One of the defining characteristics of eCommerce is the speed. The eCommerce user appreciates not wasting time and being able to make purchases quickly. That’s what he was born for express checkoutwhich from the hand of the greats of the sector such as Amazon or PayPal is spreading like wildfire among online stores.
What does express checkout consist of?
Well (with certain variations in each case) in which a previously registered user can complete the purchase process with a single click. Normally, the online purchase process has several steps:
- Add products to cart
- check cart
- Enter payment and billing information
- Choose payment method
- Enter bank card details
- Proceed to payment
The express checkout allows the user to skip all the intermediate steps going directly from the shopping cart to the final payment. To do this, either you have previously registered and your payment details are already in the system, or you use a external payment platform as , so the user does not have to enter any data to buy. Some online stores take it a step further, being able to buy directly from the product sheet without having to go through the shopping cart, with a single click.
There are several reasons that lead online stores to introduce express checkout: convenience for the customer, agility… but above all, the main one is that express checkout It significantly reduces the dropout rate. This rate has been a major headache for online store administrators, since there is always a high percentage of abandoned shopping carts, which on average represents 67% of the total (2013 data).
As is logical, any innovation that supposes a decrease in that rate supposes a significant increase in the number of sales making the same effort to capture. At every step in between, at every click the customer has to make to get to payment, we’re giving them the chance to repent or think better of it. Although there is a lot of controversy about the percentage of impulse purchases (not previously planned), it is true that this percentage is in the highest band when we talk about online purchases. It is simply easier to click with the mouse than to take a product from a shelf and checkout. But, on the other hand, it is also much easier to leave an abandoned cart in an online store than, for example, in a supermarket.
Express checkout is not the only tool to combat abandoned carts. The tools go along the same lines: remind the customer, both by e-mail and in advertising spaces on other websites, that they have a product waiting for them. Google, which lives on these things,
Watch out: The express checkout is always one more alternative, it does not replace anything. In the online stores that offer it, the “slow” way to reach the final payment still exists. In many cases it can mean a certain “makeup” of the statistics: we reduce the percentage of abandoned carts, but we increase the percentage of post-purchase returns (Let’s not forget that the legislation is always on the side of the consumer, and in the EU it is especially guaranteeing in this aspect). That the customer dares to make the payment in a single click without intermediate checks is a plus of trust that must be earned.
Implementing the express checkout is, in principle, a good idea, but in the end what will decide the success or failure of the system is the ability we have to generate trust in our brand, in addition to requiring a reinforcement in the customer service mechanisms, since in no case can we allow the client to keep the idea that we are eliminating guarantees in the purchase process. If we are careful about this, express checkout can help us significantly increase our sales figures.
Stay informed of the most relevant news on our news channel
Facebook Comments
Disqus