Key takeaways from The state of European checkouts in 2020 Report

The state of European checkouts in 2020 Report was created to highlight common mistakes during checkout. For e-commerce, it should be a priority. Below you can find a list of takeaways from this report. If you want to dive in, you can download the full report here.

For the purposes of this report, 450 companies from Great Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, and Sweden were analysed.

A surprising conclusion is a fact that almost 60% of checkouts contain errors, such as non-automatic card verification. If you want to hear more about this report, read on.

Checkout forms should be upgraded  

Over 30% of e-commerce companies add unnecessary hassles to their customers during the checkout process. It shouldn’t be in the interest of stores to make it difficult for customers to pay.

Taking into account all the factors included in the analyses, the checkouts in Italy and the Netherlands were the worst. In Italy, over 65% did not verify cards after customers enter the number.  56% did not verify the card automatically. These numbers are not looking good. 

In the report, as the example was taking entering card numbers with spaces. Many checkouts do not allow customers to enter the card number without them. The clients should be able to choose how they want to enter the number without encountering any problems.

It is recommended that the card numbers be entered as four-digit blocks or with spaces to facilitate verification. However, the issue not only causes unnecessary friction during the checkout process. It can also lead to abandoned carts.

BaymardInstitute conducted a survey which showed that 21% of respondents perceive a long and complicated payment process as the main factor of withdrawal.

These days mobile optimisation is a must  

It is very likely that if the customers see that the payment form is not adapted to the screen, they will abandon their purchases.

Over half of the e-commerce traffic comes from mobile devices. It shows how important it is to adjust the checkout to the smartphone screen. 

Majority of customers give up on their shopping when they see that the checkouts do not match their mobile screens. Likewise, when no numeric keypad appears to enter the card number.

These situations do not seem to be the safest, so they don’t want to risk losing money. So, in the end, they abandon carts and do their online shopping in e-commerce, which checkouts do not raise suspicions.

Bigger support for mobile wallets is needed

In fact, 96% of checkouts are well-designed and adapted to mobiles. But only 12% are mobile wallet-friendly.

The UK’s checkouts seem to be the best in the case of mobile wallet optimisation. In this country, the highest percentage (22%) of e-commerce offers such support. Germany performed the worst in this case. Only 4% provide Apple Pay or Google Pay.

Digital wallets are a very convenient method of payment, which is gaining popularity. Considering support for such methods will be profitable in the future, for sure.

Checkouts need to be translated 

For international customers, it may be very hard sometimes to do online shopping. Lack of local payment methods annoy customers of global e-commerce around the world. But there is also another aspect – not every checkout is translated into the local language.

It seems not to be a big deal since has English become a universal language. But there is money involved. People don’t want to risk while paying. If they do not fully understand what is displayed on their screens, they are afraid of losing money.

And in the end, they abandon carts. A good example of the local languages’ power are the German market. Germans are very reluctant when the store’s website is not in German, let alone checkout.

If the checkout is not in German, the store cannot count on the fact that the Germans will want to risk their money in this way.

Spanish e-commerce is the worst in this respect. No checkout was translated into the local language while shopping not from Spain.

On the other hand, the Netherlands is doing better – many checkouts are translated, but there is still a lack of local payment methods.

Final thoughts

The state of European checkouts in 2020 Report shows how important and often a quite underdeveloped aspect of e-commerce is checkout.

Beneficial parts of this report are the checklists that appear after each discussed issue. It helps you take action to improve a given aspect.

If you want to dive in this topic, feel free to download the full report.