These days, having a well-designed and professional ecommerce website is not enough to convert a customer. When working with a web design agency in the Philippines, you need to pay particular attention to how your shopping cart is designed. Is it easy to navigate around? Does your customer need to fill out thousands of forms just to check out? How mobile-friendly is your site, particularly the checkout page?
Despite common misconceptions, creating a shopping cart page for your ecommerce website is not as simple as just using a template. You need to plan your checkout page correctly so that your customers want to continue their shopping journey and actually purchase your products.
Keep in mind that almost 80 percent of all customers abandon their shopping carts because of slow-loading times, hidden extra costs, and complicated checkout processes. To help you improve your customer experience journey, here are six best practices when designing an ecommerce shopping cart.
Have an Easily Identifiable Shopping Cart
Your customers should be able to locate their shopping cart easily. Typically, the shopping cart icon is placed on the uppermost right side of your website and displays the number of items currently checked out. As customers are used to this layout and prompt, your website should look and act the same. There’s no reason to change these features as they promote familiarity with your website.
To make the shopping cart icon stand out from the page, make sure to use contrasting color schemes. Your customers may miss the shopping cart completely if they blend too well with the background. Working with your web design team, design an eye-catching shopping cart that uses the brand’s colors.
Once your customer is satisfied with their selection, they can click your call-to-action button, which is usually the “Add-to-Cart” and the “Buy Now” button for an ecommerce website. From there, the transition to the checkout page must be smooth and uninterrupted.
Show the Number of Currently Checked-Out Items
Design your shopping cart to display the number of items currently in it, even if it’s zero. This comes in handy, reminding your customers when they currently have items inside the cart waiting to be checked out.
This feature provides more than transparency to your customers; it can also be used as an effective marketing tactic. For example, if you’re currently hosting a sale or offering bundle promos (where customers can receive X amount of discount if they buy Y amount of products), then knowing how many items are currently in their cart may entice your customers to add more items to get the most out of their money.
Upsell with Related Products to Get Customers to Buy More
Upselling using a related products list is particularly recommended if you’re a startup business and your potential customer still doesn’t know your entire product catalog. Design your ecommerce website so that the pages that your customer visits prompt a related product page. The goal is to create a personalized curated list, where visitors to your site are shown items that might interest them based on the items they bought and looked at on your website.
Always Notify the User When an Item Is Added to Their Cart
It’s best practice to display a confirmation message that an item has been added to a user’s cart. This is true even if your shopping cart already displays the number of items that are already there. Your customers may need the additional assurance that the item that they want has been correctly added to their cart.
Opt for more subtle displays, such as a single line of text at the bottom of the screen, rather than a brightly colored pop-up. This is to prevent any site-speed loading difficulties.
Allow Users to Edit Their Cart at Every Point of Their Journey
E-Commerce Online Shopping Plant SaleAs much as you want your customers to buy as many products on your site as possible, you should also allow them to easily edit their cart at every stage, and not just during checkout. You can also consider having your page automatically refresh after each edit so that users see their updated cart in real-time.
An expert tip would be to include all item options during an edit, such as color, size, quantity, etc., so customers feel more confident about their purchase.
Provide Shipping Estimates Early on in the Checkout Process
Some customers abandon their shopping carts because they are presented with the shipping fees too late in the checkout process. To prevent this from happening, it’s best practice to offer a pre-checkout shipping estimate that can be seen alongside the cart total. This allows your customer to adjust their budget, as necessary, so that they don’t get shocked when provided with their payment details.
Keep in mind that designing an effective ecommerce shopping page requires a lot of consideration, especially the customer’s user experience. Your goal should be to consistently deliver a smooth customer experience from the welcome page to the checkout stage. It’s not enough that your website attracts visitors, it should also make them loyal patrons who regularly buy your products.
