3 Ways to Optimize the Shopify Checkout

The conversion rate of the Shopify checkout, with the use of Shop Pay, outperforms competitors by up to 36%.[^1] This high-converting checkout is trusted by large and enterprise brands around the world.

Leveraging a Shopify checkout for your brand comes with huge opportunity and the chance to optimize it further. In this article, we’ll explore three ways you can enhance this final stage of the customer journey to increase conversions and revenue.

How to optimize a Shopify checkout

1. Simplify the checkout process

It’s widely known that increasing friction in the customer journey lowers a user’s propensity to purchase. This is all the more true at the checkout.

The last step to purchase is vital for any ecommerce store and reducing complexity at this stage can increase conversion rates. A couple of things you can do to maximize the ease of checkout include:

• Minimise form fields: According to Baymard Institute, the top-performing checkout flows contain 6-8 form fields.[²] Given this, we recommend requesting only essential information at the checkout to reduce friction and cognitive load for users.
• Give an accelerated payment option: Shopify's Shop Pay streamlines the checkout process by identifying returning users through their email address and enabling a one-tap purchase option. These features allow Shop Pay to boost conversion rates by as much as 50%. Other accelerated payment options are also available, allowing shoppers to proceed through your checkout with their preferred payment method. 
• Utilize one-page checkout: Shopify offers retailers flexibility when managing a checkout, including the chance to streamline the checkout to a single page. Whilst this isn’t suitable for all stores, it speeds up the checkout process by reducing the required clicks to convert and cutting page loads between each step.

2. Use tools from Shopify’s Checkout Extensibility

The Shopify checkout is easy to set up and configure, but that doesn’t mean its functionality is limited. With the upgrade from Checkout Extensibility, Shopify has enabled brands to access an expanding list of tools and functionality that support app-based customizations for individual checkouts.

These apps offer greater flexibility with the checkout interface, enabling a more customized experience - whether through a unique look and feel, custom post-purchase pages with branded review widgets to build trust, or upsell components that encourage customers to add more items to their basket during checkout.

3. Integrate address and email validation

Accurate customer information is vital for successful order fulfilment and effective communication. Loqate’s integration with Shopify allows you to seamlessly add address validation to your checkout page.

Leveraging this service helps to:

• Reduce Shipping Errors: Validating postal addresses ensures packages are delivered correctly, minimizing returns and enhancing customer satisfaction. Loqate's address verification software captures and verifies addresses in real-time, reducing input errors by 20%.
• Improve Email Deliverability: Loqate’s software checks and validates email addresses in real-time. Validating emails at this stage in the customer journey prevents errors and ensures customers receive order confirmations and updates accurately.

Continue optimizing your Shopify checkout

By implementing checkout best practices, adapting these to your business requirements and enhancing functionality with Checkout Extensibility, you can create a great checkout experience. You can continue to A/B test and optimize your checkout and UX/UI, to increase conversion rates even further. 

If you’re looking for some strategic support to streamline your checkout tech stack or optimize the user experience, get in touch with Swanky to hear how our Shopify experts could help.

For reference: 
1. https://www.shopify.com/uk/checkout
2. https://baymard.com/blog/checkout-flow-average-form-fields