Modupe Gbadeyanka
By Adeniyi Ogunfowoke
Making it as easy as possible for your customers to pay is essential for increasing conversions and sales. This is why your checkout page is critical. It’s the final stop for people shopping on an eCommerce website. It’s the place where they hand over their card information and finally part with their hard-earned cash. Here is how to make online payment easy for your customers.
Provide a variety of payment methods
It sounds obvious, but there are websites that offer only one payment method. This is not good as customers expect a variety of payment options on the checkout page. While it’s not necessary to offer every conceivable payment method available, you’ll want to take a look at your target audience to see which payment methods they use. Payment options may include bank transfer, card payment and of course payment on delivery.
Ask for essential information only
You want to limit the amount of information you request to the essentials! Nothing kills the morale of your customers more than having to fill out a form with information that’s not necessary for making a purchase. And adding a long list of fields to fill out adds more hurdles for people to jump over in order to pay you.
Keep distractions to a minimum
It probably goes without saying, but your checkout page is the end of the sales cycle. It’s the final step. And in an era when people have very short attention, you don’t want anything to distract them from completing the checkout process. And that means, under no circumstances, should you put up any advertisements. Your objective here is to see people through to making the final payment.
Have clear calls to action
Don’t leave people guessing what to do next! When someone adds an item to their basket, make it clear they can “Continue to checkout” or “Continue Shopping.” The idea is to make it specific and avoid being ambiguous with CTAs like “Continue,” “Checkout,” or “Apply.”
Make errors easy to fix
It’s a given that people make mistakes. Sometimes someone may omit “@” in their email address. In any case, your task here is to point out the error and get them to correct it.
