How To Hook Customers In So They Check Out

Social media, email marketing, and online advertising all help drive traffic to your business’ website, but the ultimate goal is converting that traffic to purchasing your products or services. From the moment a user accesses your website, there could be numerous moments that encourage or discourage them from making a purchase. You want to minimize the latter and maximize the prior. Your website needs to make that process easy, straightforward, and even encouraging. It needs to hook customers in, so they check out. Seamless and streamlined should be at the heart of your website’s shopping experience. Here are some essential tips to make sure your webstore is providing that smooth shopping experience.

Make Check Out and Booking Easy

A cumbersome checkout or appointment making process is an easy place to lose customers. For this reason, nearly 70% of carts are abandoned. The checkout process should be straightforward and easy to complete. To start, you can provide autofill, such as for addresses, to simplify the process. You can streamline the rest of process with express checkout through digital wallets like GooglePay, ApplePay, ShopPay, PayPal as payment methods. All these load a user’s previously entered information for a seamless and immediate checkout. Another huge help is to make the promo code area clearly visible. You can even ensure promotions are automatically added. 

If your business is service based, make it easy for customers to contact you and/or arrange appointments. Only 33% of customers prefer scheduling appointments on the phone, meaning you should provide an online booking system for the more than two-thirds of customers that prefer it. For those who prefer direct communication, you should still provide linked contact information so that an email or phone call is only a click/tap away. Alternatively, you can present a fillable online contact form. Remember to keep it simple, so that users only need to provide essentials.

Getting Their Attention

Browsing and searching for just the right thing can sometimes be a fun treasure hunt, but it can also feel like sifting through dirt. The average user’s attention span for a single webpage is only 8 seconds. If customers do not see that right product or service quickly, they are more likely to leave. On the other hand, when customers immediately see products or services they are interested in, they are more likely to stay and browse. 

There are numerous ways to seize people’s attention. Banners on your home page that show a range of popular and new products or services can initially pique people’s interest. Testimonials and reviews can also help secure that attention. If customers come from an ad, email, or social media post featuring a product or service, it should take them to that specific page. Relying on them to find it themselves could leave them confused or frustrated.

Keeping Their Attention – Make Browsing Effective

Once you have gotten their attention, customers can be inclined to browse. However, the browsing experience still needs to be smooth and simple. Users should be able to easily find and move through products or services that interest them. To start, categories on each page will help customers immediately filter down to their interests. A search with filters is a simple way to help customers find their specific quarry. Showing similar items/services or those purchased together by other customers provides a curated browsing experience. Popups about product stock or deals can also guide and motivate customers to purchase. If they are repeating customers or clients, you can also use plugins to provide them with tailored recommendations based on their purchase history.

A Guiding Hand

At no point do you want a user to become lost while using your site. That can lead to confusion, frustration, and them leaving your website. Provide clear directions for customers to move through their shopping or booking experience. A clearly visible checkout or booking button on the top of every page on your website ensures customers are always only one click away from when they decide to move onto that next crucial step. After customers add an item to their cart, present an unobtrusive popup that confirms the addition and prompts them to check out or continue shopping. Keep call to actions like these as subtle nudges. Large popups or forced redirects can be overwhelming or confusing. 

Getting Their Attention Back

Although many carts are abandoned, that doesn’t mean people have lost interest. Sometimes life gets in the way. One of the best ways to get users back is abandoned cart emails. These automated emails remind customers about the products they have left sitting in their cart.  Personalized automations, like cart abandonment and product recommendations, are extremely effective for regaining a customer’s attention. Their average open rate is over 41% with a click rate of 26%, giving you another chance to hook them in for that checkout.

The Essential Information

Customers and clients will want to know certain things about a product or service. Leaving them to contact you or search for the information on another site will drastically increase the likelihood of them abandoning their cart or booking. Provide the essential details they should know. Measurements, size charts for clothing, shipping lengths, service timelines, and other specifications are all important details customers will want to know. 

If customers approach your business regularly with a question about a product, take that as a cue to add that information to the product or service page. A set of questions you commonly receive about your business or service, such as shipping, should prompt the creation of a frequently asked question (FAQ) section. 

Similarly, reviews are a valuable resource. You don’t want customers to go to another site to find them. Shopify provides plugins that add your own or connect Google reviews. These testimonials tell customers other essential information not provided in specifications, while increasing brand trust and authenticity.

Testing

You shop plenty online yourself. Test your website or have an associate try. User experience (UX) testing is one of the most valuable ways to ensure your online store’s functionality. If something is missing or not immediately apparent in your own run-throughs, that suggests a space for improvement. Similarly, listen to customers’ questions. Some might contact you about an issue with their user experience. That information is extremely valuable for streamlining and simplifying other users’ experience.

There’s Always Room for Improvement

Every moment they leave your site increases the likelihood of an abandoned cart or booking. Providing that optimal experience to help your customers check out requires constant monitoring. Keep your eyes and ears open. If you’re hoping to improve your website’s checkout rate, Rosewood’s web design team knows all the best practices. Our marketing team will make sure your ads are giving users a proper welcome and can also help you set up those personalized email automations that keep them returning.