Last updated - March 8, 2022
In an eCommerce store, how your checkout is designed plays an important role in customer experience. In fact, the design of your checkout flow can very well determine the rate of conversions and cart abandonment on your store. So, most eCommerce store focus on providing an optimal checkout experience for their customers. Often the checkout strategy can differ based on your customer demographics and product types. WooCommerce, by default, has a simple and straightforward checkout flow, which is basically good. However, you can use quite a few available extensions to enhance the overall experience of your customers. Here is a list of some of the best WooCommerce checkout plugins that you can use on your online store.
WooCommerce Checkout Add-ons
This extension allows adding extra options on your checkout page. From the added options, you can choose which ones need to be paid and which ones are free. In addition, you can filter and sort orders based on the new options. Some of the several options commonly included by store owners include insurance, rush fulfillment, gift wrapping, etc. The extension offers the flexibility to use different field types as well. These include text fields, drop-downs, radio buttons, checkboxes, etc. It also provides an option for file upload.
The extension is quite easy to work with as well. You can simply add a new field, specify the field type and decide whether it is going to be free or paid. If you are creating a paid option, the extension also allows you to choose a flat amount or a percentage value. When a customer selects one of the extra options, it’ll be dynamically updated to the order total. Also, you can choose to display these newly created options on the order page. If needed, you can sort the orders based on the add-ons. Customers too can view all their additional options as these are added as line items.
This extension is a great way to enhance the up-selling strategy in your store, and it also supports WooCommerce Subscriptions.
WooCommerce Checkout Field Editor
This extension helps you add, edit and remove fields from your checkout page. You can add or remove fields from the billing and shipping sections on the checkout. You can also insert new fields after these sections, next to order notes. Several different types of field types can be used with the help of this extension. These include checkboxes, drop-downs, text areas and date pickers. In addition, you can move the default fields of WooCommerce, without changing any code. This helps to give you a lot more control in managing the checkout options on your site.
PeachPay
PeachPay, a WooCommerce-backed company, is a free plugin that allows customers who use PeachPay, to purchase with one click. Do you know what’s even better? It doesn’t matter if that customer initially checked out with PeachPay on your site or any other site that accepts PeachPay as a payment method. They’ll have a one-click checkout experience the next time and will be more likely to buy from your store.
This plugin is fully customizable for most essential aspects of the checkout button and window. Need to change the language? No problem! Need to add coupons? Say less! Want to add images in the checkout window? Easy as pie! Choose PeachPay as your one-stop shop for one-click checkout. Their 5-star rated 24/7 customer service will help you reduce cart abandonment and provide the best shopping experience.
WooCommerce Social Login
The Checkout page has great potential to push a user to purchase a product from your store. And sadly, that is the location where a lot of users abandon their cart as well. Forcing users to create an account with you might be a reason for them to not ahead with a purchase. Guest checkout can be also a good solution to deal with this scenario. However, that might affect the chances of getting repeat customers in your store. Allowing users to log in to your site with their social media account would be a much more preferable option.
Many customers would find this option agreeable because they can log in more readily and without hassles. Customers can use the login details of Facebook, Twitter, Google, Amazon, LinkedIn, PayPal, Instagram, Disqus, Yahoo, etc., instead of creating a new profile. This is really a good option as a lot of people never sign out of their social profiles. That way, they can log in to your site with a single click too. According to studies, more than 75% of eCommerce customers prefer social login. So this extension would provide a good boost for your overall conversion rates. The single site subscription would cost you $79.
WooCommerce One Page Checkout
A lot of customers tend to abandon their carts if the checkout process is too long. Offering a one-page checkout might be a good option to deal with this scenario. Basically, your customers can see the product list and checkout forms on one page. There is no need to leave the page at any stage of the checkout process. You get to choose which all products to display on the checkout page. Using this extension, you can also create custom landing pages, which can be used for special promotions or events.
One Page Checkout plugins also come with different built-in templates, including a simple pricing table and a list of products. You can choose the template most appropriate to your page, or create a custom template if the built-in templates don’t fit your needs.
WooCommerce Currency Converter Widget
The Currency Converter Widget offers a dynamic currency switcher. You can use this widget for displaying product prices and totals. The widget uses Open Source Exchange Rates API and money.js for the dynamic updates of the rates. The widget catches the latest exchange rates, and substitutes displayed prices in real time. It updates all prices formatted by WooCommerce, including totals. However, your store’s base currency will be used for the transaction during checkout. The converted price is also stored for your reference. You can use the widget settings to add and convert to as many currencies as you want. The converted prices will be stored for your reference as well.
WooCommerce Cart Notices
Displaying dynamic notices during checkout would naturally enable you to enhance your conversion rates. WooCommerce Cart Notices extension helps you display dynamic, actionable messages to your customers as they check out. This will in turn help in improving customer satisfaction and consequently sales on your store. eCommerce experts project this strategy as something quite effective to increase conversions. In fact, you are earning more from customers you already have, by letting them know of promotions and offers to improve their shopping experience.
For example, you can push the customer to add one more item to their cart in order to avail free delivery. Or, create a sort of urgency by informing them that the current deal will expire soon. The extension helps you create unlimited notices, based on a specific product or category, or using any other parameters that you find suitable for your store strategy. In addition, this extension offers shortcodes that enables you to add notices anywhere on your site.
A range of notice types
You can choose different notice to gain maximum benefits from this extension. These include:
- Encourage to buy more based on the current order amount.
- Set a deadline for the purchase to create urgency.
- Personalize the shopping experience with a notice based on where the customer came from.
- Cross sell based on the products or categories already in the Cart.
WooCommerce Cart Add-ons
This extension helps you display additional product options on the Cart page itself. This is a great way to enhance cross-selling in your store. As customers tend to forget a lot of things in the rush to check out, this option would be good to improve customer experience as well. This will definitely enhance the chances of conversion, as well as the revenue from a single order. Overall, this plugin would be a good option to have in your WooCommerce store to improve customer experience and sales.
WooCommerce Force Sells
The Force Sells extension allows you to link some of your products together, so that customer would add these to the cart together. This is especially useful to link a service or required product to another. For example, if you are offering a service to repair something, naturally you can force the customer to add the product part or accessory required.
This extension creates two kinds of forced products. The normal one will be added to cart along with the main product purchased. The quantity will be the same as the original product. However, your customer can remove the forced product, and go ahead with the purchase without purchasing the added product.
Synced force sell products are the other kind. It differs from the normal one in the fact that the customer won’t be able to remove it from the cart. It is synced to the main product, and if the customer removes the main product, the synced product will be removed too. Similarly, if the quantity of the main product is changed, the quantity of the force sell product will also change.
WooCommerce Shopdock
It might be really unpleasant for customers, if the page reloads every time they add a product to the Cart. To avoid this scenario, you can use WooCommerce Shopdock extension to instantly add products to your Cart. This extension works on any theme and provides a seamless Integration with any WooCommerce Store.
There will be a shopping cart dock at the bottom of the page, and your customers can install add or update products in their cart without reloading the page. This will create a positive effect for customers who purchase multiple products from your site. They can add more products quite fast, and checkout easily.
How to ensure the best checkout for customers?
As checkout is one of the pivotal points in an eCommerce sale, you need to consistently be on the top of the game. Here is a quick look at some of the efficient, expert-backed tips for an optimal checkout.
Rethink the forced registration process
Most customers won’t like the idea of being forced to create an account to purchase a product. But since getting registered customers is an essential part of your marketing efforts and repeat purchases, you can’t simply keep guest checkout. Depending on the customer behavior on your checkout page, you can think of making the registration process an optional choice. Another feasible option is to offer social login for the quick registration process.
Make the checkout straightforward
A complicated would be the last thing you want if you are looking for better conversion rates. In fact, the faster your customer reaches the order confirmation page, the better chances for conversion. You should also pay attention to avoid any elements that would distract the customer from checking out.
User friendly design
You need to design your checkout forms and the flow in a simple, straightforward manner. Clearly separating the required and optional checkout fields would be one such option that would be appreciated by customers. Using the correct field types would be another essential aspect that needs your focus. For example, a drop-down would be the ideal choice if you are presenting a long list of options. Whereas, a radio button would be suitable for a short list of options.
Transparency in shipping charges
Hidden shipping cost is one of the major reasons for cart abandonment. You need to present any additional charges in a noticeable manner well beforehand. This way, a customer has a clear expectation of the additional expense and would be prepared for it.
Ensure and reassure safe transactions
Your site needs to feature advanced security options to gain the trust of your customers. Simply following all the mandatory regulations won’t be enough. You need to clearly present your security details so that the customer would find it reassuring to do a transaction on your site.
Conclusion
Checkout is one of the most crucial aspects of an eCommerce transaction. That is where a site user is converted to a customer. So, you need to really focus well to provide the best checkout experience to your customers. WooCommerce offers a decent, straightforward checkout experience by default. However, you can make use of some of the WooCommerce checkout plugins discussed in this article for a better customer experience. A better customer experience would naturally lead to improved sales and conversions on your store.
