What is Multi-Step Checkout?
Multi-step checkout (also known as multi page checkout) is an approach to eCommerce website design in which the checkout process is spread over multiple pages. This goal of multi-step checkout, as opposed to one-step checkout, is to guide visitors to conversion by providing a clear, linear experience that allows them to focus on one step at a time.
The Pros of Multi-Step Checkout
One of the pros of multi-step checkout is that it’s easy to measure drop-off rates and understand which areas of your checkout need optimization. For example, if you see many customers are dropping off at the billing step, there may be issues with your payment process or a lack of trust with how secure it is.
Another advantage to multi-step checkout is that it allows you to collect data from customers (such as an email address), which can be used to recover the cart if the visitor decides to abandon the checkout at a later step.
When is Multi-Step Checkout Effective?
Multi-step checkout can be particular effective for the purchase of high-ticket items, for desktop shopping experiences, and to engage consumers who are less tech savvy or belong to an older demographic segment. Rather than forcing visitors to complete the entire checkout in one step (which can be overwhelming), splitting up the checkout steps allows these visitors to understand and visualize how far they are along in the checkout process, which can motivate them to complete it.
However, multi-step checkout may be less effective on mobile devices or for the purchase of low-ticket items. From an eCommerce design perspective, requiring constant page refreshes to move to the next step will cause frustration, especially for mobile shoppers who want to check out as quickly and as painlessly as possible.
Muli-Step Checkout Optimization
The aim of every checkout process is to reduce cart abandonment and increase purchase completions. Since the majority of shopping cart abandonments take place on the checkout page, eCommerce sites need to find the optimal usability to secure more purchases. Smart eCommerce sites continuously A/B test and optimize different payment layouts, designs, form field messages, calls to action and more, and use machine learning to automatically apply the best performing variations.
Ensuring that you have an optimized checkout flow will help you reduce shopping cart abandonments to a minimum and increase conversion at this critical stage of the conversion funnel. Click to learn more about Dynamic Yield’s eCommerce personalization and optimization solutions.
