Why We Still Love ‘Easy’ Shopping in a World That Won’t Slow Down — and How You Can Simplify Your Checkout Process

In a complicated world, shoppers crave simplified online transactions. Instead, they are getting a steady diet of unnecessarily complicated user experiences.

Indeed, the reality of digital clutter within the ecommerce ecosystem has many consumers walking out the virtual door. Case in point, according to recent PYMNTS research, the checkout process can make or break a buy: Around half of people take ease into consideration when making purchases from a website. And when the path gets too rocky or frustrating, they will disappear. In fact, the Baymard Institute reports that cart abandonment rates have reached an average staggering rate of around 70%.

These statistics point to a growing need for uninterrupted, seamless virtual shopping processes because the pain the customers feel is real — and they are happy to pass it along to your company in the form of reduced profits. On the other hand, if your brand sells online and you make purchases easier for consumers, you stand to gain a competitive position in your market.

This means going back to the drawing board when it comes to the customer journeys you have created. To improve the flow of the ecommerce funnels on your site, consider making updates based on a few key tactics.

1. Lean into innovation without inundation

Many businesses and teams mistakenly believe that innovation requires making a process more complex or intricate. It doesn’t. When it comes to reimagining a shopping process, innovation can often mean taking away extraneous actions that don’t add any benefits to the consumer.

As you’re examining your company’s shopping experience, look for signs of over-engineering. For instance, are you introducing too many bells and whistles on your product pages (e.g. extra tabs with content, difficult-to-understand buying choices, etc.)? It’s possible to overload people with so many possibilities that they can’t make a decision.

Looking at highly simplified ecommerce retail sites can give you ideas on what to remove from your own. Take Dungarees, for example. The brand’s online shopping customer experience has been reduced to the bare minimum without sacrificing site quality. Because the company focuses on selling workwear, its navigation includes quick links to work-focused apparel such as scrubs and high-visibility gear. There’s not a lot of flash, but an easy checkout and predictable interface keep customers coming back.

2. Answer unasked questions

When you’re trying to buy an item online, being able to get the details you need right away is essential. Yet many sites make it difficult to get answers to frequently asked questions. This means consumers have to find insights themselves, which can leave them annoyed.

Amazon does an excellent job of front-loading answers to the questions that consumers are most likely to ask about products. Every page follows a consistent and linear flow, making it both readable and informative. Often, Amazon pages will include charts and detailed specifications so consumers don’t have to hunt to determine if a product meets their needs.

You don’t have to go full-throttle and imitate Amazon. Nevertheless, take a stroll through your product pages and see if you’re saying a lot — all while giving customers too little of the details they want. You may want to ask your customer service team about their most frequently asked questions to know what to add to product or checkout pages.

3. Downplay your upsells

You want to get as much profit out of every sale as you can: That’s only reasonable. But if you go too heavy on the upsells or pop-ups, consumers may decide it’s just too time-consuming to give you their business.

This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t upsell because it can be quite lucrative. The idea is to focus your upsells on the individual so they’re relevant, personal and not intrusive. One method to make this happen is to wait to add upsell suggestions to your checkout page. Since the consumer has already decided to make a purchase, you’re just adding some intuitive recommendations, such as adding another item for a special discount or free shipping.

These types of cart upsells aren’t without their risk, of course. Customers who go back into your website to look around may not come back. However, they’re also based on what the customer has already shown an interest in buying. According to Opensend, adding upsells could increase your revenue by as much as 30%. A word of caution, though: Go for ease of use and try to make all upsells (or cross-sells) a matter of clicking once.

You invest your marketing dollars to get consumers to visit your ecommerce website in the first place. Why lose them when you’ve gotten their attention and they’re interested in finding out more about the merchandise you offer? By simplifying their shopping experience, you’ll be able to win their loyalty and repeat orders. All because you took away some of the digital clutter and exasperating online “flash” that makes them feel overwhelmed.