Baymard Institute recently released the 2019 edition of its site seal and ecommerce checkout study. Based on this research here are six important insights and actionable recommendations to improve your ecommerce conversion rates:
98% of Prospective Customers Leave an Online Store Without Making A Purchase
It’s quite a blow for ecommerce website owners that 98% of the people visiting their site leave without purchasing anything from the site. There is a chance for website owners to increase the sales on their site by making it more attractive for the website visitors by spending more money on it.
Baymard Institute recently published a study about ecommerce checkout which mainly focused on how site seals and other checkout page elements will improve ecommerce conversion rates and build customer’s trust. Given below is the list of the things required which included various actionable insights, such as;
- Choosing the most effective site seal (website with nice site seals performs better by 10x or more)
- Small and medium-sized businesses will see the biggest impact if their site seal is unique
- Make your checkout page user-friendly especially the payment section. This will build trust among your customers thereby improve sales
18% of Users Abandon Their Purchase Because They Don’t Trust the Site
The perception of the customer regarding your website security has a huge influence on the website’s conversion rate. It has been found that 18% of the website visitors leave your website without purchasing anything is just because they don’t trust your website.
Site Seals Work by Referencing Known Brands & Creating a Good First Impression
It would be great if everyone is aware of web security and website track record. It’s not right to expect that from most of the website visitors as 99%of the people don’t understand the level of web security.
Most of the visitors on the website make their decisions on the basis of visual cues and gut feelings. In short, the customer decides it on their instinct or their first impression of the website. The site seals have an impact on the customer’s behavior during the checkout process because people trust those websites which have visual indicators saying the website is secure thus making it simple and easy for people to understand. The other way by which the customers will trust the website is by getting your website approved by a brand that people trust, for example, Norton.
“Norton Secured” Is the Reigning Champion of Site Seals
As reported in Baymard’s research, the Norton is the most secure and trusted site seal by the people.
Site Seals Are Most Effective for Small & Medium Companies
The site seal is very less productive for websites like Google, PayPal, Amazon and for those brands which are known and trusted worldwide. Websites like Apple, Microsoft, and Walmart don’t face many security concerns and require the least visual security because they are trusted worldwide. On the other hand, the website visitors have serious security concerns regarding the websites which are less known by them if these sites don’t have visual clues. As all of us are aware of the fact that 99% of the people are working with less known brands. So, it is crucial for these websites to use site seals for their progress in the field. It also helps in boosting customers and building trust.
Make the Credit Card Section of Your Checkout Page Visually Distinct to Boost Conversions
It has been found in different researches that if the credit card fields and trust logos are visually appealing for the visitors it will help in boosting sales. How the website and web security works is not a matter of concern for website visitors. The customers are more concerned about their credit card details that they have to enter while purchasing. All those ecommerce sites which have visually appealing checkout page have higher conversation rates.
The customer visiting the website finds some parts of the website more secure than the other pages. The performance of your website is based on the visual appearance of a website. You can make your website more appealing by adding certain things to your websites like using borders, background colors, shading, and other visual styling, this will help in increasing sales of your online store. Remember the customers always trust the website based on their perception not on actual technical security.
Layout Glitches in the Checkout Impact Perceived Security
Baymard research mentions if you want customers to perceive that your site is secure and trustworthy; make it more visually appealing, bug-free and properly organized. The visitors will not trust your website if the checkout page looks strange or have glitches. So make sure that your website is properly tested on all browsers and devices to get a crisp, clean and professional layout for every customer.
Five Actionable Tips From Baymard’s Research:
Here are the five takeaways from Baymard’s research which you can use as tactics to improve your website checkout/conversion rate:
1. Site seal is a very important aspect of your website. If you are not a big brand like Apple, Walmart, Amazon or Microsoft, you need site seals for improving your sales.
2. Use a secured antivirus seal-like Norton.
3. Make your credit checkout page visually appealing to develop the trust of the customers on your website. Make your credit card section visually distinct and place the antivirus site seal next to it.
4. The checkout page of your website should be clean, well-organized and free from all errors.
5. Use padlocks, tags, and labels that mention “secure” to attain the trust of costumers.
Conclusion:
There are billions of customers worldwide who use ecommerce websites for shopping. They usually have higher expectations from these websites. Those websites which pay more attention to every detail like security seals and checkout page design will progress in the digital world.