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Consumers are used to storing their card details thanks to Amazon?s ?1-Click? payment system, so it?s not surprising that other brands such as Tesco, John Lewis, ASOS and Debenhams have followed suit. It means that shoppers can make a purchase simply by entering the three-digit security code on the back of the card, which massively shortens the checkout process.

Store card details for repeat purchases

ASOS, New Look and Topshop all accept PayPal, while H&M offers a range of different options including instalments or a monthly invoice. 

Stats published last year showed that alternative payment methods were used in 11% of online purchases in the UK, and e-business consultant Dan Barker recently found that adding PayPal and advertising it prominently prior to checkout increased new customer purchases on one website by 14%.

PayPal allows customers to make a payment just by entering a username and password, rather than finding their card and typing in all the required details. Similarly, not all consumers use credit or debit cards so you need to allow people to pay by whatever means they?re most comfortable with or have access to.

PayPal, although there are a few other options such as store cards.

Alternative payments

Topshop does a great job of keeping form filling to minimum ? the guest checkout consists of just two pages and all it requires is an address, payment, and ?confirmation details?, which is another sneaky way of forcing you to register an account.

Short forms

some sites can?t cope with this and display an error message or delete the data you?ve previously entered, which is a huge barrier to purchase and will undoubtedly cause some basket abandonment.

Let people use the back button

Assume same address for billing and delivery

retailers should also spell out the exact format they require from customers (i.e. does it need a space, capital letters, etc) to avoid the dreaded error message. Similarly, they should anticipate common user errors, such as using zero instead of the letter ?O?, or the number ?1? instead of the letter ?i? and vice versa. In the case of Belron, Craig Sullivan found that this was causing 2.5% of customers to abandon. To solve the problem, Belron?s forms now anticipates these errors so that users continue through the form, not even knowing they had made a mistake.

Postcode lookup tool

ASOS managed to halve its abandonment rate at the checkout stage overnight simply by removing any mention of registering.

forcing registration is attractive for retailers for two reasons: It means you collect lots of lovely customer data. Storing card details makes repeat purchases easier so customers are more likely to make impulse buys in future.

Allow guest registration

Seven user shortcuts that will help reduce checkout abandonment

Big brands like Coke continue to innovate in the digital space with its creative high engagement social media campaigns. Another big brand making waves is Starbucks and its integrated digital marketing approaches that drive phenomenal experiences for its customers, both online and in-store. There are also many ecommerce brands doing digital well like ASOS, which uses digital campaigns to build and engage its community of fashionistas and trendsetters.

You must be analytical with data, and also have had hands on experience with digital marketing channels like: SEO, SEM, email marketing, and social media marketing. Most importantly you need to be data driven and always be thinking about how you can use the ?test, measure and learn? methodology to progressively grow your performance metrics.