With average cart abandonment rates falling anywhere between 55 and 72%, it’s no wonder checkout optimization is the number one concern for ecommerce marketers. But redesigns and A/B tests often fail to move the needle because they focus only on checkout design, and ignore the psychological reasons customers are abandoning their purchases. In this deck you will learn: *A systematic process for optimizing your website that addresses the FUD (fears, uncertainties and doubts) surrounding the purchase process *How to perform a heuristic evaluation on your checkout process for design and usability *Tips for breaking out of your testing rut

1. Maximizing Conversion
with Checkout Optimization
Linda Bustos
Director of Ecommerce Research
www.GetElastic.com
@getelastic

2. Avg cart abandonment
55-72%

4. Why customers abandon checkout

5. 44% Shipping/handling too high
41% Not ready to purchase
27% Wanted to compare prices
25% Price higher than desired
24% Want to save for later
The top 5 reasons are non-design / usability issues

6. 14% Didn’t want to register
12% Felt site was asking for TMI
11% Checkout too long/confusing
11% Website too slow
10% Not enough information
The next 5 reasons are design / usability issues

7. Conversion happens in the mind
Not on your web site
-Dr. Flint McGlaughlin

8. People will put up with bad process
To get something that’s indispensible

9. what’s your value
proposition?

10. Value Props in Cart pages

11. Include value propositions
In the cart summary
proximal to calls to action

12. dealing with FUD

13. “shipping and handling costs too high”

14. • “For whatever reason, a free shipping offer
that saves a customer $6.99 is more appealing
to many than a discount that cuts the
purchase price by $10.”
--David Bell, Wharton
School of Business

15. Cart abandonment spikes when
cart total is low and when shipping
charges are close to the cart total
It also spikes near the $100, possibly
due to the “triple digit” mark

16. Macy’s free shipping threshold
at $99 may be more persuasive
than $100

17. A “carrot” shows the dollar
amount remaining before
free shipping.
Placing it proximal to the
cart total may make it more
noticeable

18. “I was not ready to purchase the
product”

19. Saving cart contents save sales. Use
your web analytics days to purchase
report for ideal cookie length.

20. This call to action
reinforces urgency

21. Urgency

22. “I wanted to compare prices on other
sites”

23. again…what’s your
value
proposition?

24. “product price was higher than I was
willing to pay”

25. Promo code boxes encourage code
hunting.

26. coupon snipers

27. suppress coupon box
Showing coupon boxes only
when customer has been
referred by email/affiliate is
one solution

29. “just wanted to save products in my
cart for later consideration”

30. Remarketing emails:
Optimize them like
landing pages

31. Use incentives wisely (not
the first time / not every
time)

32. “shipping and handling costs were
listed too late during the checkout
process”

33. 59% expect “total cost” before checkout -OneUpWeb

34. “I didn’t want to register with the site”

35. 23% of shoppers will abandon checkout if forced to
Register –Forrester Research

36. users don’t read instructions
may start typing in open fields

37. ditto for returning customers

38. Captures the email
address in first step for
remarketing, one form
for all customers
The “Amazon”
way

39. “site was asking too much
information”

40. save unnecessary marketing segmentation
auestions for a post-conversion survey

41. “checkout process was too long or
confusing”

42. user
testing

46. heuristic
evaluation

47. calls-to-action

48. CTA clarity, styling
and placement

49. Competing
CTAs

50. CTA outside of
eye path

51. CTA labels matter

52. Point of action
assurances
proximal to CTA

53. form usability

54. Label
alignment
Localization
tools
Required
field
format
Tabbability
Flexible
inputs
Tooltips and
instructions

55. Time savers
Dropdown
menus
Call to
action
(not
this)
Unnecessary
fields

56. Visual
CVV explanation

57. Clear error
handling (not
this)

58. Not this

59. Inline
validation

60. inline validation
• 22% increase in success rates
• 22% decrease in errors made
• 31% increase in satisfaction rating
• 42% decrease in completion times
• 47% decrease in the number of eye fixations
(easier to visually process)
– Source: Etre / Luke Wroblewski

61. Browser test

62. split path testing
Reducing steps may work, but don’t test shortened processes
until you optimize the elements within the steps

63. Olympic Store
improved checkout
by 22%, but results
may vary
one page checkout

64. “Web site was too slow”

65. Test site speed all the way through your funnel,
not just the home page!

66. slow speed culprits
• Table based layout
• Uncompressed images
• Payment gateway
– Magnified on slow-band connections, mobile/WIFI, overseas

67. “I didn’t have enough information to
make the purchase”

68. proactive chat

69. challenges to moving the needle

70. • Testing the minutiae
• Starting with multivariate (or using A/B testing
like multivariate)
• Focusing on site elements rather than
psychology

71. interpreting test results

72. example: should you show cross-sells
on the cart page?

74. • What are you measuring? Conversion rate or
profit?
• How were they presented? Above below fold?
Labeled?
• Did you use the correct price points? What
were the merchandising rules?

75. Positive or negative results depend on how well
you’ve nailed it with the treatment design
What might be influencing your
analysis?

76. takeaway
• Optimization starts with in-head factors, not
on-page factors
• Form your testing hypothesis with user testing
first, then heuristics
• Start with radical redesigns and work from
there
• Interpret test results wisely

77. thank you!
www.getelastic.com