The user journey: 9 tips for a seamless checkout
Your online bookstore is powered by your checkout. If your checkout is clunky, badly optimised for different devices, or takes too long to load, users will give up easily. So, there are some best practices to live by when setting up a checkout primed to help you grow your direct sales. We’re starting you off with 9 tips for a seamless checkout.
As ever, you should think all about clarity, communication, and ease of use. Think like your user. Walk through your checkout and see if there are any creases to iron out. Don’t give users any reason to give up here. When it comes to taking payment, you need to be trustworthy and secure, and there is information you need to include. But by going the extra mile to provide useful information (e.g. how users access digital titles or estimated shipping times), you show users that you’ve thought of them.
Think of this as checkouts 101. Here are our tips:
9 tips for a seamless checkout
1. Match the website design
The transition from website to checkout should be seamless, which is to say the design and appearance of the website should not change. Make sure you match the site header style (the logo placement, the background colours). This is a simple point, and relates to the technical nature of how you may be incorporating your checkout. But whether your checkout is bolted on using a third party provider or is built into your eCommerce provider (like Shopify, for example), this is a key point.
2. Continue shopping button
Users may want to loop back to other browsable pages on your site and find something else, so make sure to add a nice big continue shopping button that lets them do exactly that. If they feel trapped inside the cart or checkout, they will think something is broken, and if not simply frustrating, it can break trust.
3. Payment options
Provide multiple payment options so that users can choose their preferred method. This also often gives them the chance to use pre-saved details, which saves them lots of time in the checkout.
4. Edit cart
Give users a chance to go back a step and edit the contents of their cart. You could even build this functionality within the checkout by the order summary section. If users accidentally added 2 copies of the paperback, for example, you want to make it easy for them to change that without leaving this page. Anticipate user mistakes, and provide intuitive solutions.
5. Guest checkout
It’s useful to get users creating accounts, but you want to give them a “fast-track” option if they’d rather not go through those extra steps.
6. Shipping options
Make sure that shipping options are clearly laid out. Ask your distributors to help provide estimated delivery times – this often depends on the couriers they work with. Give users all the details you can. When will they get tracking numbers? When will they get email updates?
7. Auto-fill personal information
Try to set up your checkout to allow users to enter personal information using auto-fill functions. It will save them lots of time. Shaving off seconds in the checkout sets you apart.
8. Order summary
It’s important to be transparent and let users see their cart order summary at all times. Which books, how many, which formats. Funnily enough, some users buy eBooks by mistake, so it’s useful to make sure they clearly see what they’re ordering at all times.
9. Digital format specific messaging
eBooks and Audiobooks may require a unique user journey. This will be the case if you sell your digital titles directly to readers from your bookstore somehow. If so, you’ll need to communicate exactly how that journey looks. We recommend adding a message explaining how users will access their books so they understand the process. Set it to appear whenever a digital title is selected. You should reiterate this message in the cart and checkout, to make sure it’s clear throughout the user journey. Don’t let users be surprised by the fact they need a new app, for example. Arm them with knowledge.
What’s next?
So, those are our 9 tips for a seamless, bullet-proof checkout that solves problems before users even experience them. You can collaborate with your web developers and any partners you work with (e.g. print distributors) to bring together all the pieces of the puzzle. The journey doesn’t end at the point of purchase, though. We have more recommendations on how you should notify and update users over email: from order confirmation to shipping updates. But these tips provide a solid basis for a strong checkout.
