It takes too long to close the deal. By Alice Hill, Smart Business March 2001 Avoid clutter, shorten the checkout process, and keep your customers coming back. Shopping online is all about convenience, and nothing is a bigger pain than lengthy forms that extend the checkout process. No wonder people click away in disgust. While there may be no way around forms for the time being, keep information that you request to a minimum.
Demographics are nice to know, but they can also kill sales.
Any good checkout process makes a distinction between a repeat shopper and a first-time buyer. Greet returning customers by getting them as close as possible to a single-click shopping process. The Gap also offers shoppers two clear shopping tracks, as well as an easy way to retrieve an account password. A winning checkout system needs to be fast and easy. Sites that spread out their checkout forms may be avoiding clutter, but they run the danger of stretching the experience out too long for the sake of clarity.