Most customers abandon their carts. Discover why faster checkouts mean more conversions and how Amazon Pay can help.
Is a complicated checkout process hurting your sales?
Abandoned shopping carts leave potential sales untapped, resulting in lost revenue for your company. The global cart abandonment rate sits at 79.19%1. Shoppers cite account creation or a complicated checkout process as a key reason for cart abandonment. This means that, even in the ever-changing eCommerce industry, customers want a shopping experience that is fast, easy, and secure.
Insights from Baymard Institute
In 2022, the Baymard Institute, an independent research firm focused on eCommerce usability, conducted a study on shopper experience optimisations commissioned by Amazon Pay. Their findings revealed some interesting insights about how shoppers approach online checkout.
The researchers observed that eCommerce shoppers often view their name as a single, unified entity. In fact, 42% of test subjects initially typed their full name into the "First Name" field, only realizing their mistake when they noticed the separate "Middle" and "Last Name" fields. This seemingly small error added unnecessary friction to the checkout process, as shoppers had to backtrack to correct the information.
The problem becomes even more pronounced on mobile, where shoppers may have to completely re-enter, delete, or copy-and-paste their name to get it into the right fields. The Baymard Institute's recommendation is straightforward - use a single "Full Name" field instead. This simplifies the checkout flow and avoids tripping up shoppers with overly granular name requirements. Titles, suffixes, and other optional form elements can also make the checkout appear more complex, as shoppers have to evaluate the relevance of each piece of information.
Optimising the checkout flow
Editing form checkout data at the review step can create friction, particularly when shoppers are sent backward in the checkout flow. Those sent back must figure out where they've been sent, find the relevant field, edit the information, and get back to the review step. It's inefficient and has the potential to introduce errors. The recommendation: keep shoppers on the review page to complete their edits through in-line editing or a page overlay. With in-line editing, you can provide either pre-filled form fields or turn static information into a pre-filled form after clicking "Edit". Page overlays are ideal for semantic groups of information that either consist of multiple form fields or that can impact other order details.
Avoiding guest checkout friction
Even though shoppers may abandon a checkout because the site wanted them to create an account, optional account creation is appreciated by many shoppers. Provide the option to those who want it without disrupting those who don't. Any additional options in the guest checkout flow tend to hurt UX performance. Even optional fields can distract some shoppers from placing their orders. Saving the option to create an account until after checkout is a better-performing strategy because it keeps shoppers focused on completing checkout, it typically just requires creating a password, and the confirmation step has more room to sell shoppers on the benefits of an account. Remember to inform guest shoppers at the beginning of the checkout process that they can create an account at the confirmation step.
The faster you get your customer through the checkout flow, the more likely they are to complete their purchase. By making your checkout experience fast, easy, and secure, you reduce the time to purchase. By eliminating distractions and filtering out friction, you increase the chance that your shoppers will follow through with their orders.
How can Amazon Pay help?
Amazon Pay's streamlined checkout experience can help address many of the friction points identified in this blog. By allowing shoppers to check out in as few as three clicks using the information already stored in their Amazon account, Amazon Pay can significantly reduce the time and steps required to complete a purchase.
This reduced friction translates directly to improved conversions. Studies show that Amazon Pay can drive up to 35% higher conversion rates2 compared to standard merchant checkout flows.
By optimising the checkout flow and tapping into the trust and familiarity of the Amazon brand, integrating Amazon Pay can be a powerful way to reduce cart abandonment and drive higher sales for your eCommerce business. The first step to integrating Amazon Pay on your eCommerce platform is by registering on Amazon Pay website.
1Baymard Institute. "Shopping Cart Abandonment Rate Statistics." Baymard Institute, www.baymard.com/lists/cart-abandonment-rate.
2Comscore custom study for Amazon Pay comparing conversion rates between Amazon Pay and native merchant checkouts in the U.S. over a 6-month period from October 2021 – March 2022, n=40.
