15 Common Failures During Checkout
While it may be simple to the experienced online shopper, the checkout process can be a bit of a stumbling ground for some. There are a number of failures which can occur during the checkout process, and each and every one of them could potentially be affecting your business and your profits. Simple issues like the design of your shopping cart software and the amount of time it takes a customer to input their delivery information can have dramatic and on-going effects. I will go over 15 of the most common failures in the checkout process.
The failure of a customer to complete the checkout process is also known as abandonment in the e-commerce industry.
- 1. One of the reasons a customer may abandon their purchase is if the correct delivery information is not made available to them easily.
- 2. Another is because an error is made when inputting an address, and the software does not easily allow editing to take place.
- 3. Failure also occurs if a customer is not allowed to enter the checkout process due to not being logged in to an account, and the software does not allow for anonymous entry.
- 4. An incorrect or unavailable payment method can also cause a failure,
- 5. as can the inability for a piece of software to self correct a payment mistake.
- 6. If a retailer is using a third party payment gateway such as paypal then problems can also occur with data transfer between the parties.
- 7. Credit card errors are a big reason for failure as well, with incorrectly input card numbers and security codes often to blame.
- 8. The default credit card option can also be a source of frustration as many users fail to change it to the correct setting.
- 9. Trying to up-sell and cross-sell at the checkout can also lead to abandonment,
- 10. as can the springing of last minute shipping charges.
- 11. One common failure during checkout occurs due to the unavailability of stock, that’s right some software leaves it up till this stage of the transaction to inform a customer of a stockout.
- 12&13. Insecure page errors by browsers can also cause a failure, as can other warnings issued by the checkout software that are often unecessary.
- 14&15. The two last failures I will list include the inability of some software to deal with different ways of inputting both dates and currency information correctly into the database. There are multiple ways to enter this information into a computer, and a smart piece of software will be able to warn the customer to edit the data, or even better, will be able to do it itself.