If you’re selling anything online, you’ve probably seen the oft-repeated advice to test, test, test your purchase process to make sure it works.
But have you actually done it?
I’m guessing “no.” Or maybe “partly.” Now, there’s no shame in that. Here are three very good reasons why you haven’t tested your “buy now” buttons:
- You can’t do it. That is, you can’t complete a test purchase on your own website (funny how PayPal won’t let you buy from yourself!).
- You don’t have time. Hey, this is legitimate. You want to spend your time actually writing, or working with clients, or creating something cool, and you figure that once you set up your PayPal button, it’s a done deal. Right?
- You don’t know how. Sure, you know how to buy something online, but you don’t know how to analyze that process to find places to improve or streamline it. What would you even be looking for?
Maybe “test buy button” is on your to-do list (or the to-do list you gave your web person). Maybe you figure that if there were problems with your shopping cart, someone would have mentioned it to you by now.
But you can’t know what your customers are experiencing unless you are able to test the process yourself.
That’s where my Checkout Success testing service comes in. I run a complete test of your checkout process by actually buying the product. Also, because I’m an expert in the behind-the-scenes technological wizardry that makes shopping carts work, I will identify the exact steps you need to take to make buying from you easy and smooth.
Tweaking your checkout process will pay off big time
You’ve probably bought things online, right? And usually it goes OK. But have you ever bought something and had a bad or confusing experience? Like, you weren’t sure the transaction was completed, or you never got notified that the product was out of stock, or there was no way to figure out how much the shipping would cost?
- If your button is broken, no one can buy. This applies to every step in your checkout process.
- Confusion always means lost sales. As soon as you confuse someone, no matter how well-meaning you are, you’ve lost a sale.
- Each additional step in the checkout process is a chance to lose a buyer. If they have to click again, fill out a form, wait for a confirmation email…at some point it won’t be worth it for them.
The question is, do you know whether there are any confusing points in your checkout process? How would you figure out which steps to eliminate? Test the process, that’s how. Or better yet, have an expert (why, hello there!) test it for you.
What’s included in Checkout Success testing service?
When you pay for your Checkout Success test, I’ll put myself in the shoes of your customer, by actually becoming one. I will:
- Buy your product. For real. With my credit card. Or PayPal.
- Write down every step in the checkout process. Seriously. Every single step. Hint: There are more steps than you think.
- Answer the question “does this checkout process work?“
- Answer the even more important question “Do I get what I expect from each step in the transaction?“
- Give you the written description of each step, which is a great thing to have on hand if you ever want to make changes (you can simply tell your VA or web person “See step 8? Change that URL.”).
- Give you my professional, expert opinionon what you need to do to improve the checkout process. This includes:
- Instructions to actually fix anything that’s actually broken.
- Elimination of anything that’s confusing for the buyer.
- Places to remove steps to streamline the process.
- In most cases these fixes are extremely manageable tweaks that you can simply make yourself. If you really need someone to do them for you, we can talk…this testing service just gives you the information you need to do it yourself.
Checkout Success pays for itself as soon as you make one sale
I’m also trying a pricing experiment with this service: It’s based on the price of your product. Here’s the formula:
Take the price of the product with the buy button you need to test (including shipping and tax and all that — if you need to calculate shipping, my zip code is 92407).
Double it.
Example: Your product costs $39, plus $4.95 shipping to zip code 92407. Your cost for the Checkout Success test would be $87.90. (The minimum price is $10.)
Now I can buy your product the exact same way a real customer would, and you don’t have to issue me a refund. As soon as you make one sale with your new and improved checkout process, you’ve made back the cost of the Checkout Success testing service.
Ready to make buying easier for your customers?
Checkout Success testing service costs twice your product price. You’ll need to fill in the correct amount (minimum $10), provide me with the product name and URL (web address), and I’ll take it from there.