You're tired of losing sales at checkout.

Customers add items to their cart. They click through to checkout. And then… poof. They disappear.

According to research by Baymard Institute, the average cart abandonment rate is about 70%. That's close to 7 out of every 10 carts being abandoned before purchase.

But here's the good news:

Nearly all of those lost sales can be recovered by applying UX design principles to checkout.

Does that sound too good to be true? It shouldn't. Here's exactly how user experience design impacts the checkout process.

What you'll discover:

• Why UX Design Is Important for Checkout
• CRM Integration In Checkout
• Top 5 UX Principles For E-Commerce Checkout
• How to Put These UX Principles Into Practice

Why UX Design Is Important for Checkout

Bad experiences are quickly forgotten… but shopping cart experiences live FOREVER.

Buyers aren't telling you they're abandoning your store's checkout process. They're just going somewhere else instead.

E-commerce UX design is the process of taking friction out of online shopping. From navigating to the product pages, all the way through to receiving their order.

If your checkout experience is cumbersome, customers remember that. Those extra steps they had to go through. The slow loading times. The requests for information they didn't feel like sharing.

And when your store UX has friction anywhere else — your customers notice that too.

It all comes back to your checkout flow. Here are some telltale signs your store could be suffering from a bad checkout UX:

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• Long and drawn-out checkouts
• Forced account creation
• Missing progress indicators
• Cumbersome and unreadable forms
• Non-mobile optimised checkout page

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As a business owner, you need to fix these issues. Not just for your own sanity, but because they cost you sales every single day.

The easiest way to understand the importance of UX design in checkout? Look at your competitors.

See how their checkout flows work. How long does it take them? Do they offer a guest checkout? Can you easily see where you are in the process?

Analyse your checkout page from a shopper's eyes and you'll quickly find areas of your own checkout UX you can improve.

CRM Integration in Checkout

Here's another feature your competitors probably have that you should too:

CRM integration in the checkout process.

Think about the last time you checked out on an online store. Did they already know who you were?

Did they fill your information in for you? Remember your payment preference? Offer you discounts based on past purchases?

If yes, they very likely had a CRM integrated with their checkout.

The checkout experience is the perfect opportunity to personalise the user's experience using what you know about them from your CRM. Do you know who is purchasing from you? Do they have past purchases? Are they a member of your loyalty programme?

A CRM tells you who your customer is. Working with Magento store development experts ensures CRM integration is configured correctly from the start, giving your store the ability to tailor the checkout process to individual customers.

Say goodbye to frustratingly long checkout flows. A CRM integrates with your checkout process to give you more opportunities to personalise the user's experience.

UX Principle #1 — Remove Unnecessary Form Fields

This is the quickest win of them all.

Most e-commerce checkouts are overflowing with form fields. Asking customers to input way more information than they're willing to give.

Instead, keep things simple. Ask for the basics:

• Name
• Email
• Shipping address
• Payment information

That's it. All of the other information can be loaded through your CRM when a user identifies themselves in checkout.

UX Principle #2 — Show Visual Progress Indicators

Getting pulled into a black hole is terrifying. Scrolling through a checkout page with no indication of progress is no fun either.

Showing customers where they are in the checkout process helps build confidence. It provides reassurance they're moving closer to purchase with every step.

You should be showing customers how close they are to completing their order every step of the way.

UX Principle #3 — Offer Guest Checkout

People don't want to sign up for another account just to make a purchase.

Offering guest checkout whenever possible removes a barrier to purchase. Not everyone is going to be eager to create an account. Especially if they're making a one-time purchase.

Make the purchase process as easy as possible for your customers and they'll reward you with their order.

UX Principle #4 — Optimise for Mobile

Here's a scary fact:

Mobile devices are causing cart abandonment rates to be even higher.

While 70.3% of shoppers are abandoning their carts on desktop computers. 88.63% of checkout abandonment is happening on mobile devices.

If your checkout isn't running perfectly on mobile devices, you're leaving money on the table.

Ensure your checkout page is optimised for mobile and test your checkout flow on mobile devices regularly. You want to be certain that every customer has a frictionless experience purchasing from your store — regardless of the device they're using.

UX Principle #5 — Build Trust With Every Step

Last but not least, you need to establish trust with your customers.

Make sure they feel secure entering their payment details on your checkout page. Show them you're a legitimate business that they can trust with placing an order.

Ways you can do this:

• Display your SSL security badge prominently.
• Explain your refund policy clearly.
• Accept payments from trustworthy providers.
• Transparently display ALL costs associated with the order. No nasty surprises at checkout.

People don't like being surprised. Hidden fees at checkout are the number one cause of shopping cart abandonment.

If you take your customers through the entire shopping experience and provide exceptional UX design — customers will return. Not only that, but they'll spread the word about your brand.

How to Put UX Design Into Practice

You know the principles. Now it's time to apply them. The first step is to audit your existing checkout process. Act like you're a customer browsing your store for the very first time. Experience the checkout process from top to bottom.

Make notes on anything that you come across that creates friction. Or anything that could be simplified. Then go back through your notes and decide where you can make improvements.

Some of these suggestions you can do yourself. Others may require the help of a development team. Small improvements like removing unnecessary form fields can be done quickly. While integrations with your CRM will take a little more work.

If you have access to a development team, even better. Work with them to simplify your checkout process and apply these UX principles. You should also be testing your checkout page.

See which changes users respond best to. Try out different placements for your call-to-action buttons. Test how form fields can be simplified even further.

Baymard Institute's research shows that better checkout design alone can boost conversion rates by 35%. That's a significant revenue increase from changes that are well within reach for most e-commerce stores.

Every business's checkout page is different. There's no one-size-fits-all solution. But by implementing some (or all) of these UX principles, you're well on your way to unlocking the full potential of your store's checkout process.