Move 'Em Out! Streamline Your Checkout And Wow Your Customers

There are a lot of seemingly small, minor details that we eCommerce storeowners overlook when setting up their stores.

This is usually in the interest of getting the site built, live, and ranked. We put aside things like the Contact Us page, Shipping FAQ, Order Confirmation page and emails. Usually the intent is to go back and finish them once you see traffic coming to your store but many times other things pop up that seem more important and the smaller things get put on the back burner.

Including and/or customizing these pages and emails will have an impact right from the start and they are a big help when dealing with customers after they order.

Before The Order

First off, always include a detailed Shipping FAQ that preemptively answers questions like ‘How long before my order ships?’ and ‘What is your return policy?’ This will save you time answering calls and emails that do nothing to drive your business forward.

Second, you can dramatically cut down on monotonous repeat emails and calls by adding .a Contact Us page that contains links to important informational pages in your site like your Terms and Conditions, Return Policy, and Shipping FAQ page as well as having a contact form.
Many online shoppers also expect both of these pages and not having them (or having but not providing much info on them) can take away from the professional quality of your site. It might even lose you customers.

Remember - for every customer who takes the time to call or send an email there are five who simply leave your store. You can regain some of these customers by working on these helpful pages, most of which can be created in less than a day.

Here are some ideas of what you want to have on your shipping and contact pages: On average how long will a customer’s order take to ship? What shipping methods do you offer? From where is the order shipped? What if a customer’s order is not in stock? What is your return policy?

You can also include specific product information on this FAQ. For example on my Armory site I include a Product FAQ on the same page as the Shipping FAQ. This answers questions like: What is my chain mail made of? Are my swords sharpened? And do we offer custom work?

By answering as many of your customers’ questions as possible on the FAQ you’re eliminating the time you or your customer service team needs to spend answering emails or taking phone calls. Take notice of questions that come up over and over again and add them (plus their answers) to the FAQ. Not every customer will check it before contacting you but some will and any amount of time you cut from customer support is time you can spend on finding new sales.

On your Contact Us page, include links to all your informational pages right at the top so people will have the opportunity of answering their own questions before emailing you. Also include your live chat link and phone number on this page. If you are using a platform like Yahoo that doesn’t include a Contact Us form, I would recommend getting a form you can integrate. There are many free and paid form builders you can use. Be sure to choose one that does not put ads on or around the form; you want it to be a seamless integration on your Contact Page.

A Contact Us form is better than just an email link because it provides the customer with some guidance, which is helpful for both them and you. Before integrating contact forms into my sites I would get email questions about orders but not enough information to look them up. So I would have to write back with no answers to try and get more personal information. Customers don’t like that, they expect you to know who they are and what they ordered by heart. A contact form helps you meet that expectation.

Checkout

If you have the option in your store backend to change your checkout flow, make it one single page. Not every platform allows you to do this so if you find that you can’t, then add steps to the pages to let the customer know where they are in the process. For example, if you have three steps in your checkout process add “Checkout Step 1 of 3” at the top of the first page, and so on through the rest.

You also want to make your action buttons – Checkout, Submit Order, etc - big and bold. Lead the customer through the process with these big trail markers; it helps keep them focused and keeps moving them toward placing the order.

A customer will sometimes realize halfway through checkout that they forgot to look at your return policy and leave checkout to go do it. You can alleviate some of this by summing up the policy and adding it to the top of the checkout page. For example, on my Armory site, I have this copy at the top of the checkout page:

Items shipped upon receipt of payment. Returns accepted for 30 days less shipping and a 25% restocking fee. You must be 18 years if age or older to order. If you have any questions feel free to email us at customercare@a2armory.com or call 877-640-9486 between 10-6 EST.

That sums up all the salient points and doesn’t hide anything or deceive the customer in anyway. Once you have a customer headed through checkout you want to do everything in your power to keep them moving forward.

After The Sale

This process does not end after the Submit Order button is clicked. You also need a good order confirmation page and follow up email for buyers. Most shopping cart platforms have some type of default confirmation page and order email, but these are not good enough. You want to include a message about expected shipping time, links to your contact page, and your store phone number. And you want to include all that information and an invitation to contact you about any questions in your confirmation email.

Maybe it seems silly to you. After all, you had all that info on your site, if people had questions they would have looked at those pages or contacted you before ordering, right? Sometimes but not always - you can’t rely on your customer to search out information you have to provide it.

So make it easier for them to find information and contact you than it is for them to contact their credit card company. Put it all right in front of them so if they do contact their credit card company you can prove they knew your policies. Not only will you have fewer wrongful chargebacks, you’ll have fewer customer problems overall.

In addition to the order confirmation email, you also want an order status email. Even if you have link for online order tracking in your confirmation, you still want to send out a status update once their product ships. Seeing a charge on their card with no shipping confirmation to back it up can cause some people to panic because, again, it’s something they’ve come to expect. You can save yourself a lot of customer service work by keeping your customers in the know.

This email can be very simple - as long as it contains shipping information and a tracking number, your customer will be happy. You can take this a step further and use the opportunity to make an offer on a related product, just be sure to show them the tracking information first and the attempt to get more money second.

Whether you sell a single product or run a mega store like Amazon, simply taking the time to create informative FAQ pages and easy to use contact methods will help your business. It will save you time, make your store look more professional, make your customers happier, and provide you with recourse if a customer complains about your policies.

Checklist:

- Create a Shipping FAQ detailing your shipping methods and return policy.
- Customize your Return Policy page and explain, in detail, the return process and what’s needed from the customer.
- Customize your Contact Us page with links to your information pages and a contact us form.
- Create a Product FAQ and add it to your Shipping FAQ or as its own page on your site.
- Customize your Checkout page(s) with step numbers, large action buttons, and a summary of your return policy.
- Customize your Order Confirmation page and email to include estimated shipping time and contact methods.
- Send a follow up email including the customer’s tracking number, another thank you, and a discount coupon.