Ideal checkout process

What is the ideal checkout process for a shopping cart site? How many fields do you feel are important? What are those important fields? In doing some research, we have noticed a 50% conversion rate of a buyer completing the sale. We have thought about possibly re-vamping our checkout process. We have yet to generate many sales per month but things are looking up. Our current checkout process takes you through 4 steps (pages). The 1st step is creating an account or logging in, which most visitors do. The 2nd step is shipping info (address), the 3rd step is selecting a shipping option and the last step is payment method. Our initial thoughts were to get as much info on the 2nd page or even eliminating the registration/login step, although people are completing this step. What can/have you done to improve sales conversion? What is the consensus on our current process?

I would try to go with a 1 page checkout if possible. Generally the more things a customer has to click the more of a hassle it becomes. I tend to forget this sometimes but my father reminds me each time he calls with a computer problem.

There are a lot of people out there who are not very computer savvy so the easier you can make it on them the better.

Here's what we put on our checkout page:

1) Email and password at the top for their account.
2) Billing address and shipping address next, side by side is good and add a check box that copies the billing address to the shipping address if needed.
3) Shipping methods and prices next.
4) Payment methods, and a place for credit card info.
5) Then a complete purchase button at the bottom.

Anyway this is how we do it on our sites, hope this helps

Set up Google Analytics on your site and use the Goals Funnel to map each stage of your checkout. You will be able to see where people are dropping out. 50% is average for customers who start the checkout process, so you are doing ok. Sounds like you are having problems getting customers to hit the checkout button. Focus on making them more comfortable and trusting of your site - with moneyback guarantees, BBB logo and a professional appearance. Use Analytics to run A/B tests and lower your bounce rate and increase time on site and page views per visitor. Make sure your product is competetive, your offer is good and your have a clear path to conversion - sale, lead, email signup...

Thanks for the feedback. In an ideal world, the 1 page checkout is the way to go but to re-design a page is going to cost some money. We are working on the SSL certificate and making it known that the site is secure.

Currently we are using analytics and this is where I came up with my question. We were wondering why people were leaving the process. I guess its going to take more time to really see what is going on.

Our checkout process is similar to yours Daniel. Similar number of steps but we do want to make it a little easier for someone to complete the sale. We have kicked around some of the money back, same day shipping, etc. type stuff. I guess its going to be a matter of testing which works better.

As for your comments planet, our average visitor is viewing 9 pages per visit. Visitors are spending over 4 minutes per visit on the site which has increased a bunch. With a blog coming soon and adding more content over the next month, we anticipate seeing a larger increase in the amount of time spent on the site. Would you mind aiding us in setting up an A/B test? We havent performed any sort of tests before and are curious as to how you would set it up.

Our overall issue is that not many people are making it to the checkout process. This can be due to a number of reasons and we are working on figuring out what the story is. That is part of SEO I guess... thanks again.

I've found the best solution is to not force people to log in before checking out. Making a login just to check out is a pain and many people will avoid the process. If you can't ditch it, at least collect your info up front and ask them to make a login at the end so they're more focused on checking out and less focused on registration.

I've found most people won't shy from a multi-step process provided that you let them know how long the process is (a status bar is a good idea). Oddly enough, I've heard that having the process too short makes some people suspicious.

Good advice. Losing the login process was definitely an option for the reasons you stated. I didnt think about the status bar. That is something we will definitely look into. Thanks

Are you taking credit card numbers on your site without a SSL? If you are there is a very high risk of compromising your customers info. Getting a SSL should be your top priority before you make additional changes.

If you need a cheap SSL you can get one from Godaddy.com for about 30 bucks. If you have a bigger budget I would recommend Geotrust or Thawt.

Lb, you need to do everything recommended in this forum that you can afford. However, the problem is not your checkout - 50% dropout is the norm. Yes, it is important to strive for constant improvement. It seems your problem is getting them into the checkout process. Use the Google Website Optimizer to set up A/B testing. It is free and their tech support will walk you through the process and troubleshoot for you. Find out where customers are leaving and work on that page - with different design elements, copy and offers. You can use this tool to improve your checkout, but I would try to capture the 98% of the traffic that is not in play. Your upside is much bigger.

To clarify, we had an SSL but it was not functioning properly. That problem has been resolved. At another glance, it seems that the conversion for sales is around 35%-40% since we started using analytics. We are trying to determine where people are dropping out as it seems there is no real rhyme or reason. People are dropping out at different points. We are definitely going to try the Google Website Optimizer and see how that works. Thanks for the tip.

We hope to have the something similar to a status bar up this week. (Step 1 of 4, Step 2 of 4, etc.) We'll see how this works.

Can you elaborate on what you mean by going after the 98% of traffic that is not in play? Im not following.

What he means is that, typically, only 2% (usually less) of your traffic is even trying to buy something off your site. So you can either try to figure out why 50% of that 2% (1% of your traffic) is not completing checkout or you can figure out how to get the 98% not buying to try your checkout.

One of the main reasons for abandoning the checkout is finding shipping prices (if you're selling a product). Lots of sites calculate them at the checkout - a FAQ or prenotice of shipping costs can help.

Haven't read the post thoroughly, so if it's been mentioned my apologies - past my bedtime