Making your payments systems as straightforward as possible is vital for any business. Here are just a few ways of doing this.
Don’t Redirect Customers Elsewhere
You have worked so hard to get customers to the payment section of your website – don’t jeopardise the sale by forcing them to go elsewhere. The payment screen should carry your brand and be the last thing in people’s minds. If you don’t have an ecommerce site, now may be the time to set one up. Of course, many businesses have become perfectly successful by using outside sellers such as eBay and Amazon. But if you are sick of seeing a portion of your profits disappearing elsewhere, check out some of the advantages of setting up your own ecommerce website.
Make Errors Easy to Correct
How many times have you filled in a form thinking that you have done everything correctly only to find that it comes back with mistakes? This is not necessarily a big issue as long as they are easy enough to correct. While some checkout pages tend to display the errors at the top of the page, ideally, you should place the error message next to the place in which there was a problem. Make sure it stands out by putting the message in another colour and explain clearly why there has been an issue. When you have filled in a long form, there is nothing more annoying than having to go through it all again to fix one typo. So, the form should keep the information as it is with only the part that needs correcting left blank.
Ask Only for Essential Information
We have already covered this briefly, but when you are asking customers for information, you should stick to the basics. The more fields that you add, the more hurdles that you are asking for your customers to jump over simply to hand over their money to you. You may be surprised by the number of people who will abandon payment because they are being asked for too much information. If you need additional information than normal, you should make sure that you explain why it is required.
Provide Security and Privacy Reassurances
The prevalence of news stories about online scams has made shoppers more wary when they are asked to hand over their payment details or use a credit card reader. If people get the slightest sense that something isn’t right, they are much more unlikely to complete the payment. We already talked about having a consistent design on your website and not redirecting them to a third-party checkout page, but you can also obtain a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate that provides a secure connection and encrypts credit card details.
Avoid Too Many Distractions
Your checkout page will end up being the last point of contact for users of your site. In an era when people’s attention span is notoriously short, you don’t want to give them any unnecessary distractions. This is not the time to bombard them with advertisements. You can always send them a separate email that features product suggestions and other services which they may appreciate.