Magento Checkout Customizations: 11 Intelligent Conversion Strategies (+ Product Page Tactics)

Check out threads on popular community threads and you’ll see merchants / developers saying Magento checkout customization is tough and unsustainable.

And we’re not surprised: even online stores that have an annual turnover of $1 billion record a 44% bad checkout experience.

But in our experience of working with several eCommerce stores that host on Magento, we’ve found some workarounds—we’ll share 11 of those checkout customizations here.

PLUS: a BONUS section on The Best Ideas to Boost Magento Product Page Sales

Checkout Customizations to Boost Magento Conversions

1. Eliminate unnecessary elements

Even a 1-second delay in loading time can result in a 7% conversion loss.

Here are some Magento checkout process customizations to retain only what’s necessary:

Delete not-in-use third party modules

First of all, they tend to be large and heavy - and if you’ve already been using in-built modules (unique to the platform) to access various functionalities within your eCommerce store, then you don’t need extra, outsourced ones.

Distribute your static content

Use a content delivery network (CDN) to upload static content from global servers. This reduces the distance between browsers and host servers thereby improving page load speed.

Stick to only frequently used payment modes

Stick to default options customers prefer paying through.

Ensure prompt final cost review

If you have too many price rules on, it may delay the final cost estimation. Analyze your price rules and keep only the ones that apply to the specific transaction.

Remember to:

Stay updated to the latest version of Magento at all times
Clear logs of unnecessary data by following this journey: Stores > Configuration > Advanced > System > Log
Uninstall irrelevant third-party extensions: Stores > Configurations > Advanced

2. Introduce a progress bar

Research says that out of 100 customers who initiate a checkout transaction, only 30 of them actually complete it.

So what really puts customers off? The answer is control.

Setting expectations right from the start helps customers take control of their journey. And a progress bar does just that.

Here are some Magento checkout process customizations to keep in mind when designing a progress bar:

Position them on top of the page right below the header
Allow customers to backtrack
Offer visual confirmation of progress
Make the progress bar show the same sections as the checkout page

When customers make it to Bath and Body Works' checkout page, they see this progress bar on top—the fact that it is coded to change color as a customer completes a step helps the checkout process:

Bath and Body Works progress bar - magento checkout page

3. Simplify checkout to reduce friction

Too many form fields, too many sections and too many pages can all lead to checkout abandonment on Magento.

Here are some checkout process customizations to implement to avoid that:

One-page checkout

You can easily choose a Magento one-page checkout option. There are several unique advantages to this option. Firstly, it works in steps hidden under accordion blocks. As customers finish a step, the next step opens. Moreover, you can also add steps of your choice to the existing list.

Do you sell virtual or downloadable products? Don’t worry, there’s an option to change the product type and remove the shipping feature for specific product types.

Here are some Magento checkout process customizations to implement - one-page checkout Magento

‍One-click checkout

One-click checkout creates a strong first impression on first customers by reducing checkout time to mere seconds. For repeat customers, you can choose the Instant Purchase module on the Magento store. This can save about 90% of their time.

Guest checkout

Magento goes over and above with their guest checkout option. Not only do they have a simple guest checkout feature, but they have an easy option to convert guest shoppers into registered ones. Once the customer has done purchasing, they automatically receive a password that converts them into registered customers.

4. Enable a one-account purchase through shopper network

The benefit for customers: a seamless checkout journey.

And here’s the best part: even if the merchant site and the site from where the shopper has purchased are different, then too the shopper can avail a single-account checkout.

Here’s how this Magento checkout process customization can work in your favor:

Greater checkout personalization

After creating an account on the shopper network, shoppers can personalize their checkout journey for all merchants in the network. New customers can save their login, payment, and shipping details when they shop for any merchant.

One sign-in for unlimited checkouts

Shoppers have to sign in once to enter the network. Post that, they don’t have to worry about any payment information, checkout forms, or passwords. They can check out with a single click, even if they haven't shopped before. There’s a guest checkout option as well, although one-time account creation can help in a faster Magento checkout process.

5. Offer checkout personalization with pre-filled fields

Auto-filled forms help shoppers save time and personalize their checkout journey without effort.

Here are some Magento checkout process customizations for forms:

Autofill related input fields

This can be the email id in the shipping as well as billing section, the customer name in the registration, billing, and shipping section, and the ZIP code in the shipping calculator as well as the shipping address section.

Autofill localized inputs

This can help avoid formatting errors such as writing the phone number in a different format. Again, using dropdowns for country selection can also help save time and effort.

Use the checkout autofill plugin on Magento

The API settings directly pick up the details and fill up the relevant checkout fields. It can reduce 40% of typing efforts for customers.

Here’s the plugin in action to configure for the Magento checkout page.

Address autofill on checkout - Here are some Magento checkout process customizations to implement

Further Reading: eCommerce Checkout Process Optimization

6. Offer last-minute promo codes

It’s always a good idea to offer promotions at checkout. If your customers are second-guessing their purchase, this may seal the deal.

To ensure you get the maximum conversion out of promo codes, you need to focus on two things: make the promotions easily visible and easy to apply.

Here are some Magento checkout process customizations around promotions:

Offer a one-click apply

Don’t force them to remember the code or copy-paste it. Instead mention the promo details and add an “Apply” CTA just like JCPenney does.

Auto-apply promo code as a Magento checkout customization

Add coupon code field to the checkout page

Place it near the order summary and ensure once a coupon promo is applied, the final price reflects the change.

Auto apply a promo code

This is really the best case scenario because it allows shoppers to not get vigilant about forgetting the promo code at checkout - to do this activate “auto apply” under Promotions in the admin panel.

7. Offer alternative payment options

The buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) habit of customers has been shaped a bit by the pandemic. The financial stress from outstanding credit card bills has made many shoppers take this route.

In fact, the eCommerce BNPL market is projected to become $57.8 billion by 2032.

‍‍Customers will be more encouraged to check out when a BNPL option is presented. Here are some Magento checkout process customizations to implement

Pay later in full after 30 days
Pay later in 3-4 equal, interest-free installments
Split large amounts into monthly installments (along with interest charges)

The Magento BNPL extension makes it easy for customers to opt for this payment mode and get payment reminder emails.

bnpl option in Magento checkout customization

8. Assure customers of payment security

Your store can face any of the following frauds:

Classic fraud (stealing of credit card details)
Triangulation fraud (involving a fraudster, a genuine shopper, and an eCommerce business)
Card validity testing fraud (use credit card details to make unauthorized purchases)
Digital payment fraud (unauthorized purchases on EMV standard (originally Europay, Mastercard, and Visa)

Adding a fraud detection tool to your Magento site can help detect anomalies and prevent them before the damage. Some of the common identifiers of fraud are:

Inconsistent information—for example, the zip code and IP address don’t match
Change in customer location in comparison to previous order locations
Multiple purchases from a single account but different shipping locations
Large number of purchases in a short span of time
Multiple payment declined updates

You can easily integrate a fraud prevention plugin on your Magento checkout page. It can help

Minimize fraud directly on the Magento site
Create custom blacklisting rules
Blacklist specific customers
Block fraudulent orders

9. Show the total order amount on the checkout page

Unexpected additional costs make customers hesitant to go ahead with the purchase and doubt the overall experience.

To solve this, here's a Magento checkout process customization to show the order summary:

Provide all the detailed information including shipping costs and taxes
Clearly mention the total amount that customers have to pay

Cabela’s mentions the order total in big and bold text so that it’s unmissable.

cabela’s order review Magento customization

Once you login to your Magento backend, you can follow this route - Stores > Settings > Configuration - to display and adjust the order total settings.

10. Introduce urgency for faster checkout

When your customers sense a lack of time, they’ll take action faster.

Here are some Magento checkout process customizations to implement urgency:

Time-based urgency - Tell users they have to check out in a fixed amount of time
Stock-based urgency - Display low product stock to encourage users to purchase
Limited-time discounts - Attractive offers and discounts that can be applied only within a short span of time

Rebellious features a last-minute “order before…” nudge to improve Magento checkout conversions:

checkout urgency eCommerce example from Rebellious

Further Reading: 15 scientific strategies to increase your eCommerce conversion rate (Updated for 2022)

11. Maintain only essential checkout fields

The average checkout form contains 11.8 fields. There’s scope for sites to reduce their form fields by 20-60%.

To ensure your shoppers complete checking out, you can implement these Magento customizations:

Use a single field for the name

Instead of breaking it up into first and last names, make it a single entity.

Do you really need their company?

Unless it’s an essential requirement for your brand, avoid it.

Keep a single line for the address

Many break the address into Address Line 1 and Address Line 2. It’s redundant and can be truncated to 1 line.

Allow option to use the same address for billing and shipping

Most shoppers have the same home address for both billing and shipping. Use a button to check Yes for using the same address for both.

At Argos, customers just need to enter the address once.

In the next step, they are asked to confirm their address.

Address details at checkout - Here are some Magento checkout process customizations to implement

BONUS: The 15 Best Ideas to Boost Magento Product Page Sales

There’s no doubt that Magento checkout page conversions are critical—but what really sets the stage is how well you can convince shoppers to convert on your product page(s).

1. Optimize the page layout design

In the Magento context, you’ll have to align your brand elements with the layout, the containers and the blocks. While the layout represents the overall structure of your product page, the containers are essentially the placeholders for the elements. The blocks represent the UI controls that are contained within the containers.

Factors that will definitely help you achieve a balanced product page layout are:

- A focal point for your page

A visual as a focal point is most easily recognized by audiences and offers a sturdy structure around which other elements can be placed.

- The rule of thirds to arrive at a visual balance

Basically, if you were to divide your Magento product page into thirds both vertically and horizontally, you’d be able to arrive at the focal points by looking at where the grid lines intersect.

- Visual hierarchy

For example, by effectively playing on scale, you could draw focus on an element of your choice. Or, by manipulating contrast, you could make an element stand out from the surrounding elements.

Pro Tip: Fall back on the typical eye scanning pattern to optimize your page layout—laying out info in the F pattern would help you engage more visitors, for a longer time!

2. Apply breadcrumb navigation to reduce bounce rate

Named after the breadcrumbs Hansel & Gretel kept dropping to find which way they came in the famous fairytale, breadcrumbs in the website design context do exactly the same. They link your users to related parts of your website.

eCommerce brand Asos uses breadcrumbs in their product pages.

Breadcrumb navigation is especially useful when you want your site to feature multiple key pages.

Naturally, the more Magento product pages you need to account for, the greater the application of breadcrumb navigation.

3. Introduce a sticky menu if it’s a long page

Magento product pages see more conversions when shoppers are able to access the primary navigation without a break—and this is why a sticky menu can be a great idea.

Sticky navigation enables longer product pages enriched with recommendations, reviews and social handles.

Introduce: A sticky add to cart panel with product name, price and editable quantity button to make your Magento product pages bring in higher conversions.

Wondering what can make sticky navigation work well for your Magento product detail pages? Here’s a comprehensive guide we’ve created on sticky navigation.

4. Use images that convey a lived experience

If we go by what an MIT study revealed, we would know that the human brain is able to identify images with an interaction lasting for only 13 milliseconds.

Here are a few best practices for a great product visual experience across your Magento product pages.

- Have multiple shots from different angles. The more the photography is able to capture what the product looks like from the sides, the top, the bottom, open and closed (like in the case of bags), the better.

- Shoot against a neutral backdrop to create contrast. Showcase the product features unapologetically so that users can decide quickly on a purchase.

- Pay special attention to lighting. This applies both for when the actual shoot happens as well as when the photo retouching takes place. The idea is to remain as truthful to the actual product visual specifics as possible.

Here’s a look at how Bellroy aces their product image(s) game:

Bellroy uses evocative images in their Magento product pages

5. Implement zoom in your image gallery

Given how users want a shopping experience as close to a brick-and-mortar one, the zoom feature can be a savior for your Magento product detail page images.

Effectively the zoom function, whether it’s in click more or hover mode, takes an image back to its base size, as opposed to actually zooming. Here’s a quick best practice checklist:

- Ensure your base image is larger than other product image templates.

- Opt for a zoom extension that works for your business case. Typically, a well-developed extension will offer multiple zoom options, offer you multiple configuration options and have specifically applicable zoom rules for separate categories and products.

Everlane uses a click-zoom to give its users more control around viewing product images.

Everlane uses the zoom function across their Magento product pages

- Stay away from low-res images for your mobile site. Many businesses end up making this mistake with the right intention - they want to speed up loading time. Instead you can look at lazy-loading images, where images don’t actually load until a user has scrolled to see them.

6. Display color swatches for better discovery

According to Baymard, “The color variations a product is offered in is a key purchasing decision for many users’ when shopping in industries such as apparel, home furnishings, and beauty.”

If we reconsider the 13 millisecond image identification statistic, we’ll realize why it’s more user-friendly to display color swatches than to simply mention “more colors available”.

- Avoid spacing the different swatches too close together. It could lead to usability issues, including misclicks.

- Assign a batch of images to every color swatch. This is especially true if in your images, the color swatch does not automatically change to reveal all the colors one by one (some sharp eCommerce brands achieve this swatch switch in their category pages).

Here’s an example from Nike.

Though there are two color options in this instance, the brand ensures there are enough images under both.

- Avoid truncating and providing a full list of swatches. In the following example from Crocs, truncating occurs on the category page. This is a bad idea because it makes it necessary for users to actually visit the product page, which they may not want to.

This is an absolute no-no on any of your Magento product pages.

Crocs truncated product variant information

7. Choose a descriptive YET simple product name

Wondering how to put this into practice across your Magento product pages?

- Align with user intent—which includes how they intend to use the product and how it will end up solving at least some of the user’s problems.

- Bring out the most important attributes—think color, flavor and material amongst other factors.

Here’s an example of how OnePlus does it.

- Do a copy spin on benefits—and make it a part of the product name to relay to users how the product will likely help them.

Consider the following example. The product name has the brand name, the key material but also the fact that it is “sliced” - an obvious advantage over a whole slab that would then need slicing.

8. Bullet product features for greater readability

What you’re essentially trying to do is to make the product specifics be sticky.

So bulleting them into quick takeaways is a good idea.

Here’s an example of how MVMT works with pointers to clarify the technical features and specifications of one of their watches.

However, along with this, they also ensure to feature a small passage that readers can get a gist of the product from.

Pro Tip: Along with factual pointers about your product, build a narrative that incites audience emotion—make your brand voice appeal to the shopper’s imagination like Bolthouse Farms does:

Bolthouse Farms creates a strong product narrative across their Magento product detail pages

9. Make video content creative AND constructive

Research has found that 74% who watch an explainer video have subsequently bought the product.

And this is why we’ll lay out a few quick product page video best practices that you may want to consider while designing your Magento website.

- Build interest and anticipation through unboxing. Unboxing satiates the curiosity of users and allows them to take a peek into what it may feel like doing the product reveal for themselves.

- Focus on bringing out the product highlights. Seeing the features of a product in action or having the benefits heard and understood while the product shots play, is a different experience altogether.

- Provide expert advice. If you’re a skin care brand, you could have a skin expert speak about applications of the product. Or let’s say you’re a fashion brand, and you could have an influencer guide users through color selection.

This is how Sony Playstation speaks directly to gaming enthusiasts on their Playstation 5 page.

Sony Playstation Magento product page video example

10. Ensure the price has high visibility

That includes original price, the discounted price and the % savings a shopper can potentially make on a Magento product detail page—here are a few things to consider:

- Highlight the price and place it beneath the product name. This is the only placement that offers shoppers instant context.

- Use a price spectrum while displaying multiple variations of the same product. What’s better, make it clear through effective UX that a user will know the applicable price by clicking on a specific selection.

Here’s how Next mentions a price spectrum.

Next offers high price visibility across their Magento product detail pages

- Mention bundle pricing versus individual pricing. Make it easily understood if the user will save a certain amount through bundle pricing.

Pro Tip: If you’re into international commerce, mention at what stage taxes / duties would be calculated—this frees up cognitive load and shoppers can focus on buying.

11. Use urgency nudges

Research proves that using urgency on product pages can lift revenue up by more than 27%.

Now, this can be game changing for your Magento product pages, as long as you know what works:

- Mention stock count (and make it dynamic). Color code this in red and your shoppers’ eyes will naturally take in this information faster than others.

- “X people are also viewing this product right now.” This is smart because even if it’s a slow moving product, browsers get a sense other people are still interested in it.

- Call out the number of units sold. Make it an image label and throw in a 🔥 emoji, and you’re all set!

12. Be transparent about shipping (& returns)

If you’re not upfront about how long it will take for you to get a product to the shopper’s doorstep, it might create apprehension.

And the consequence would be them either not adding to the cart or abandoning the cart altogether.

Casper is totally transparent about when the product ships—this is a tactic you can implement across your Magento product pages.

Patagonia, on the other hand, shared their understanding of the Covid-19 context while informing of shipping delays. This example made us think of how important language is when you’re trying to build transparency.

Pro Tip: Use short microcopy to call attention to your shipping, returns & exchanges policy—best to create a separate FAQ page on these topics.

13. Fetch recommendations through hyper-personalization

A 2023 survey revealed that 70% of retail businesses know for a fact that hyper-personalization will have a huge impact on them in 2024.

In a way, this is good news if you’re working with Magento product pages—here are a few suggestions:

- Feature a quiz—and fetch recommendations based on the answers you receive. Exactly what Vanity Planet does.

Vanity Planet product recommendation quiz steps

- Let shoppers customize—make it about quantity, variants, how often they’d like to order etc.

Wine Post applies this to great effect:

Wine Post customization panel for Magento product page conversions

14. Make wishlisting prominent

While major conversions may not always be possible across your Magento product pages, micro-conversions can.

That’s why the wishlist option is important—here’s an example from Natori, where the “add to wishlist” task is right beneath the “add to cart” button, making it easy to spot.

15. Create trust at every step

Given that you effectively have just 8 seconds to make your case in your Magento product page design, trust is a numero uno factor.

Here are the best ways to go about creating it:

- Use trust badges (& talk about certifications.) Incorporate more authentic badges that actually require you to earn certain certifications (like the SSL certification, the Google Trusted Store badge etc.)

- Enrich your reviews with media. Include photos and videos of customers using the product in question—and for good measure, offer a button that allows shoppers to turn on / turn off media.

- Offer a mix of reviews & ratings. Don’t skip on showing what’s not flattering!

Further reading: 30 Ways to Build Trust FAST (On Your eCommerce Store)

Ace UX to get those Magento conversions

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Why: user experience issues that cause friction for visitors.

And this is the problem ConvertCart solves.

We've helped 500+ eCommerce stores (in the US) improve user experience—and 2X their conversions.

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Magento Checkout Customizations: 11 Intelligent Conversion Strategies (+ Product Page Tactics)

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