50. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it!
The order pipeline is like an underwater breathing tube. If it gets a kink or is blocked – you know you are in trouble.
Make the ordering process problem-free for the customer and don’t let them leave without spending some money!
Despite marketing attracting new visitors, merchandising placing the right products at the right price, and sales and editorial presenting them in the best possible light – if users find it difficult to actually buy from you, it will all have been in vain.
Just Bag It Up
The act of a user placing an item into their shopping basket and the consumer’s path to purchase is often referred to as the order pipeline. This is the distance and number of pages a consumer must face before their choice/s of purchase become their own. Just as good web design is all about offering both simplicity and usability, an effective order pipeline is equally short and to the point. If you had to complete an obstacle course every time you went to the supermarket, you would soon look for an alternative (unless training for the steeplechase). The same is true for web sites.
Just The Basics, Please
When designing or re-designing your order pipeline look to shave off as many stages as possible between a user selecting what they want to buy and the order confirmation page. You need to look at your current set up and define which details are important for this order and which can be captured later. If you have the time and the tools, look at how many customers place an item in their basket and how many complete their order. The lost custom is absolutely heartbreaking. You will probably be losing about 50% of your custom for every page of the order pipeline. So, if a hundred people put an item into their basket and there are five pages of order pipeline, you’ll end up at just over three orders actually being completed (and who wants an eighth of an order? Where’s the profit in that?). Imagine the difference if you take away two of those pages. Suddenly you’ll be enjoying over twelve orders per hundred instead of just three.
Calling The Superior
Even if your order pipeline is perfect, there are some delays that you simply can’t get rid of and the main culprit is bank confirmation of the customer’s card details. Although you can’t speed this process up, you can let your consumers know what’s going on. Even if it’s as simple as showing a sand timer or a message, explain that the site is still working, just looking for information from another source.
Likewise it’s probably worthwhile offering a phone or fax number for people to leave their credit card details. Although the fear has gone from most web users about the security of their card details, there are still some customers who feel safer reading their card number to a human being. You are quite within your rights to charge a surcharge to cover the associated administration costs.
How did it go?
Q. We understand the importance of reducing the number of questions we ask of users, but that said, we’re worried that if we don’t ask for this information at the order stage, we’ll never get the chance to capture it later. Are we missing something?
A. The answer is simply to explore what information marketing want to capture and how essential it is to shipping the product. If the information is being captured for potential future projects, such as asking for a mobile phone number, then this question needs to go.
Q. Is asking for a telephone number surplus to requirements?
A. No. A single number is useful in case you ever need to contact the customer, but don’t go overboard and ask for a home, work and mobile number, the number of a good plumber…
Here is an idea for you…
Look at your order pipeline as it stands and map out the process using only half the number of pages to get a customer from basket to completion. A tall order, but an important step in learning that not every question is essential to getting this customer’s product delivered to them. With the new process mapped out, approach IT and try to get your changes implemented. If you’re successful you’ll see an immediate increase in your conversion ratio.
Defining idea…
‘Manifest plainness
Embrace simplicity’
Lao Tzu
Defining idea…
‘Simplicity is the peak of civilization.’
Jessie Sampter
Defining idea…
‘It is simplicity that makes the uneducated more effective than the educated when addressing popular audiences.’
Aristotle