The Checkout Features That Top-Performing eTailers Are Dropping

Checkout features like free shipping and rewards programs can help eCommerce retailers reduce cart abandonment, and get a leg up on the competition — a major factor in their growth strategies. Yet, many market leaders have been dropping those features.

Since Q1 2018, a growing share of eTailers generating more than $32 million in annual revenue have been removing checkout features like free shipping and rewards programs from their lineups. At the same time, their smaller competitors have been continuously adding these features in hopes of boosting their numbers.

So, what features should merchants keep or remove to drive checkout conversion? Moreover, how many checkout features can market leaders afford to lose before customers begin to take their business elsewhere?

In the Q1 2019 edition of the Checkout Conversion Index™, PYMNTS analyzed survey responses from 641 merchants selling goods and services on three digital channels — desktop websites, mobile websites and mobile apps — to assess the evolution of the eCommerce checkout process.

The findings revealed that it is harder to knock the best off the top than it is for smaller eTailers to go out of business. As many as 47 of the 673 merchants studied in Q2 2018 have since shut their doors, presumably relieving some of the competitive pressure from market leaders.

To learn more about the features that are driving checkout conversion, and the strategies that top-performing eTailers are pursuing, download the report.

Key findings from the May edition include:

74.2 percent: Share of eCommerce merchants that offered free shipping

157.2: Seconds it took to complete a checkout on a small eCommerce website

59.5 percent: Share of small merchants that offer guarantee or refund policies