Webmaster Widget

By: Aaron Goldberg
Knowing what the right thing to do in your ecommerce site is always challenging. Your number one goal is to bring in customers and have them make a purchase on the site. However, there are so many variables involved that webmasters can never quite know 100% what is working and what is turning customers away. If you currently have a very high conversion of those who shop and buy on your site then you may not need to change anything. However, if you are finding that a large percentage of shoppers fill up their carts only to abandon them during the checkout process then you will certainly want to look at your checkout process. Is it too time consuming? Do you request too much personal information? What is involved in the checkout process that turns shoppers away and makes them abandon their cart? These are all questions that need answers and finding the answers is the only way to ensure that you are doing the best to convert shoppers into buyers on your site.

Anonymous Checkout

One option you might consider including on your site is the anonymous checkout, sometimes referred to as the guest checkout. This is very appealing to many shoppers because they aren’t required to create an account, fill out forms of personal information, wait for a confirmation email, and then confirm their account with the site. Instead, they can simply check out as a guest and only fill out a form for their credit card information and home address. It’s as easy as that and shoppers are able to remain anonymous and checkout fast and easy. This is not a method that has been widely accepted by websites because most sites are worried about getting your contact information and finding out who you are. However, more sites are realizing that customers like the anonymous checkout option and will leave your site to look for another site that offers it.

Quick Checkout

Another advantage of one page checkout is that it saves time. Today, people are busier than ever and they don’t want to spend time on your ecommerce site filling out forms, taking surveys, and doing your marketing research for you. Instead, they want to pick out their product, fill out the payment form, and be done. A checkout process that may be completed in a couple minutes or less is highly desirable and one that will be very popular and bring in more shoppers. Don’t worry about creating an email list or tricking customers into providing you with a lot of information. Instead, let them choose what information to give you and how they want to check out. You will fare better and receive more customers and overall sales as a result.

Brought to you by Aaron Goldberg. Aaron is an advocate for Interspire, a provider of ecommerce shopping cart software, content management software, email marketing software, and other web software solutions.