Online Shopping - Falling at the Final Hurdle

Online retailers must be tired of hearing about the billions that are lost through the abandonment of shopping basket each year. Statistics vary depending on who you talk or what you read. All that needs to be said is that abandonment is higher than your boss wants it to be. Happily, there are a number of practical measures you can take to address it.

We have learnt that not all users place items in their shopping basket with the intention of buying. Many use shopping baskets to browse and compare retailers on delivery costs and lead times for example. They use the basket to establish the final cost before making a purchase decision. However, your biggest concern should be whether or not you are placing barriers in front of shoppers who have actually made the decision to go ahead and purchase at your website.

Discussed here are top tips on how you can assist such determined users in getting from their shopping basket to the purchase confirmation screen. Trust is one of the most important themes as you will see.

1. Engender Trust

Lesson number one; be honest. It is best to give clear notice of delivery charges and lead-times well before users enter the checkout process. Most purchase decisions are price sensitive and discovering that delivery charges apply may mean that your offering is no longer competitive. In this case, users will be frustrated by having to abandon especially if they have already submitted personal details. Trust will suffer and the chances of a return visit are thwarted.

2. Avoiding Clutter

Avoid visual clutter and over design at all costs. Remember when embarking on checkout, the user should be focused on this task alone. Presenting unrelated links or adverts competes with every other relevant piece of content. Clutter only serves to distract the user and will frustrate your ultimate business objective – confirming the sale.

3. Indicate Progress

Users are more likely to finish a process if they know roughly how long it will take and if they can see the finish line. Therefore, consider setting out the nature and number of steps involved in the purchase process. For example, Step1: Basket > Step 2: Delivery Details > Step 3: Payment> Step 4: Confirmation. The user’s position should be highlighted at all times on a progress bar.

It is also advised to persuade users to begin the process in the first place and also to keep going once started. This can be achieved by using encouraging language such as ‘It’ll only take 10 minutes’ or ‘You’re nearly finished’.

4. Basket Summary

It is a good idea to remind the user of what they are buying at each step. If the user cannot see a break down of what they are buying doubt can creep into their minds especially when entering their card details for example.

To counteract this effect consider using a basket summary on all screens in the checkout process. The more itemized the better although finding enough screen real estate for large baskets can sometimes be an issue. The ideal location for this basket summary is on the top right hand side of each page.

5. Consistency

Consistency is another key factor for the success of any e-commerce website. Providing for this is quite straightforward. Place buttons and other elements such as the progress bar in the same position throughout the checkout process. Placing the call to action in different locations is likely to cause confusion and delays.



When form filling is required give examples of correct entry. For example, ‘Enter your email address e.g. name@domain.com’. Of course, mandatory fields should be clearly delineated. Many websites use an asterisk in this regard. If you do intend to follow this convention be careful not to use the asterisk to denote footnotes such as those that typically accompany information on delivery or other terms and conditions.

Try and ensure that the address, date and currency formats do not confuse the international user. In the United States 03/05/05 means 5 th March 2005, not the 3 rd of May 2005 as users in the UK would see it. Note that some countries do not operate or use a partial postal code system so a mandatory field in this regard can be frustrating for the international user.

7. Personal Information

Indeed personal or sensitive information such as dates of birth or email addresses is essential for credit checking and fulfilling orders. As a retailer, you can see the obvious business sense in that. However, many users are different. Many are very protective of this kind of personal information. Users can abandon shopping baskets if there are too many questions or if they feel that the questions have become too intrusive.

One way of mitigating this is to provide an explanation as to why any such information is required. For example, ‘email address is required so you can access your online billing’.

8. Security Reassurance

It is imperative to inspire confidence in the security of your checkout process. There have been many reports in the press recently of viruses diverting users to pseudo websites just as they are about to enter personal information or login details.

You cannot rely on the user noticing the tiny ‘secure-site’ padlock that sits on the bottom right of their browser or to know the significance of ‘https:’ in the address bar.

Reassuring the user as to the security of the site needs to be more explicit. For example, use icons such as a large padlock on the main body of the page. Tell users that ‘this site is secure’ and provide a link to information on the security provisions that have been made by you. Interestingly, although you may not want users to call your support line, we have found that the presence of a phone number can also be reassuring even if it is not actually availed of.

9. Order Preview

Just like the discussion about providing a summary basket throughout the process, it is good practice to allow the user to review their items, personal, address and payment details before confirming purchase. The addition of an explicit edit function (as opposed to relying on the user to click ‘Back’) means that premature commitment is avoided and a more seamless experience is provided for the user.

10. Provide Closure

This might be an obvious suggestion but it is important to thank the user for their purchase. By doing this the user receives a psychological reward for all the work they placed into form-filling and this also goes towards fostering your relationship even further.

An unambiguous confirmation screen also bestows confidence that the process has been executed properly. Remember to present a reference number and contact details at this stage for order tracking and accountability purposes.

Ask Real Users

Although following tips such as those we have provided will assist you in designing user-friendly checkout processes, there is no substitute for having real users examine your existing or planned designs. Usability by Design can help you with any such research or checkout design activities. We have a wealth of experience having been involved in the design of checkout processes for many large organisations throughout the UK, Europe and Australia such as O 2, Waitrose and Qantas.