Is your online checkout ready for the Golden Quarter? 5 steps for retailers to increase conversions
5 steps for retailers to increase conversions during the peak-shopping season
It’s that time of year again.
Retailers across the country are preparing for a season of sales, Christmas shopping and general good cheer. But, as your sales volume picks up, so do the challenges. Busy periods mean high pressure on resources and a rise in shopper frustrations.
Your sales funnel will be running at full capacity, and your online checkout must be up to scratch. It is the moment of truth, which can make or break not just a sale, but your relationship with a shopper. Get it right, and you may win a loyal customer for life; get it wrong and you may never see them again.
45% of Brits abandon purchases because of payment issues, an issue which impacts 85% of retailers. So you will gain a strong competitive edge if you make buying easy.
Here are some improvements you can make now, which will stand you in good stead as the season ramps up.
Step 1: Kill the redirects The redirect is a conversion killer. It slows down the process, confuses shoppers, and adds unnecessary complexity. This is especially true on mobile, when load-times, or (worse) timeouts can exasperate a shopper.
Instead, host the whole payment flow on your site. This is possible by embedding hosted payment fields into your checkout page. In that way the shopper stays on your site, but the sensitive payment data is captured and stored by your payment provider – so you don’t have to worry about PCI compliance.
And, since everything takes place in your environment, you can use conversion analytics and A/B testing tools to make sure the process is optimal.
Step 2: Offer the right payment methods
Payment methods are evolving fast. And, whether your shopper wants to pay with a credit card, PayPal, or Apple Pay, it is important to accommodate them. In fact, 25% of U.K. shoppers have abandoned a purchase because their favorite payment method wasn’t supported.
And, of course, if you sell to shoppers across Europe and beyond, it is important to support local payment methods. You will lose sales if you don’t support iDEAL in the Netherlands, Giropay in Germany and Alipay or WeChat Pay in China.
The best approach is to tailor the payment options to each shopper, based on their location, basket value, and device. You can do this in real-time, and each shopper gets a customized checkout experience.
Step 3: Optimize for mobile
In the UK, mobile accounts for 57% of online payments (on the Adyen platform). You’re missing a trick if you don’t assume a high proportion of your shoppers are buying from their smartphone. Importantly, average transaction values on mobile devices are on the rise. They have climbed to over £50 on the iPhone, and as high as £85 on the iPad, making it an increasingly relevant channel for retail. Design your checkout mobile-first, minimizing the fields required and the number of steps to take. Make data input easy, with large buttons and clean layouts.
Step 4: Reward loyalty with less friction
We all hate entering in payment details; it is the least fun part of shopping. So reward repeat shoppers with a fast-track checkout, completed with a single click (or tap). A good method is to offer your first-time customer the chance to save details for future purchases, which can then be authenticated with a password, CVV or fingerprint.
With technology like Tokenization, this is easy. Your payment provider captures the payment details at the first purchase, then issues you with an encrypted token, which you can then use to charge future purchases. In this way, your shopper can speed through the process, and you don’t have to worry about storing sensitive card data on your servers.
Step 5: Find the right balance with your risk settings
As ever, fraud is evolving fast, and retailers relying on traditional fraud defense techniques are suffering. This is because fraudsters have got good at separating the act of validating data, and the act of using the card to make a fraudulent purchase, so velocity checks aren’t enough anymore.
It is crucial to focus on systems, rules, and infrastructure that can quickly identify and respond to emerging trends, without the need for manual intervention – especially in peak periods, when you’re running at full capacity.
This is now easier for retailers thanks to risk solutions that use data and machine-learning to identify and block fraud before it happens, while your legitimate shoppers enjoy a smooth checkout experience.
Discover what shoppers want in the Adyen 2017 UK Retail Report
From poor payment experiences to security concerns, long checkout queues, and high delivery costs – there are many elements of the shopping experience that can disenchant the British shopper.
But there is also a lot to love about shopping in the U.K., from a great in-store experience to the convenience of shopping from your sofa. Successful retailers are harnessing the strengths of each sales channel to delight shoppers – no matter where, how or when they choose to buy.
To learn more about what makes British shoppers tick, download the full report: [Get your copy now]
