The Ecommerce Conversion Funnel

Ecommerce checkout processes vary dramatically between different platforms and business models. There is no hard and fast rule for the number of steps, whether or not to show the navigation during the checkout process or whether to require customers create an account before they purchase.

What must be in place for each and every style of checkout process is a form of measurement which is more commonly known as a conversion funnel.

A conversion funnel tracks each step of a process which for this article is the checkout process, but could be a contact form, newsletter signup or PDF download.

Conversion funnels tell you where customers enter a step in the process and at what points they leave or “bail”.

Understanding where people abandon your checkout process empowers you to implement changes that fill these holes.

• You may find 30% of all customers who start the checkout process leave on the freight page - are delivery times & charges prominently displayed?

• Do you have too many customers leaving on the payment page? Perhaps they have fears around security - do you display a secure server logo to reassure them?

A conversion funnel is imperative to improving conversion processes throughout any website, ecommerce or not.

Think about it this way: if you owned a retail store on Queen St and half of your customers left through the back door without buying anything - wouldn’t you close the door?

Unfortunately, too many websites leave multiple ‘doors’ open with big green flashing ‘Exit’ signs above them.