Ecommerce User Experience Vol. 04: Shopping Carts, Checkout and Registration

When your customer can’t or won’t complete an online order even though they found a product they want, it is a disaster for your site. You lose that sale, and you often lose the customer as well. This report includes design guidelines for instilling trust in your customers and making their purchase process as easy as possible.

This 299-page report contains 116 design recommendations based on our usability research. Discussions and 292 screenshot illustrations supplement the findings.

Topics

• Elements of a successful checkout process
  • Minicart as Feedback, Not Cart Replacement
  • Organizing the Purchase
  • Encouraging Registration
  • No Surprises
  • When, Where and How
  • Closing the Sale
• The Shopping Cart
  • What to Include in the Shopping Cart
  • Editing the Shopping Cart
  • Saving the Shopping Cart
  • Gift Options
• Checkout
  • Checkout Process Steps and Procedures
  • Checkout Forms
  • Common Form Entry Problems and Errors
  • Shipping, Pickup, and Delivery Options
  • Multiple Recipients
  • In-Store Pickup    
  • Payment Information
  • Gift Cards and Gift Certificates    
• Registration
  • Problems with registration
  • Optional registration
  • Completing the order
  • Order summary
• Order confirmation

Research Method

The information in this report is based on two separate rounds of ecommerce studies, including:

• One-on-one usability testing
• Diary-based longitudinal study
• Eyetracking

Representative users tested 255 ecommerce websites. The studies took place in the United States, the United Kingdom, Denmark, and China (Hong Kong).