Slick Shopping for Web-Spenders

I wouldn't class myself as a conventional female highstreet shopper. Don't get me wrong, I love getting new things, but I prefer things which are either shiny, have an 'on' switch, or make a noise. But the one thing I do have in common with every other shopper on the planet is that I dislike standing in the checkout queue. Spending money should be as quick and painless as possible. In that sense, shopping online is just the same as shopping on the high street.

So how can you acheive a slick online checkout? Here are a few quick wins:

1. Have a minimal number of uncluttered steps
2. Have a 'progress indicator' (this is just a fancy way of saying breadcrumb navigation)
3. Have a visual of what's in the shopping cart
4. Allow shoppers to edit their selections easily
5. Have a price guarantee
6. Build confidence and trust by having the SSL certificate clearly marked

And there's one last thing to remember about the 'successful' checkout. I don't know about you but I'm a sucker for the last minute impulse buy - I have an entire section of my bag dedicated to the chocolate, gum and mints which have this strange jedi-like power over me when I'm standing at the checkout. It works exactly the same way online. Cross-selling and upselling work brilliantly at the checkout stage for ecommerce stores, especially if you are clever enough to advertise products which are associated with those already in the user's basket.

And one last little secret to the successful checkout - once a customer has bought and paid for their products, don't send them back to the last product they put into their basket because it's a waste of their time. If you want to keep them interested, they should be directed either back to the homepage, or straight to the special offers page.