Order review and confirmation: the final two steps in a conventional checkout process. Order review details products, address, payment and shipping details before a customer completes their order. The order confirmation page usually presents an order ID and a thank you message. These steps are often underutilised by many stores and can present an opportunity for further customer interaction.
Order summaries and review step
Building in as much validation as possible into a checkout process can prevent some errors but not others. Providing sufficient order summary and review methods to the customer during the checkout process can prevent potential errors from being passed through once the order has been placed. It’s much easier for a customer to correct an order issue before the fact rather than after which may consume valuable support staff resources.
When a customer uses an ordering path by skipping directly from adding the product to cart then to the checkout via a drop-down cart or simplified cart element, offering the same summary of information and functionality is important to prevent user back-tracking. This information would usually be provided within a traditional cart page within the checkout process.
One step forward, two steps back
Customers that are forced to backtrack through cart and checkout steps to correct order details are frustrated greatly during this process. The lack of forward progress through the ordering process to correct information can also contribute to abandonment. Allowing the customer to correct information without having to backtrack can greatly improve the customer’s experience. Providing inline editing of products and order details in the review step is way to keep the process moving forward without having to backtrack and repeat previous steps.
Order confirmation page
Now that the customer has placed an order with your store, the order confirmation page is the last port of call in the checkout process. This page is often neglected consisting of an order ID and message thanking the customer for their purchase. This space can also be utilised for other purposes such as promotional deals, newsletter signups, account creation, feedback or to encourage social media interaction about their purchase.
Crate & Barrel have provided various other promotions in their order confirmation page including social media, account signup and related products. While these option are great to have, try not to overload the customer with these additional features. Instead, test a select cross-section to drive further customer engagement in this space.
Order complete!
There are plenty of potential obstacles faced by the customer during a checkout process from start to finish. Getting feedback from users about your checkout process can be invaluable information in improving your checkout’s conversion rate. People are inpatient and no one likes spending a long time or repeating the same process twice so take this into account when thinking about your store’s checkout.
