{"id":526,"date":"2011-07-10T07:13:40","date_gmt":"2011-07-10T12:13:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deliawilsondesign.com\/blog\/?p=526"},"modified":"2012-09-30T07:38:05","modified_gmt":"2012-09-30T12:38:05","slug":"whats-wrong-with-zen-cart-checkout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wiztech4zc.com\/blog\/whats-wrong-with-zen-cart-checkout\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s wrong with the Zen Cart checkout?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I want to talk seriously about the Zen Cart checkout. <\/strong><\/h2>\n

A frequent request I get from my clients is for a one page checkout as if it was the holy grail.\u00a0 Everyone seems to be under the impression that having several steps to the checkout reduces sales.<\/p>\n

I want to seriously – and loudly – say NO! There’s very little wrong with the Zen Cart checkout.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

First off, if you have customers signing up and not finishing a sale, there is a mod for you<\/strong> to start investigating what your customers see as obstacles to buying form you.\u00a0 It’s called Recover Cart Sales and is located in the contributions section (http:\/\/www.zen-cart.com\/index.php?main_page=product_contrib_info&products_id=100<\/a>)<\/p>\n

That mod will allow you to see abandoned carts so you can contact the customer to find out why they quit in the middle of a sale.\u00a0 What you find out may surprise you.<\/p>\n

I just recently watched a webinar by James Arrendondo of Exclusive Concepts<\/strong> (exclusiveconcepts.com) about cart abandonment.\u00a0 You can watch it yourself if you want at http:\/\/www.exclusiveconcepts.com\/OnDemandWebinarLimited\/ondemandworkshop-video.html<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I had a chance to speak with James after the webinar to find out more about what he does and who his clients are.\u00a0 He only works with the big dogs, folks, sites that amass 50,000 visitors plus per month.\u00a0 So I suspect he knows what he is talking about and guess what?\u00a0 He agrees with what I’ve been saying all along.<\/p>\n

Here are the facts from a Forrester Research study:<\/h3>\n

70% of shoppers have abandoned their carts at least once<\/p>\n

57% of shoppers don\u2019t want to pay high shipping costs<\/p>\n

48% of shoppers did not realize the full cost of purchase until reaching the cart<\/p>\n

41% use the cart for research<\/p>\n

15% find the shopping cart process too complicated<\/p>\n

The reason why this resonates with me so strongly is the 41% number – using the cart for research.\u00a0 Personally, I do a lot more research than buying online so I knew that there were more like me out there.<\/p>\n

So what can you do to improve your Zen Cart performance?<\/h3>\n

First and foremost is to answer your customers’ questions up front.\u00a0 So continue reading for James’ questions and my Zen Cart and general ecommerce answers…
\n
\n<\/p>\n

How much is your shipping?<\/h2>\n

Zen Cart answer<\/h3>\n

Be sure to be explicit on the shipping info define page about your shipping policies. Turn on display of the shipping estimator in the cart (1.3.9h new feature). Install the Shipping Estimator Sidebox. If shipping is free, proclaim it over and over and over. Add messages wherever you can in the header, on the product image, in sidebox – just don’t let them forget it.<\/p>\n

E-commerce answer<\/h3>\n

No one really expects to see shipping costs displayed on the product page but since the product weight is a constant, you could put an estimated shipping cost. I would put something like Estimated shipping cost to NY City. That people can see at a glance that they might want to add other items to the order to make the shipping worthwhile – something I’m always doing to justify the purchase of one item online.<\/p>\n

The other problem is high shipping costs. If your only shipping option costs $8 to $10 per shipment minimum, why do you think you can sell items that cost less than that when a buyer can find at the local drugstore in the next block with no shipping charge at all?<\/p>\n

I offer USPS rates as well as UPS or FedEX so that customers can take advantage of the cheaper express mail rates if necessary. Offering a variety of shipping rates lets the buyer decide how much he or she wants to pay – doesn’t decrease the cost but gives the buyer some control over the outcome.
\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n

When does it ship?<\/h2>\n

The Only Answer<\/h3>\n

If you ship immediately when the order is received, proclaim that loudly everywhere with immediate shipping written everywhere.\u00a0 If that’s not the case, try to give your customer an idea on your shipping info page.<\/p>\n

This is the hardest thing for small cart owners since some rely on drop shipping and other suppliers.\u00a0 I have quite a number of items available for sale with my calligraphy cart but I don’t have items ready to ship.\u00a0 Each is custom and increases the delivery time.\u00a0 (note to self – fill out that shipping page!)
\n
\n<\/p>\n

Am I getting the best price?<\/h2>\n

The Only Answer<\/h3>\n

This is what customers are looking for. If you can’t compete with the identical product from another supplier, then you need to do one of two things. Either you have something unique to sell and those non-competitive products are there to bulk up your inventory and use as also purchased items. Or you may need to rethink what you are doing. It’s all about competition online. Within seconds your buyer can find the same product elsewhere cheaper.<\/p>\n

Do you offer anything to compensate for the price – like free shipping or fantastic customer service, etc? Stress the advantages of buying from you.
\n
\n<\/p>\n

Where do I go next?<\/h2>\n

Make the path to checkout as streamlined as possible.<\/p>\n

Zen Cart answer<\/h3>\n

You know those little links up top for the default Zen Cart that say home and login?\u00a0 Did you get rid of that?\u00a0 Take another look.\u00a0 That is not a set of links but some scripting that can be managed to improve the buying experience.<\/p>\n

First, once you put something in the shopping cart, new links appear for the cart and checkout.\u00a0 Once you login, that login turns to logoff – a very important link indeed – and the my account link appears.\u00a0 Now I always turn on at least the shopping cart link in addition to the login and home links.\u00a0 That’s accomplished by just moving that list item outside the if statement in the template header. More about that in this post: http:\/\/deliawilsondesign.com\/blog\/2011\/06\/editing-the-login-shopping-cart-checkout-links-in-zen-cart<\/a><\/p>\n

Many folks want those links to set next to their other cart links so sometimes folks just wipe out those header links and hard code the links they want into the header or use the header ezpage links for them.\u00a0 Doing this means those links don’t change the way they need – the links change to https for the login if you have the secure cart enabled and more.<\/p>\n

The fix?\u00a0 Combine the header links (navMain) with the ezages (navEZPagesTop).\u00a0 Edit the template header and the ezpages header template to accomplish this.<\/p>\n

The truth is that you really need the shopping cart, my account and checkout links to be pretty noticeable.<\/strong> One option is to turn on the shopping cart sidebox – make it show up at the top of one of your columns.<\/p>\n

You can also place that box into the header with tiny bit of included code in the template header file or search for other code bits on the forum that are possible. I’ve started putting the cart in the header and adding the checkout link into that cart box. You can see this in action at http:\/\/www.worldofclean.com<\/a> and is show below.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Change from cart to checkout<\/p><\/div>\n

So you’ve got the cart image and text, the number of items and total cost as well as the methods of payment collected together prominently displayed in the header.<\/p>\n

And then there’s the checkout itself – yes, I know, you’ve been waiting for this one.<\/strong>
\n
\n<\/p>\n

Streamlining the Zen Cart Checkout<\/h2>\n

There’s no question that the Zen Checkout can be improved but it’s the little things that matter. I’m always a fan of minimal mods – those that don’t change the core files. So here’s some suggestions to streamline your checkout.<\/p>\n

First, you can turn on split page login.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

That’s a admin configuration setting located in admin > Configuration > Layout Settings > Use split-login page. <\/strong>This reduces the the amount of clutter shown on the login page, thus making the options more evident. You then have a login box and a link to register.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oops, then you’ve added another click for folks to checkout!<\/strong> My solution is to change that login page to a split login\u00a0 page to start with, so you always have\u00a0 split login but with the create account possibilities on the login page.\u00a0 That’s some special coding that I’m making available in a new mod to be published shortly. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Secondly, turn on PayPal Express. <\/strong><\/h3>\n

<\/strong> If you are using PayPal Ipn and not express, you need to change that.\u00a0 If you don’t have a paypal account, get one for heavens sake!\u00a0 There’s lots of folks who own carts and take paypal and they are ready to easily spend their PayPal money from earnings!\u00a0 Forget the cost of it\u00a0 – it’s a way to generate income and with PayPal express, it’s almost a check out without account option.<\/p>\n

Third, turn off the sideboxes for the entire checkout process. <\/strong><\/h3>\n

If you have both left and right sideboxes, turn on the right at least for the login. You get more space to display the options and so reducing the clutter and buyer distractions. They can more easily focus on buying – checking out! This is easily done by adding a line of code to one file: templates\/your_custom_template\/common\/tpl_main_page.php.\u00a0 Just add<\/p>\n

$center_column_only = array(‘login’, ‘account’, ‘checkout_shipping’, ‘checkout_payment’, ‘checkout_confirmation’);<\/p>\n

to the file\u00a0 before this:<\/p>\n

?>
\n<body id=”<?php echo $body_id . ‘Body’; ?>”<?php if($zv_onload !=”) echo ‘ onload=”‘.$zv_onload.'”‘; ?>>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (lines 59 – 60).<\/p>\n

If you want to keep the sideboxes on any of those pages – such as login, remove ‘login’, from the line.<\/p>\n

And fourth, make those checkout steps more visible. <\/strong><\/h3>\n

The default Zen Cart checkout does have the steps listed on each page of the checkout – at the bottom next to the buttons. They need moving to the top and graphically played out for visibility – just like the Checkout Without Account mod does now:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Top Of CWOA pages<\/p><\/div>\n

Now I’m not saying to run out and install the CWOA mod right now. That mod like all the other checkout mods change core files.<\/p>\n

I pulled just some language, template and CSS files from that contribution and voila, instant fix. I have created a mod called the Efficient ZC Checkout<\/a> which is now available at ZenCartDelia.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It’s all about making sure the buyer has enough clues to know where he is and where he is going.
\n
\n<\/p>\n

Is my personal information and credit card info safe?<\/h2>\n

Ecommerce Answer<\/h3>\n

Make sure the customer knows the answer.<\/p>\n

Zen Cart Answer<\/h3>\n

First, be sure you have a privacy policy in place.<\/strong> Mine is really simple and yours can be, too: “I never sell or give away your personal information ever to anyone.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/strong>

Secure Sidebox<\/p><\/div>\n

Secondly, you need to post a couple of things in one of two prominent positions. <\/strong> You can either put these into the header or my preferred spot is the top sidebox on the right hand side.\u00a0 Those things are credit card and paypal logos, the logo for your credit card processor and whoever provides your secure certificate.<\/p>\n

Authorize.net<\/strong> has a cool little script you can put in with their symbols and a verification link.\u00a0 FirstData\/Linkpoint only has a little picture. Which one do you think I prefer?<\/p>\n

I personally never buy anything but the cheapest secure certificate<\/strong> so I only have a picture for that, but you can fork over the big bucks and get the verifiable one instead.\u00a0 Since both have the same security, I don’t believe in paying extra money for the verifiable one.<\/p>\n

Putting that all together and calling it Secure Shopping should make enough of a visual impact for someone to feel more comfortable in spending money on your site.<\/p>\n

I recently was looking to buy online and ran across a site with all those images lined up nicely in a row – even including the Better Business Bureau.\u00a0 None had a link. Good to know that the symbol should never exist without the link – a first clue that lead me to find out those folks were not who they said they were and no telling what I would have received in return for my money!<\/p>\n

So use images with links where possible and don’t go overboard with images that carry no proof.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There’s also nothing wrong with letting your buyer know what is probably true for most Zen Cart sites.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“We never keep or store your credit card information online or in our offices. Since we also use a secure certificate for the transfer of that information, no one can steal your credit card numbers!”<\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n

Is there a person I can call?<\/h2>\n

Ecommerce Answer<\/h3>\n

Got an 800 number?\u00a0 Post it in the header! Post it all your phone numbers on the contact us page. Post the times you are available to answer the phone. Put that 800 number next to a pic of someone talking on the phone, preferably a real employee. Let them know that you have a physical location in a specific count.<\/p>\n

Got a brick and mortar store – put up a picture!<\/strong> That online site that had the BBB image with no link also had a picture of a building in Alpharetta, Georgia.\u00a0 The address was pasted onto the image.\u00a0 Looked legit but I’ve never seen the address on the image.<\/p>\n

So put your address in the text<\/strong> because you aren’t afraid of being googled and have your address pop up on your website.<\/p>\n

I googled the address from that iffy website and was able to pretty much verify that those folks didn’t have an office in that building, by the way.<\/p>\n

Got live chat?\u00a0 Make it obvious<\/strong> but don’t rely on that to make your customers feel better. Too easy for the visitor to end up chatting with someone in Asia that way; it’s better to be able to call a US or your country number and get a human on the phone quickly\u00a0 – without the call forwarding on a couple of times. (Remember that the next time you forward your customer service number to your cell while you are out and about.)<\/p>\n

Do everything you can to make your customer feel comfortable<\/strong> – then they’ll buy from you – no matter if you have a one page checkout or not!<\/p>\n

Zen Cart Answer\/addendum<\/h3>\n

Your cart comes with a tagline for the header<\/strong> – take advantage of that built-in feature to display that 800 number.<\/p>\n

Use that contact page<\/strong>, you can edit it nicely in admin > tools >define page >define_contact.\u00a0 Put the info in text!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Why should I buy now?<\/h2>\n

Ecommerce Answer<\/h3>\n

Got a special on?<\/strong> Make sure the customer knows it.<\/p>\n

Free shipping?<\/strong> Ditto and make sure it’s prominently posted everywhere.<\/p>\n

Competitive pricing guarantees?<\/strong> Ditto and ditto.<\/p>\n

Fast order turnaround?<\/strong> and so on.<\/p>\n

Why should they buy from you? Why should they buy now?\u00a0 If you don’t know the answer, maybe it’s time to rethink why you have an online store!<\/p>\n

Zen Cart Answer<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Don’t forget the salemaker, featured items and specials<\/strong>. Zen Cart has a number of default features to display these things from sideboxes to center boxes to special colors\/formatting.\u00a0 Take advantage of them!<\/p>\n

Edit that\u00a0 home page<\/strong> with the admin > tools > define pages > define_main_page. Something special or new can be highlighted on the home page very easily.<\/p>\n

Don’t forget the banner manager<\/strong> but don’t go overboard on the graphics. Use of text outside of images is important for the search engines.<\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n

In conclusion…<\/h2>\n

You must gain your customer’s trust and confidence.<\/p>\n

You must gain the buyers’ attention with noteworthy specials, prices or shipping specials and\/or sell something unique.<\/p>\n

You must have clear navigation and checkout procedures.<\/p>\n

It doesn’t take gorgeous graphics or a one-page checkout to sell online<\/strong>; it’s just much more complicated than that! Thus this record long blog post!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Author: Delia Wilson Lunsford, Founder & CEO, WizTech, Inc. <\/em><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I want to talk seriously about the Zen Cart checkout. A frequent request I get from my clients is for a one page checkout as if it was the holy grail.\u00a0 Everyone seems to be under the impression that having several steps to the checkout reduces sales. I want to seriously – and loudly – […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zen-cart"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wiztech4zc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wiztech4zc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wiztech4zc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wiztech4zc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wiztech4zc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526"}],"version-history":[{"count":56,"href":"https:\/\/wiztech4zc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":547,"href":"https:\/\/wiztech4zc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526\/revisions\/547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wiztech4zc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wiztech4zc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wiztech4zc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}