Five ways to grease the checkout funnel

Once consumers have found the product they want, at a price they like, they're ready to whip out their credit card and start the checkout process. This is the point at which you need to keep them moving along the checkout funnel, removing any barriers to that final confirmation click.

But some online retailers continue to put off armchair shoppers by giving them a bumpy ride which decreases consumer confidence, increases frustration and often leads to cart abandonment.

Now that consumers are gearing up for Christmas make sure your checkout funnel is well greased and, at the very least, address the following five points:

1. Display delivery and payment options clearly at the beginning of the checkout process. Ask for postcode information, if necessary, to provide a more accurate delivery specification for individuals.

2. Registration can wait until the sale has been made. Don't force registration upfront - the shopper is there to shop, not fill out forms.

3. Checkout is not the place to tell consumers that a product they have put in their cart isn't available. As far as they are concerned they have taken it off the shelf and put it in their cart. Expect consumers to abandon an entire cart if disappointed by one item being out of stock.

4. Allow for mistakes during checkout and provide adequate functionality so consumers can back-track to make corrections, easily remove/add items to the cart or change a delivery address.

5. Don't hide customer support contact information. In fact, make real-time support contact information highly visible and provide a choice of contact points including telephone and live online helpers. At this critical point in the buying process you need to give consumers as much on-the-spot help as possible.

Tags: buying process, checkout, customer support, e-commerce, online retail, sales conversion, shopping cart