course, this depends on the nature of your business and the location which would affect the kind of payment methods you can offer. The bottom line though is that you should strive to give consumers the power to make choices on the payment methods that suits them well.
Think Matters Security
Consumers have grown wary of sharing their personal details online owing to the number of data breaches around. In this regards, you would need to secure every bit of transaction to ensure that you do not fall prey of attacks. One way to do so is to use SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificates to secure communication between users and your servers. On top of that, you would need to assure your customers that you have put measures to secure their transactions on your online platforms. How do you do so?
It’s simple. You just have to display all the necessary badges that indicate your security standards. For instance, for you to handle credit card payments, you need to comply with what is known as PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) . Once you have worked to get compliant, you can embed these badges for your consumers to see. The same can be said of SSL badges that are given when you buy SSL certificates from a trusted vendor.
Allow Transactions Without Forcing Users to Create Accounts
Many usability surveys have shown that consumers do not like creating accounts on websites. So you do not want them filling in lots of data before they can make a purchase and this is especially the case among first-time users who perhaps want to try out your business. Apple has a pretty good prototype you could follow-they allow customers to checkout as guests with customers signing up at the end of the process instead of doing so at the start.
That said, if you must have consumers create an account then try as much as possible to make it super easy and quick.
Allows Users to Fix Any Errors Fast
One of the most common problems we see on the web today is a bogus way to handle form errors. You must have seen those sites that want you to start filling in data again if you made an error when submitting your data. This sort of design would surely be very detrimental on your conversions thus you should try to avoid such mistakes in your form design.
You must also ensure that you alert the users whenever they make mistakes as they fill in their data. You should, however, avoid displaying error messages at the top of the page whereby users may need to scroll up to see their errors.
Think Proper Design
At the heart of every successful online business is a proper design and this includes the checkout pages. There are certain aspects you should keep in mind when designing your checkout pages. Here a few things to look into:
Brand Your Checkout Well
Your checkout should be branded consistently with your brand design. This includes things like colors, fonts, and design to make it easy for your consumers to recognize with your business. Users have grown skeptical of checkout pages that look different from the way the business looks fearing being duped. So, don’t leave consumers worrying about online scammers when checking out on your pages.
Don’t Distract Consumers
Customers have grown so impatient these days when it comes to tolerating distractions meaning that you do not want to test the attention span of your users by having distractions in your checkout pages. Long story short, you should not have things like ads on these pages whatsoever.
Clear Call to Actions
You should also have clear call to actions on your site so that you do not leave your customers guessing on where they should go next. Basically, your checkout buttons should be concise for users-a button with a text reading “Continue Shopping” is recommended than one reading “Continue”.
Final Remarks
Well, we have looked into some of the ways you can make it easy for your consumers to make purchases on your website. Now, the ball is in your court now-it’s time you put these tips into practice. Just keep in mind that this is a vital step if you are looking to increase conversions and subsequently increase your sales. Never underestimate the power of simplicity!
