6: Pay Attention to Your Checkout Process

This is one of the most important areas of a site, but often ignored by developers. On average 65% of shopping carts are abandoned by site visitors and there are many reasons why this happens, including:

1. Lack of confidence in site security – consider getting your site security checked and certified, this way you can use the appropriate security or hacker safe logos. This will alleviate the concerns shoppers have about completing the checkout process.
2. Uncertainty regarding delivery charges and times can be frustrating for customers especially if they have to login or create an account to see the delivery charge. Some have argued that at least they get the email address, but we say so what! If the customer did not enjoy the shopping experience, chances are all the emails in the world won’t bring them back to your site. If your delivery charge varies according to weight and/or country, having a weight calculator before the customer starts going through the buying process will help not hinder the sale (unless delivery prices are unreasonable).
   
   Another very helpful option is to code your website so the delivery charge is calculated as soon as the items is put in the basket and basket states the shipping cost.
   
   
   A popular way of handling shipping cost is to state that delivery is free on orders over a certain amount. This leads to a great way to increase sales by letting the customer know after they have added items to the basket how much more they need to spend to get free shipping.
   
3. Product return policies are of special concern to shoppers who are new to online purchasing or just new to your website. There is always that little voice in the back of your head when you go to buy something from a new supplier asking what happens if you have a problem, the product does not work, the outfit doesn't fit properly etc. Unless you address customer concerns, a lot of them will leave your website and purchase elsewhere.
4. 4. Some customers will happily wait 3 days for the free shipping while others want to receive their orders sooner. Why not offer them additional shipping choices; if it is important to them they will pay the extra to get the item if the shipping charge is reasonable. If possible the option for evening delivery or Saturday delivery will appeal to some shoppers, especially if your competition doesn’t offer such convenient options.

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