Before tackling peak shopping season, get your checkout process right

Photo credit: Pexels.

Singles’ Day arrives, and an online customer rushes to click on his cart to make the purchase. To his horror, the checkout page lags. When it finally loads up, half of his shopping cart is sold out.

Whether it’s Singles’ Day or the Great Singapore Sale, every second counts to a customer in a shopping festival. It could mean a US$200 price cut on that brand new smartphone or getting that limited edition collectible. So ecommerce platforms need to ensure that their customers get the best shopping experience possible or risk cart abandonment or backlash.

“During busy season, ecommerce platforms should worry about business, not payments,” says Devan Moorthy, head of startup growth at Braintree.

Payment partners can provide support. A frictionless payment process could translate to repeat customers for ecommerce sites.

All customer touch-points should be consistent and trustworthy. A research study shows that most online shoppers directly relate their feeling of mistrust towards a site to web design elements. If customers are redirected to a dodgy third-party site for payment, they might become confused and clog up the customer service hotline.

Kobe Bryant at this year’s Alibaba’s Singles Day Countdown Celebration Gala. Photo credit: Alizila.

“This is why it’s important to have a reliable partner for payments. During busy season, ecommerce platforms should worry about business, not payments,” says Devan Moorthy, head of startup growth at Braintree, a payments infrastructure that facilitates billions of transactions each year. Their payment API integrates straight into merchants’ pages, reducing the need for dodgy redirects.

SingPost Commerce has also developed a customized waiting room solution to manage visitor traffic during product launches and flash sales.

To find out more about how ecommerce platforms can better prepare for customer spikes, visit our survival kit for shopping festivals here.

Click on the image to access the site.