How do I increase my website’s checkout rate? (26 proven ideas)

69% of all eCommerce visitors abandon their shopping cart.

Why?

The reasons range from lengthy checkout process to not trusting the website with their payment information.

With the average checkout conversion rate stuck at 2.12% and a decrease in spending by shoppers, online stores are struggling to make the most out of every shopper.

In this article, we'll uncover:

Proven examples of how to increase your website checkout rate and boost sales

Checkout page mistakes to avoid

Some quick FAQs

26 Proven Ideas to Increase your Website Checkout Rate

1. Introduce a progress bar

If you ask us, we’ll say a progress bar is an absolute must for a multi-page checkout scenario. 

A free shipping progress bar with a clever copy can help shoppers to make decisions that increase AOV and improve the website's checkout rate.

2. Implement guest checkout (but don’t miss out on collecting info) 

Sometimes customers want to make a quick purchase. 

These could be first-time customers who got directed from ad campaigns—and you don’t want to turn them away by asking to make a profile before purchase.

Therefore, offer guest checkout.

However, we do get that at some point you’d want your customers to sign up. 

See how Crate & Barrel collects customer information post purchase.

Looking for more inspiration? Read 25 Stunning Examples of Checkout Pages

3. Make it easy to review and edit changes 

After adding products to cart, it's important to give customers the flexibility to change their mind and remove items from the cart. 

Here’s how Etsy makes reviewing and editing changes super easy on their checkout page.  

Look at it as the final stop before they part with their money, which means the more you put them in control, the more they’re likely to convert. 

4. Use the “auto” features

The customer is in a hurry, and would like to make the least amount of effort to get the ball rolling. 

See how JC Penny auto-applies discount code at checkout to improve user experience.

Furthermore, auto-fill becomes especially relevant for the address fields - saving time in filling out an associated form and contributing towards a faster checkout process. 

5. Opt for a single-page checkout

A single or a multi-page checkout? The jury’s out on this one.

For some businesses, a single-page checkout proves better. For others, the multi-step checkout seems the way to go.

A furniture retailer with a high AOV saw a 38% hike in conversions from the multi-page checkout compared to the single-page.

On the other hand, the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Store changed its multi-step layout to single-page and saw a 21.8% hike in conversions.

We love The Shoe Company's one page checkout page:

Loved what you just read? Check out The Best One-Page Checkout Examples in eCommerce

6. Show a cost summary

Customers don’t like surprises at the checkout page other than discounts. 

They wouldn’t mind being reminded of the total price they’re about to pay including the subtotal, applicable taxes, surcharges, delivery cost, and the final cart value.

If you include extra costs right before the checkout, customers will drop off, causing a decline in conversions. 

See how the checkout page shows the entire breakdown when a customer is filling out their shipping details.

7. Set up a neat FAQ section or visible link

Shoppers might hesitate before purchasing a product especially if it's high-ticket product or if the product requires extra care.

That's where a FAQ section is useful. You can choose to showcase a FAQ content block section at the bottom like the example below:

8. Offer secure capturing of payment info (for repeat customers)

The checkout stage is tricky because here’s where people want to make the process fast - but also want to take care parting with their financial information. 

Plus, payment info hacking is a very real concern that your eCommerce stores need to negotiate at this stage. 

While securing payments and related info, here are a few ways to do so:

• Use tokenization to avoid revealing a card’s PAN and instead generating a unique thread of numbers to finalize the payment
• Ensure fraud protection
• Implement third-party secure payment forms
• Make encrypted payments mandatory

For repeat customers, the checkout experience becomes more valuable when you give them the option of saving a payment method.

When they return the next time, they can just use this method to automatically pay up without filling details all over again. 

9. Set up gifting options

When customers are shopping for others or a special occasion, offering a gift wrapping option can make it convenient.

See how Nordstrom how does it to improve their website's checkout rate:

They offer a gift box, tissue paper, ribbon, and a tag in their ‘Gift Kit’ worth $2. No gift wrapping is offered. 

The other option offers gift wrapping but is chargeable.

10. Tell them that loyalty counts 

It’s all very well that you have a loyalty program loved by many. 

You’ve also done all the right things by featuring it on your homepage, category pages and product pages. 

But if you don’t feature how a potential customer can enjoy its advantages right before they buy, you’re missing out on a BIG opportunity.  

Just make the small tweak of featuring how many points or what kind of rewards they’ll earn on their checkout page. See how to do it:

11. Subtle recommendations (not more than one)

Retailers have seen enough of Amazon’s cross-selling examples, including “Frequently bought together” and “Customers also like” invites.

However, like many online stores, you might recommend on product pages.

Here's how you can add product recommendations on the checkout page without being too pushy:

12. Engage with them right after checkout 

There's no better time to engage with a customer than immediately after they've checked out.

Why? They’re still in the zone where your brand is on the top of their mind.

And that’s why they can be a GREAT lead to build on with upsell, downsell, and cross-sell strategies.

See how M&S engages with a loyalty card and even a discount code for guest checkouts.

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And this makes the customer look forward to shopping again.

13. Set up gifting options

When customers are shopping for others or a special occasion, offering a gift wrapping option can make it convenient.

See how Nordstrom how does it to improve their website's checkout rate:

They offer a gift box, tissue paper, ribbon, and a tag in their ‘Gift Kit’ worth $2. No gift wrapping is offered. 

The other option offers gift wrapping but is chargeable.

14. Tell them that loyalty counts 

It’s all very well that you have a loyalty program loved by many. 

You’ve also done all the right things by featuring it on your homepage, category pages and product pages. 

But if you don’t feature how a potential customer can enjoy its advantages right before they buy, you’re missing out on a BIG opportunity.  

Just make the small tweak of featuring how many points or what kind of rewards they’ll earn on their checkout page. See how to do it:

15. Feature varied payment options

A report shows that 56% of shoppers believe a website should provide a variety of payment methods during checkout.

For instance, if a credit card offers them reward points or airline miles, they’d want to use it every time they make a purchase online. 

Giving them an option to do so would mean they won’t migrate to your competitors’ site.

See how Natori does it on their eCommerce checkout page:

Furthermore, Visa and MasterCard are no longer the only options there.

Customers want to make a payment through PayPal, UPI, and Apple Pay because it offers them convenience (and maybe some cashback or reward points?).

16. Highlight the delivery date 

The second most-important factor when checking out online is providing the estimated delivery date early in the process.

You want to ensure the customer is in the know, every single time. It subtly builds brand trust. 

Providing an estimated or guaranteed delivery date will tell them when they can expect the order, fulfilling their need for assurances.

See how Lululemon offers delivery options to improve website checkout rates:

17. Offer samples

Sampling has been customer-favourite strategy for decades.

For beauty brands, samples can let customers use the product for short period of time and if they are satisfied come back to buy the product.

See how eCommerce stores can select samples as well:

18. Display social proof

Social proof is a big reason why people believe in eCommerce brands and their products.

Sprinkle them across your high-intent pages and most likely, you’ll have a number of potential customers see why your brand should be their choice.

Here’s an example of what it can look like:

19. Use trust badges 

Adding security badges on the checkout page will boost customer trust and address worries around transacting online.

Let’s admit it - online fraud is still very real. 

In fact, from a mere $9.84 billion in 2011, global payments fraud shot up to $32.39 billion in 2020. 

So, the checkout page does seem like point in the customer’s purchase journey, where a subtle safety assurance can be helpful in securing the customer’s peace of mind. 

Trust seals like McAfee, Norton, and e-trust badges signify a checkout process is secure and can be trusted.

20. Make customer support information self-evident

The checkout page may make it look like you’ve won over a customer - but cart abandonment rates have a different story to tell. 

First of all, 69% of online carts are abandoned by existing customers. 

This is concerning because most businesses would probably believe that people who have never transacted with their brands would jump off. 

To lessen this probability, it’s a good idea to bring in the idea of customer support into this page. 

The idea is to have customers believe they can still reach out for help without needing to go back in the funnel. 

21. Make the live chat button SUPER visible

As the customer makes the critical decision of going ahead with the purchase, they may need a little more support without having to go back. 

The live chat option also makes more immediate challenges have a way of getting resolved - unlike a toll free number (which relies on connection, time zone etc.) and email. 

22. Bring mobile responsiveness into the design

And that’s because you’ll need to account for all those people who would want to transact with your business through their mobile phones. 

Here are a few aspects that makes a checkout page mobile responsive:

• Designed for touch (therefore taps) and NOT clicks

• The checkout process is broken down into multiple short pages (ideally, with a progress bar visible)

• Essential graphics like logos and trust badges hosted on CDN

• CTA buttons with slight gradients (to make them appear more tappable

24. Feature HD images (of thumbnail/icon size)

If the product page is about the decision to add items to the cart, the checkout page is about deciding whether one wants to go ahead with paying. 

Hence, from a UX standpoint, it’s a good idea to offer customers visual cues of what they are about to spend on. 

However, because space and other priorities like address & payment are to be considered during checkout, thumbnail versions of high quality images are ideal. 

26. Make the live chat button SUPER visible

As the customer makes the critical decision of going ahead with the purchase, they may need a little more support without having to go back. 

The live chat option also makes more immediate challenges have a way of getting resolved - unlike a toll free number (which relies on connection, time zone etc.) and email. 

8 checkout page mistakes to avoid

1. Product recommendation engines throwing up highly flawed results

By now, we all know how powerful product recommendations are. 

Now this is a good enough reason to make product suggestions to customers at checkout. 

However, you’ll have to keep a lookout for your product recommendation engines NOT DOING what they’re supposed to: suggest products that are in line with a customer’s behavior and preferences. 

Consider the massive recommendation mistake Amazon once made and as a result, came under considerable flak:

That of recommending a backpack with a knife. 

Flawed recommendations can have far-reaching effects including:

• Product returns
• Low conversions 
• Lower AOV
• Checkout abandonment
• Loss of brand equity 
• Bad word of mouth publicity leading to permanent customer loss

2. Offering too many recommendations leading to choice paralysis 

It’s tempting to think customers will be instantly taken in by the recommendations you offer on the checkout page. 

The truth is this:

No matter how relevant the recommendations your product engines fetch, too many of them can create a disruptive effect on the checkout process. 

In fact, if you go by Hick’s Law, it becomes clear that a plethora of choices has a direct impact on how much time someone needs to reach a decision. 

What you can do instead:

Use the rule of three and come up with only three relevant recommendations on the checkout page. 

Ensure to highlight one of the choices as “fast selling” or “top favorite” to drive the social proof angle subtly. 

Here’s an example:

3. Depending too much on the discount trope (but ignoring buyer identity) 

Discounts are of no point, no shopper ever said. 

But when an eCommerce business depends on them solely to influence customers to stay on through the entire checkout process, that’s bad news. 

What we’re trying to highlight here is that buyer identity is as important and if your checkout design & flow don’t align with this, then a discount might be of no use. 

In order to optimize your checkout page based on buyer identity, reflect on the following:

• Is the customer a return customer and has already saved their personal information before?

• Do they have a history of interacting with product recommendations?

• Do they qualify for an automatic discount? 

• Are they from a different location from that of the regional location of your business/brand?

• Does their profile match with those who have a habit of going through customer reviews?

Once you have clarity, then you can bring in optimizations to your checkout that will enhance UX instead of just highlighting a price benefit. 

4. Not making assisted shopping a priority 

Okay, let’s say you’ve done everything perfectly on your checkout page and think customers should be able to find their way towards payment. 

In working with over 500 clients across the world, we’ve noticed that it’s not always possible to predict what questions or challenges a client would face. 

This is where assisted shopping can take out the doubt from the big picture. 

Introducing assisted shopping through a detailed FAQ page link (highlighted amply), a live chat feature and toll free helpline number can be a real value-add. 

Ensure the icon, link or section is instantly accessible to the customer checking out – any guesswork on the part of the buyer will beat the purpose. ‍

5. Fixing on one language to cater to all customers 

Though English is the most used language in eCommerce across the world, it goes against UX to assume all your customers will understand it perfectly. 

This is just an example to describe why any eCommerce business needs to work towards featuring multiple languages on their checkout page. 

One way is of course to have customers choose their language of preference. 

But the more effective approach is to leverage geolocation and pick up the customer’s location automatically to show the right language. 

To avoid this kind of last minute language switch, many stores prefer to set their language preferences in a way that they reflect right from the homepage. 

Fresh pet food brand Butternut Box, for example, enables updation of both region & language settings. (You too can do the same based on which regions you would be catering to.)

6. Hiding charges that buyers need to know to make an informed choice 

Baymard Institute’s collected and studied data reveals that 16% of the respondents abandoned the checkout process because they couldn’t see the total cost upfront. 

The way out of this mistake is to start showing the customer associated additional costs the moment they add a product to cart. 

And since an additional fee like shipping is usually dependent on the location a product is being sent to, declare it up front by stating “shipping will be calculated based on location.”

Even if there’s an applicable discount, make sure you make your cost summary sensitive to price updations on the checkout page – so that when the discount is applied, the customer has a clear view of how the price has changed. 

Here’s an example of a detailed price breakdown on a checkout page. 

7. Cross-selling & upselling products that are beyond the buyer’s preferred price points 

The relevancy of product recommendations doesn’t just depend on the kind of products the recommendation engines show up. 

It also depends on the effectiveness of the pricing of the products that get displayed. 

If the product recommendations on your checkout page carry price points that are beyond the customer’s spending habits and behavior, then something’s amiss. 

You’ll need to look into scenarios where the product recommendations carry prices that are beyond 10%-50% of the customer’s budget. 

This will increase the probability of them giving the recommendations a cold shoulder or even being put off by the entire purchase. 

8. Not showing prices in local currencies to international buyers 

How easily a customer can pay up and close a purchase says a lot about a checkout flow. 

So if the one in your eCommerce store makes it necessary for customers to stop and calculate the quoted price in their own currency, you’ll have to change it. 

Quite obviously, in a multi-currency situation, the business’ settlement currency (the one used by your bank) does not match the presentment currency (the one used by the customer to pay up). 

Most eCommerce platforms allow you to make changes either to the API or the dashboard to create multi-currency preferences.

Some Quick FAQs

1. Why do shoppers abandon shopping carts?

2. What is a good add-to-cart rate?

Most eCommerce stores have an average add-to-cart rate of about 5%.

A favorable range is between 10.7% (best-performing) and 1.8% (worst-performing).

Some common problems with low add-to-cart rates include:

• Pricing (transparency is of utmost importance here)
• Images (best to have quality product photos!)
• Returns (most customers need easy returns from eCommerce brands)
• Delivery (best to have a range of options)
• Payment (look into EMI options and PayPal checkout)

3. What is a good checkout rate?

The average checkout completion rate (i.e. the % of checkouts that result in a purchase) is 47.0%.

Anything above 62.6% puts you in the top 20% of eCommerce stores.

Anything below 30% puts you in the bottom 20%.

What does this mean?

If your checkout completion rate is above 62.6%, your checkout is quick, smooth, and efficient.

Customers aren’t put off by your checkout process, and you can focus on the rest of the website.

However, if your checkout completion rate is less than 30%, you may have to allot your resources to improve (and optimize) your checkout.

You should look at stuff like payment options, delivery & return policy, number of form fields, etc.

4. How do I generate higher cart value with each transaction?

Simply put, increasing the cart value with each transaction comes from a careful balance between customer retention and upselling.

Here’s how you achieve that:

• Use 404’s to display compatible alternatives & upgrade the deal

• Offer a minimum value threshold for free shipping

• Display alternative products with better ratings

• Use pop-ups to offer a limited-time offer on an upsell

• Offer regular customers access to exclusive deals and upgrades

• Have complementary cross-sell features for bestselling products & services

5. How do I optimize my checkout page?

The checkout page is a crucial final step. Don’t overcomplicate it; instead, optimize it as the final nudge.

• Be upfront with all costs (hidden fees are a big no-no

• Help customers update their carts right from the checkout page

• Offer Subscribe & Save options

• Be upfront about delivery timelines

• Use the checkout page to cross-sell (& upsell)

• Maintain urgency in getting customers to checkout

Use the checkout page to not only close a deal but also keep customers coming back for more.

6. How can I simplify the checkout process?

When it comes to Checkout, customers want to be able to do it without having to think too much. The easier it is, the more likely they are to finish the process.

Here are some quick things you can do to simplify your checkout:

• Simplify your forms (3 - 5 form fields are ideal)

• Enable autofill & autocomplete options for quick checkout

• Look into guest checkout (& PayPal checkout)

• Keep promo codes at easy access

7. What makes a good checkout page?

A checkout page is one of the most critical parts of your eCommerce store.

It is where a visitor typically finishes their shopping experience; the final nudge in the deal, if you will.

Here are a few elements of a high-converting checkout page:

• An aesthetically pleasing layout

• Quick & efficient checkout processes

• Editable cart (and cross-sell nudges)

• Upfront details on delivery & payment options

• Trust seals and reviews, if needed

• Company policy prominently displayed

• Customer care details & work hours

That said, it's important to not only have an efficient checkout page but an optimized checkout flow.

A good checkout flow is one that makes customers feel confident and safe, making them more likely to buy if they've shopped on the site before.

8. How do you design an eCommerce checkout flow that converts?

A well-designed checkout flow can make a big difference in conversion rates. 

There are a lot of things to consider when designing your eCommerce checkout flow: user experience, product selection flow, add-to-cart button, and more.

It’s also important to consider the experience for mobile and ensure that 79% of mobile-using customers are catered to.

Here are some ways to optimize the eCommerce checkout flow:

• Authenticate payment details promptly

• Simplify navigation (bring in breadcrumbs to keep track)

• Nudge customers to the final step (field labels & inline hints go a long way)

• Enable one-page checkout for a quicker process at the end

9. How do I get more add-to-cart?

Let’s answer this with another question: What would make customers want to buy from YOU?

What’s unique?

That’s exactly what you need to highlight.

You need to showcase what sets you apart from your competition.

This can be through witty copy, excellent images, or a truly unique value proposition.

It can also be through an efficient website, super smooth UI, and quick checkout options. 

Another great way to increase your add-to-cart rate is by highlighting your community.

Make social media a big part of your content strategy; put reviews in easily accessible areas of your website; and have fun with your community.

10. Why do people initiate checkout but not purchase?

It's important to remember that checkout abandonment isn't "evil", but rather an accurate reflection of human nature on the digital web.

Let us explain.

Most people initiate checkout but don't complete the purchase because:

• They see too many options (and get overwhelmed)

• The checkout is too complicated (and they don't have as much time to spend on it

• They see an error message (that they can't seem to make sense of)

• Something set them off (maybe it was the design or some copy you've used)

• They don't feel strongly enough about the purchase (and don't feel a need to go ahead with it)

• Or simply, they got distracted and forgot about it

Most reasons: human. Appeal to the human nature of your business and you're more likely to find solutions here.

11. Why is the checkout process so important?

The checkout process is one of the most important parts of eCommerce because it determines whether a buyer will convert (or purchase) — and we all know revenue runs the game.

If you're an eCommerce store owner, then your checkout process is probably the most important part of your site.

It's the part of your website where customers make the final decision, choose to spend their money on your products, and determine whether they’re getting enough value and would like to associate with your brand again.

The explanation is simple — a positive experience on the checkout page can have a huge impact on whether or not people return to shop again.

One Last Word

Your eCommerce checkout flow can become a solid reason for either lost customers or skyrocketing conversions. Of course, you’d want it to be the latter.

Work from reverse, i.e. optimizing the checkout flow to get the most bang for your buck. Make the checkout breezy for the customers and the conversions will soar in no time.