Beware of Checkout Conversion Killers

Most online businesses are obsessed with traffic generating strategies (like SEO, content marketing, social media, etc,), but they completely ignore their site’s conversion rate. Website traffic may generate sales, but conversion rates ultimately determine a business’s overall profitability. Even fairly basic errors can be costly for an online business and conversion killers can drive away customers & steal revenue without you even realizing it. To prevent this, online businesses should try to avoid these 4 common checkout conversion killers.

1. Slow Load Times
Research has shown that 57% of shopping carts are abandoned if a page load time is 3 seconds or longer, and more importantly, 80% of those shoppers will never return. Likewise, according to KISSmetrics, even a one-second page delay can cost your online business millions in sales per year. Shopping cart speed not only affects a shopper’s current visit, but future visits as well. Almost 50% of online shoppers say that when a checkout page takes too long to load, they worry about the success of the transaction (i.e. Were they billed more than once?). In fact, 46% of online shoppers cite checkout speed as the number one factor that determines whether or not they will return to a site.

2. Perceived Risks
Ultimately, online shoppers will only convert if they feel your site can be trusted. It is essential for an online business to protect their site, and more importantly, their customers’ sensitive information. Two of the most important features of a shopping cart are security and privacy because they are the two areas most online shoppers are concerned with. If your site lacks visual cues that indicate your website is secure, you run the risk of shoppers feeling uncomfortable and unsafe when making a purchase. Visuals such as security icons, locks, badges, certificates, and even credit card symbols can all help reinforce that a checkout is risk-free.

3. Limited Payment Methods
Online shoppers like to have options and control over which payment method they use. And online businesses that do not offer multiple payment methods risk losing potential sales once shoppers reach the checkout page. In a study done by a UK-based Internet marketing firm, 50% of online shoppers stated they would abandon their purchase if their preferred payment method was not available at checkout. The last thing an online business wants is for a customer to get all the way to checkout and decide not to proceed due to the lack of payment options available. Offering multiple payment options can also make businesses look more professional and trustworthy.

4. Indistinct Shopping Cart Button
It is surprising how often interested shoppers browse online stores, pick an item, add it to their cart, and forget all about it after 15-20 minutes. Typically, the fault usually does not lie with the customer but rather with the lack of emphasize on a shopping cart button. It should be 100% obvious to any online shopper on your site that they’ve put something in their cart. Creating a small animation or a popup that displays a cart’s content and a call-to-action can make any potential purchase unmissable.

Conversion killers can potentially suppress online sales by 50% or more. Don’t make the mistake of focusing too much time on driving traffic to your site and ignoring conversion rates. Focus on eliminating these checkout conversion killers and you will see an increase in the profitability of all your website traffic.

Partnering with a trusted and well established e-commerce company, like BMT Micro, can also save an online business the time and hassle of dealing with checkout conversion killers. For example, setting up multiple payment methods usually involves a long and complicated process of compliance with banks. We can handle all of your payment processing over our secure sites and offer your customers many different payment methods to help increase sales and reduce cart abandonment. We can provide shopping carts with highly customized programming depending on your specific requirements. Furthermore, all BMT Micro servers are fully secured and host all shopping carts using the highest encryption standards available so there is no need to worry about the expense of a secure certificate. If your business wants to start preventing checkout conversion killers or you are interested in learning more about BMT Micro’s services please feel free to contact our vendor services by email at vendors@bmtmicro.com.