How to optimize the shopping cart and shopping process in an online store?

On average, up to 70% of users abandon their shopping cart. Most people only browse the available options, but there are many more reasons for abandonment. Meanwhile, this factor can be easily reduced with the right design and better user experience.

Optimize your shopping cart and shopping process

The most common reason for abandonment is “to view available options”. It’s hard to disagree with this, because many people do this: they add items to their cart to compare their prices and compare them to an offer at another store.

You can tackle some of these reasons by using the right design and improving user interaction.

The site requires an account

Stores want as many people as possible to create an account. However, shopping without an account is becoming increasingly popular because they don’t take up a lot of the user’s time. They also offer more choice, because not everyone wants to create an account right away when they don’t know if their experience with the store will be a good one. So the advice is simple: offer quick purchases without creating an account and show them first. If you show the “login”, “register” options first, the user may not see the quick purchases and it may discourage them.

Too long / too complicated shopping process

To prevent the user from feeling overwhelmed by the buying process, it’s worth dividing it into separate stages: shipping, payment method, and totals. This way, the customer will know what stage they are at and more or less anticipate how long it will take.

You can also simplify the design a bit during the buying process, so that the user can focus only on the most important thing at the moment. A way to do this, for example, is to change the header to a less complex, distraction-free page consisting only of the logo and links to the homepage or category. However, despite simplifying the page, the user should still see the option to exit the cart and continue shopping.

No amount to pay

When shopping online, the total cost of the order is the most important thing. There is no need to hide it from the user! The total cost of the order should be at the bottom of the screen and contain all fees (including those charged by intermediaries, for example).

Lack of trust

This is a problem faced primarily by smaller stores, those that have not yet made a name for themselves and may seem untrustworthy. How can this be remedied? It’s worth emphasizing the safety of shopping through visual aspects. All icons, locks and certificate symbols should be located not only on the site, but especially when choosing a payment method. You can also change the background under the form for entering bank card data.

How to optimize the purchase process?

Finding ways to combat the causes of bounce rates is one thing, but there’s also optimizing the buying process.

You don’t want to write “continue” on the button that directs the shopper to the checkout. Users may confuse it with an option to continue shopping.

Care should be taken to ensure that the field for entering card data (especially the expiration date) matches what is on the card, i.e. use the correct designations rather than, for example, month names or a four-digit code format.

Forms should be placed in a single column so that the user can quickly see all the fields that need to be filled in and does not have to jump between columns.

If something absolutely needs to be explained, you should explain it. In the purchase process, this could be, for example, information about where the CVV code is located on the card.

In delivery options, it’s worth adding information about the expected turnaround time. The buyer may be willing to pay more for faster delivery.

In the shopping cart, you should give the option to change the number of items or remove them.

When creating a website, you should keep in mind that the shopping cart is probably the most important section of the store. It should be as optimized and tailored to the specific purpose of the purchase as possible. The higher the usability, the less chance that the user will change their mind.