Optimizing Your B2B E-Commerce Checkout Experience

A great check out experience is crucial for all companies offering online sales through an e-commerce site. Without it, sellers risk having their buyers abandon their transaction. Yet, somewhere along the way things got incredibly complicated and confusing for sellers looking to offer an online experience. It’s time to  reduce the noise and simplify the process in the name of reclaiming and reoptimizing the checkout process.  Let’s do this by focusing on three things: Web design, brand, and sales strategies.

Web Design

Before we tackle the actual content of the website, let's explore some of the less visual aspects.  Although less evident, these are silent killers of the customer experience, this includes: slow page loading speed, lack of optimization for mobile, and no clear call-to-action. Let’s break these down.

A slow loading site or page is one of the worst first impressions your business can make. The reality is, we’re all rather impatient when it comes to websites or pages that load slowly, largely because instantaneous loading has become both the norm and an expectation.

Whether for personal or business reasons, most of us are usually within an arm’s reach of our cell phones. Yet, so few e-commerce sites are properly optimized to account for this. Between the size difference of the screen and change in orientation from landscape to portrait, a lot can go astray if a mobile strategy is not a part of your e-commerce website.

As a business owner efficiency is key in all aspects and that includes your website. In the same way that you don’t like your time wasted, don’t waste your customers' time with a complex checkout process. Make the path from landing on the site to purchase as straightforward as possible and accordingly with the least amount of clicks as possible. Think of every additional click like an extra stop sign along the way.

Content and Branding

Content and how it is presented is a careful balance between catering to your specific audience but also recognizing differences among buyer types. First and foremost understand who your customer is and what matters to them. Then, cater your messaging to that customer. Whether it’s the problem your product helps solve, your efficiency, price point, or anything else it should be at the forefront of your messaging.

Understanding the variety of customers that visit your website is key. This way, you can build your website to appease both the “wanderer” as well as the ones intently looking for information. This is achieved by including visuals such as imagery, infographic, videos and easily digestible content on the front page, while more detailed information can be accessed through other sections of your website.

Sales

Sales metrics are clear: volume of sales, value of sales, customer satisfaction, and customer retention. If the messaging convinced the buyer to proceed to checkout, and they were not deterred by a slow site or too many clicks, it’s time for sales to step up to the plate as well in offering the best checkout experience possible.

The checkout process should be simple and straightforward, any unnecessary steps or complications automatically increases the chance of cart abandonment. While buyers appreciate having payment options at checkout, conventional net terms offered directly by the seller usually involve submitting additional paperwork and then waiting for approval, increasing the risk that the buyer will simply be turned off from making the purchase altogether.

This is where B2B BNPL is ideal for streamlining the checkout process by providing a quick and effective solution with the flexibility of paying over time. Integrated directly at the point of sale, it offers buyer approvals in just a few minutes,and payment settlement for the seller as quick as the following business day, the choice makes sense for both parties. There’s no arduous steps, there’s no long waiting process, and backed my Merchant Growth, tabit is based on trust and credibility.By streamlining the offering of credit directly at Point-of-Sale, sellers have increased their AOV, as well as the frequency of purchases from their buyers.

So the question is simple: How optimized is your online checkout process?