Ecommerce checkout problems and abandoned carts are prevalent. At a staggering 81% cart abandonment rate on mobile, they show no sign of getting better. Bad checkouts contribute to abandoned carts and incomplete purchases—which is why it’s more crucial than ever before to know how to improve checkout flow (and, in turn, reduce your number of abandoned carts.)
Often, online checkouts are clunky at best.
Why? It boils down to two words: bad user experience—or “UX design” for short.
The most common user design-related problems with the online checkout process include:
Consumers are demanding easier checkout processes, however ecommerce has been slow to respond.
To dive deeper into how to reduce cart abandonment, we have to define mcommerce vs. ecommerce.
Mcommerce is the use of mobile devices (like tablets or smartphones) to purchase and sell goods. Ecommerce, on the other hand, is an umbrella term for methods used to purchase, sell, and/or exchange goods via the Internet.
When it comes to mcommerce checkout times, many apps have long checkout times that require multiple clicks. PayPal, for example, requires upwards of three clicks and can take over 30 seconds to process payments depending on which payment method you’ve selected (and up to five days when it comes to transferring funds).
Similarly, Apple Pay requires a minimum of two clicks to use as payment and can take over 10 seconds to process, depending on your Internet connection (if the merchant in question even accepts Apple Pay, that is).
These lags are a significant contributor to cart abandonment. With even the best of class being slow to process payments, it’s a small wonder why m-commerce cart abandonment rates are so high.
That’s why at Parrot, we are releasing a brand-new checkout option in May 2022: to ensure that your customers can, in just one click, have their payments processed in under two seconds.
The average checkout process in America as of 2021 had over 23 form elements.
That’s over 23 lists, prompts, buttons, forms, or questions that slowed down a customer’s journey from item selection to checkout—often to the point where the customer abandons their purchase completely.
With businesses losing as much as $18 billion in yearly sales revenue due to shopping cart abandonment thanks to long, clunky checkout processes, it’s in your best interest to improve checkout flow and speed ASAP.
Now that you know why you should be improving checkout flow let’s move on to how.
Common tactics to smooth out a clunky checkout process include, but aren’t limited to:
Some of our top-recommended elements here at Parrot are using a one-step checkout process via a Buy Now button, optimizing your landing page for speed, and recommending multiple items be bought together.
Osa Gaius, our founder, has three rules for reducing abandoned cart rates.
With so much revenue being generated via mcommerce, merchants can no longer afford not to have optimized checkout flow.
While common UX problems like clunky checkouts or long processes are a significant cause of cart abandonment, there are multiple avenues you can take to guarantee your customers a smooth purchasing experience.
Ready to simplify cart abandonment reduction? Sign up for Parrot today to see the difference one-click payments can make.