When it comes to online shopping, customer experience is everything. One of the main problems why customers are not buying your products is a poor online checkout process. You may have a good website browsing experience and good products, but if the checking out process is below the customer’s expectations, it leads to incomplete purchases and abandoned carts. Here are five signs your online checkout process is creating a poor customer experience.

Lack of customer’s preferred payment options

Every consumer has their preferred payment method. The biggest mistake business owners make is setting up eCommerce shops is not taking the time to integrate different payment options.

While some people prefer using their visa cards and credit cards to pay, others don’t even own credit cards, while others are used to digital wallets such as Google pay or Apple pay. For instance, credit cards are a popular choice in the US but, millions of Chinese citizens prefer mobile banking such as AliPay. If you have a global online store, integrate a diverse payment commerce solution to ensure you are not disappointing customers with different payment preferences.

A lengthy checkout process

Wanting customers to create an account before they checkout is good for your marketing efforts as you would like to send them marketing ads in the future. But have you taken the time to think about how the customer feels about that?

Forcing customers to create an account to check out their goods is a poor customer experience. What if they only wanted to buy your goods once? Many customers don’t want to waste time filling in forms they don’t intend to use in the future. By that, you may be turning potential customers away. Instead, offer the account creation as an option alongside guest checkout. Let the customer create an account if they want. If not, let them check out their goods.

High shipping costs

A customer adds items to the cart, but halfway through the checkout process, the shipping costs are calculated, and it doubles the entire cost. The result is abandoned shopping carts. Be realistic with your shipping costs and, if possible, have a free shipping offer for goods worth a particular amount. If that is not possible, show your customers the shipping costs earlier as they browse instead of them realizing as they check out.

Delayed delivery

The main reason why many customers shop online is that they want the goods delivered right away at their doorstep. As such, they are more than willing to pay more for the goods. You are frustrating your customers by delaying the shipping. Ensure you offer the customer faster delivery even if it costs more; many won’t mind paying for their convenience. If the shipment will delay, let them know earlier before they shop.

A desktop-only checkout process

These days, many people are using their mobile phones to do everything. If you haven’t optimized your checkout process for mobile, you are offering a poor customer experience. It is frustrating to type in endless details of financial information on a small touch screen, and they have to keep on zooming to see accurately.  Ensure you optimize your eCommerce website for mobile so that it is easy to navigate and checkout using a mobile phone.

The takeaway

Avoid creating a bad customer experience as it makes customers disconnect and abandon their purchases.