Simplified Checkout?
Printed From: ProductCart E-Commerce Solutions
Category: ProductCart
Forum Name: Customizing ProductCart
Forum Description: Exchange messages with other users that are customizing ProductCart.
URL: https://forum.productcart.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=1689
Printed Date: 28-September-2024 at 10:18pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.04 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Simplified Checkout?
Posted By: rotokirby
Subject: Simplified Checkout?
Date Posted: 05-June-2008 at 3:52am
|
Has anyone implemented a simplified checkout?
One or two steps instead of the current five step process would be nice and beneficial for customer/order retention. :) One in particular that is nice is InCase.... http://goincase.com I just placed an order there for something this evening and was struck by how fast and simple the checkout process was.  ------------- Rotofugi Designer Toy Store & Gallery Chicago > IL > US http://rotofugi.com - http://rotofugi.com |
Replies:
Posted By: Hamish
Date Posted: 05-June-2008 at 12:11pm
|
Hi, I have knocked out one stage on a single site - where payments are all CoD or Account. One of the limiting factors is the use of a payment gateway, which involves leaping off to a separate page on the gateways website. Whilst I think it the above site looks great and seem simpler for clients, having looked at the code as part of knocking out the single step I think it's a major rewrite to get close to this. The key thing they have done is combine shipping onto the same page - but, by the same token they are missing certain fields available on the ProductCart pages such as order comments, delivery date & time etc. Actually, examining it there are still at least three screens - Near the top is a link to "Login" and there's bound to a a payment confirmation page. Part of the issue with the ProductCart payments is, I suspect, psychological in that you can see there are several steps to it because of the graphic at the top. We also wanted to shrink it down & now have - Register/Login , Address , Shipping , Summary/Place Order , Confirmation Perhaps, on the psychological front, hiding the confirmation graphic on the proceeding steps would help :-) - I just though of that, but I would think it would make the checkout SEEM shorter/quicker. Just my 2cents  ------------- Editing ProductCart Code? See http://wiki.earlyimpact.com/developers/editcode" rel="nofollow - WIKI Guidelines for Editing ProductCart's ASP Source Code |
Posted By: Espressotec
Date Posted: 05-June-2008 at 1:28pm
|
One step would be very helpfull since the checkout process does feel extremely long, but for the users who have adapted this form would have to be adjusted since we have a paypal method set-up that is catered to us
------------- |
Posted By: rotokirby
Date Posted: 05-June-2008 at 4:17pm
|
Thanks for your input Hamish! I definitely agree that it is, in part, psychological....but it could be simplified and tightened up so that the end user doesn't have to view 5 different pages to checkout.
Removing the progress prompts risks users getting confused and not finishing orders, so that's not an option IMHO. As it stands we've got: 1) Login 2) Collect/Update Shipping Info, Billing Info and Comments 3) Choose Shipping Method 4) Verify Order Details and Choose Payment Method 5) Enter Payment Details Ideally I'd love to be able to combine steps 2-5 onto one page, even if it is a long page. I'd settle for getting steps 2-3 together and steps 4-5 together so that it was a three step process instead of five. I'm no programmer, just a tinkerer, so I have no idea how easy it would be to do with the current PC infrastructure. ------------- Rotofugi Designer Toy Store & Gallery Chicago > IL > US http://rotofugi.com - http://rotofugi.com |
Posted By: katharina
Date Posted: 05-June-2008 at 4:34pm
|
I don't have a problem with the various screens, since I have seen worse on other sites. That includes amazon.com. What I would like to see it the Billing and Shipping side by side and not in a row. We get tons of morons that place gift orders with the billing and shipping address being the one of the recipient. They then add a gift message and use their own email address, which half of the time reveals their name. That and those that send us emails with what they want and their credit card information. What can I say the average internet user is stupid (but they do have money). You can lead the horse to water, but you cannot make it drink. We now have all our email messages going out stating that we are not responsible for stolen cards due to user stupidity. Well we used nicer words, but you get the point. The simpler the better. That goes for cooking as well. LOL |
Posted By: Hamish
Date Posted: 05-June-2008 at 4:37pm
|
Hi Rotofugi, From memory it's all (or almost all) done by one big piece of asp & a rework to combine multiple pages would be quite some work & , particularly being the checkout process, would need to be done very carefully. The other issue would then be maintaining the revised code to take account of any changes made by EA to the checkout process - which would need to be identified, assessed and implemented. There have been several posts over the last year or so along similar lines I believe, so EA are aware of it as an issue, but I don't know if it's liely to be addressed at all in future releases. They have a constant flow of enhancement requests as well as the natural enhancements and changes required by third parties such as payment gateways to take into account. BTW - I liked your site - Can I be cheeky & use an edited version of "Bossy Bear" as my Avatar for a while? ------------- Editing ProductCart Code? See http://wiki.earlyimpact.com/developers/editcode" rel="nofollow - WIKI Guidelines for Editing ProductCart's ASP Source Code |
Posted By: rotokirby
Date Posted: 05-June-2008 at 4:42pm
I certainly agree that amazon's checkout process is worse! 
And I also agree that simpler is better. ------------- Rotofugi Designer Toy Store & Gallery Chicago > IL > US http://rotofugi.com - http://rotofugi.com |
Posted By: rotokirby
Date Posted: 05-June-2008 at 4:47pm
Yeah...I'm just looking for every last little user experience tweak I can make prior to launching our new PC-driven site. I figure I want to make every major change that I want to implement before we go live, but you're right that it's not only one of the more complicated issues, but one of the most sensitive ones given the nature of payment gateways and whatnot. I think I'll just learn to love it the way it is. ;) And....you totally need a Bossy Bear avatar! Thanks again for your input everyone. :) ------------- Rotofugi Designer Toy Store & Gallery Chicago > IL > US http://rotofugi.com - http://rotofugi.com |
Hamish wrote:Posted By: ProductCart
Date Posted: 05-June-2008 at 4:53pm
|
Hi everyone, I'm seeing more and more great discussions on our forums. We're very happy about the fact that the ProductCart community is getting more active every day. I wanted to share some thoughts on this interesting debate about the checkout process. There are major, major players in this industry that - through their store design - seem to indicate that exactly the opposite is true. That is: putting everything onto one page creates a high level of confusion as there are too many pieces of information to review and digest on the same screen. For example, remember that a giant like Amazon - over $14 billion in sales in 2007 - uses a multi-step + big buttons + big font checkout process (probably for that very reason). Also, don't forget that of the most of the http://www.internetretailer.com/top500/list.asp - top 10 online retailers in the US use a multi-step checkout process as well. Although there are those that claim that a shorter checkout process works better (they claim that it can help lower the drop-off rate), empirical evidence from reviewing the largest, most successful retailers in the world seems to suggest exactly the opposite. In my view, this is simply NOT a crucial element in determining the drop-off rate. People drop-off for other reasons. When I drop-off, it's always for other reasons... mostly the purchasing "guilt factor" :-) Studies show that customers that begin the checkout process mostly drop-off due to high shipping costs. Not because the checkout process contained too many steps. In fact, in the most recent study I've seen, the length or type of checkout process, is not even mentioned! Check out this interesting report: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006338">  That said, we constantly monitor the industry as well as customer feedback and we may make changes to the checkout system in ProductCart in the future, when and if it becomes apparent that it could substantially improve the user experience. In the meantime, I recommend focusing on other, much more important issues such as reducing the average http://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=81986 - bounce rate on your Web site's most popular landing pages, starting with the home page (for some ideas, check out this brief http://productcart.blogspot.com/2008/05/tips-tricks-home-design-workshop-with.html - home page design workshop that I recently wrote, if you have a few minutes). I hope this helps. Keep contributing to the forums! Cheers, Massimo Arrigoni Early Impact ------------- The ProductCart Team Home of ProductCart http://www.productcart.com" rel="nofollow - shopping cart software |
Posted By: Hamish
Date Posted: 05-June-2008 at 5:11pm
|
Hi Massimo, Thanks! - That's an interesting read. Seeing hard stats is always useful as well. When we dropped one of the steps it was due to the request of a client & I guess others here will be in the same boat, so having some facts to place in front of them is great. ------------- Editing ProductCart Code? See http://wiki.earlyimpact.com/developers/editcode" rel="nofollow - WIKI Guidelines for Editing ProductCart's ASP Source Code |
Posted By: katharina
Date Posted: 05-June-2008 at 5:12pm
|
I totally agree with that one. I usually drop off when I see crazy shipping rates or times. I also feel that too much information on a page will confuse the customer. That's why I don't have a small shopping cart or recently viewed products showing. Those are all nice little toys, but they can freak out customers. It's simply to much information for them, and they fear that they may miss some crazy small print. Then you have to take into account the elderly or the ones scarred of computers. Its bad if you have to look up, down, left, right, and several columns, not to mention blocks of info. My concept is no more then 2 columns. Many users are trying hard to understand the internet, but they have heard so much junk in the media that they are simply scarred of the whole process. A good practice is to have a phone number on all of the stores pages so a shopper can call. I know we are trying to cut cost, but I can tell you a 5 minute talk can result in numerous orders from their friends. They just remember that there was a nice person talking to them. A real human! I'm searching the internet on a regular basis for remarks on my store. The good and bad (you learn from both of them). I'm always amazed how often I find people mentioning my site in conjunction with my name. They usually say call Katharina and get her suggestions. I've found only one negative one so far. That lady didn't like my "heavy Germany accent", but liked the product. Well I sell German stuff, what do you expect. LOL Katharina |
Posted By: rotokirby
Date Posted: 05-June-2008 at 7:30pm
|
I really appreciate the input and reference material Massimo! One of the reasons we've been really happy with PC is that we do feel a real connection to the developers...I can't wait to take our site live and show it off to the PC community. :)
I think my obsession with simplified checkouts may be over. LOL. ------------- Rotofugi Designer Toy Store & Gallery Chicago > IL > US http://rotofugi.com - http://rotofugi.com |