Best Services to Offer at Your Online Checkout
By TOI Staff April 30, 2023 Update on : April 30, 2023
You have spent time and effort setting up your online business. Getting ready to trade can be a long process, from finding a great name to sourcing products and sorting out your USP. In addition, you have probably expended a good deal of effort sorting out your marketing. To succeed with an online business, you must get people to visit your site. Consideration has to be given to keywords for search engine optimisation (SEO), listings and climbing the ranks in Google searches. Social media posts also play a vital role in getting your website noticed, as do PR, word of mouth and reviews.
However, no matter how great your website is and no matter how many people come and browse your store, if you do not manage to convert lookers to buyers, you will not remain in business for very long. Well, that is unless you have backers with very long pockets! Therefore, in all your planning, you need to consider what options will be available to buyers at the checkout on your e-commerce site. You have to create something that is very easy to use and that the customer feels is secure.
A recent report by Statistica indicates that the mobile device cart abandonment rate in the UK is as high as 80%. On tablets, it is 73% and on computers, 70%. So getting people over the line to complete their purchase is one of the biggest challenges any seller faces.
One of the biggest reasons people abandon their shopping is that the shipping cost is not clear upfront. People get to check out and discover what it will cost to have their parcel delivered and give up. It is essential to be upfront about delivery costs. Try to keep them as low as possible; ideally, free shipping is what everyone wants. However, if you are in a price-competitive market, it can be tempting to advertise lower headline prices and load the discounts into higher shipping costs. Unfortunately, shoppers now understand how this works. They will hop off your site and onto the competition to see if they can get a better price.
Another primary reason people do not complete their purchases is that the site does not have the payment method they like to use. If you are paying on a small screen, entering card numbers on a small screen can be challenging. In addition, having to get out a card to confirm the CVC number and expiry date can kill the spontaneous nature of a purchase. On top of this, many people connect on public WIFI networks when out and about, so there is also a question of payment security.
Therefore, an excellent service to offer at checkout is PayPal. It may take you a bit more effort to provide this payment method, but the benefits will pay off in no time. PayPal is one of the biggest names in online payment processing. It is a trusted brand and will add credibility to your store. In addition, customers do not have to share any sensitive financial data and can use their email address to complete the purchase.
PayPal is one of the fastest payment providers out there. The movement of money between buyer and seller is almost instantaneous. You do not have to wait days for a card processor to send settled funds to your account. This is one of the reasons why PayPal is popular at a fastest payout casino like LeoVegas – punters can collect their winnings without having to wait around. It will be the same for your shop if you offer PayPal.
Taking PayPal also means customers can opt for a buy now, pay later option. In addition, PayPal offers both PayPal Pay Later and PayPal Credit, which allow people to pay in instalments.
Another service to offer at checkout is a loyalty scheme. Customers like to feel your website offers something special just for them. You could either do your own version, like organic fashion retailer Lucy and Yak (who also offer a buyback scheme) or join a more generic system such as Honey Gold.