Congrats! You have succeeded in getting your prospects to add your products in the cart and they have proceeded to the checkout page to order their selected product. But this does not guarantee that they would end up purchasing the product for sure. At this stage, a lot depends upon the checkout page itself, the design, and how seamless the process is so that it just takes mere seconds to get everything done.

Quick Stat: Up to 44% of shoppers leave a website as they see high shipping costs.

A hassle-free process is what everyone looks forward to, and that is the goal of businesses too. From the design of the shopping cart to the overall design of the page, the checkout process can decide whether your customers will come back to your website or not. A positive and pleasant experience will make them visit your site again and again while a little hiccup, and they will not bother coming ever again.

So, what do you need to get their attention? I will not get into the nitty-gritty of web development and what goes behind the scene but instead, focus on the design so that you can offer a dynamic and visually appealing experience.

Quick Stat: If a site does not load, up to 57% of the visitors will leave a site after waiting for more than 3 seconds, and 80% of those visitors will never return.

Let us start by how knowing more about your audience can help you in getting to your goal.

Your Target Audience

Think about your prospective customers and what they would like to visit your website and buy a product from you. Think about their requirements and how they are going to respond to your website, most importantly, the checkout page. What design elements you can use here and how they are going to help you is the key.

One good design aspect of a professional website is the progress map indicator that will tell your visitors how many steps it takes to complete the process. Take a look at the example below.

Quick Stat: 92.6% of people said visuals are a top influencing factor for them, and it takes not more than 90 seconds for them to finalize their decision.

Keep Distractions at Bay

You need to keep things simple and sans any distractions. Just a CTA that will persuade the visitor to buy the product is enough. Keep the design of the checkout page minimal and straightforward with little clutter. Make the customer focus on the checkout process rather than anything else.

Display text like “Checkout Now” on the button prominently as it will make it easy for the customer to focus on why he is on this page.

Display Trust Signals on the Checkout Page

A very Important design feature on the checkout page is the display of trust signals throughout the page so that your audience is sure they are dealing with a legit company. So, how can you make them believe you are not a fraudulent company or not running a scam?

Use of trust badges, testimonials, media mentions, and list of clients are just some of how you can make a customer believe his decision to select your site is correct.

Quick Stat: 7% of visitors leave the checkout process incomplete if they don’t find sufficient payment options.

See how a bedding company, QuickZip Sheet, has used media mentions to gain the trust of the customers.

Quick Stat: More than 80% of the people feel safe after seeing the logos of payment options like Visa and MasterCard.

Shopping Cart and Checkout Page Design

Frankly, most of your customers won’t be looking at the shopping cart with much excitement as they would be more interested in completing the process. But cart abonnement is responsible for 4.6 trillion in lost eCommerce sales each year. So, you can’t just leave this aspect. The use of bold colors and fonts is one easy way to make a cart look colorful and exciting. Usually, shopping carts are not that large, so there’s not much you can experiment in terms of design.

Quick Stat: The global average rate of cart abandonment is 75.6%.

The layout and design of the checkout page are also important, and by taking care of few design elements, you can come up with a good design. Ensure that all the information critical for the customer to complete the transaction is right in front of him. If they have to use the cursor up and down to cross-check the information, this will be a big distraction for them, and they may abandon the cart.

Prominently Display Discount Code or Special Offers

If you are offering any discount codes or special offers, display them prominently. You must mention these codes on the home page and product pages too so that the customer will be enticed to buy the product at a lower price from the market. Use high-quality images on the products page and use thumbnails on the checkout page.

Some Other Useful Tips

Use your logo on the checkout page so that users can right-click on it and go to the homepage in another tab or window. Going back to the homepage in the same tab would mean you may lose some customers, so do not let them lose the checkout page and shopping cart.

Display buttons like “Update Cart” or “Add to Cart,” applying bold colors so that customers can add more items in the cart.

And lastly, display online reviews for your website throughout your website and especially on the checkout page.

Quick Stat: 85% of people read online reviews for local businesses before purchase, and 79% trust them just like they have received a personal recommendation.

Over to you

If you think you can add something valuable to this blog, like your own experience of online shopping or any tip to make design work better for businesses, you are welcome. If you haven’t understood any point mentioned in the blog or just want to offer your feedback, please use the comments section below.