What Does “Friction in Your Checkout Flow” Refer To?

The friction in your checkout flow refers to the obstacles or headaches clients encounter during the checkout process of your eCommerce website. Such obstacles could include things like:

Slow site speed
Poorly designed website
Issues applying coupon codes
Offering limited methods of payment
Lack of mobile friendliness
Round-about way of getting from “Add to Cart” > “Complete Purchase” (i.e. too many steps)
Unexpected fees added upon checking out

Why is it Important to Reduce the Friction in Your Checkout Flow?

The difference between a purchase and an abandoned cart could lie between an effortless checkout experience and just one of the obstacles listed above. Your customers value their time. The more effort and time it takes to check out of your online store could be enough to make them double back on their decision to make a purchase.

How to Reduce the Friction in My Checkout Process

Go Through the Motions of Checking Out on Your Website: First off, it’s important to run through your checkout process yourself and identify all the areas that could be considered an obstacle to a customer. Curate a list of these obstacles.

Run Through the Checkout Process on Other eCommerce Websites: Next, walk through other eCommerce stores’ checkout processes and determine what does and doesn’t work for them. Based on this exercise, create another list of items you would like to include or remove in your checkout process that could make it more seamless.

Ask Others to Go Through Your Checkout Process As Well: Have others try both exercises as well, whether it be coworkers or friends and family. The more people who experience your checkout process and note the barriers they see, the more you can perfect your checkout flow.

Implement the Necessary Changes to Improve Your Checkout Process: Once you’ve created your list of barriers and items you’d like to implement, talk to your developer about what it will take to make it happen. Remember that website issues don’t typically get fixed overnight. It’s important to do this exercise now, so your developer has time to implement the changes and fixes before the holiday rush.

If you’re finding that the issues in your checkout process require a developer’s help, reach out to Bytes.co! Our team of developers has worked with dozens of eCommerce Websites including Magento, WooCommerce, and Shopify to ensure the checkout process is smooth, especially in high volume situations.

More Things to Think About. . .

With the holiday season fast approaching, it’s crucial that your eCommerce website is prepared for the sudden surge in sales. To help, we’ve put together a list of the twelve most important things for eCommerce websites to have in order to smoothly navigate this exciting and chaotic time of year.

Holiday eCommerce Tip #1 – Improve Site Speed