9 High-Converting Checkout Pages to Learn From (+ Free Swipe File)
Checkout pages are arguably the most important page in an ecommerce store's purchase funnel.
An optimized checkout page can make all the difference between a sale and an abandoned cart.
An un-optimized checkout page can mean a disproportionately high number of lost customers.
Luckily, if you're looking to improve your checkout page to avoid those lose customers, you've found the right post.
Today, we'll be looking at some of the best checkout pages on the web and taking key lessons from each. (and we're giving away a free checkout page swipe file at the end!)
Without further ado, let's get right into it.
What is a Checkout Page?
A checkout page is an ecommerce store page where customers enter their billing and shipping information. It's usually one of the last pages during the purchase process, and customers will finalize their order on it.
Usually a checkout page is followed by an ecommerce store's thank you page. (if you don't have a thank you page on your store, you should build on ASAP)
The checkout page is a vital part of the customer journey because it's often the determining factor on whether a customer will go through with a purchase or change their mind.
Untrustworthy or overly complicated checkout pages are great ways to lose customers in seconds. Whereas a strong checkout page can take a good customer experience to an excellent one.
Let's take a deeper dive into just how important they are.
Why a Well-Optimized Checkout Page is the Most Important Page of an eCommerce Website
The average cart abandonment rate of an eCommerce store sits around 70%.
And for mobile users, that number jumps up to a whopping 86%.
This means that out of every 10 customers who reach the checkout page, you can expect 8 to 9 of them to leave before making their purchase.
But why is that number so high?
Unfortunately, it's unavoidable that some customers will end up changing their minds at the checkout stage, but this could also be indicative of poor checkout page optimization.
Plenty of website optimization tactics put a large focus on making a clean design, strong branding, and adding all the bells and whistles. But when it comes to checkout pages, they trip up.
Fortunately, there are still plenty of sites out there with great checkout pages.
Let's look at our top 9 favorite checkout pages on the web and talk about how you can emulate their best practices for your own store.
9 of the Best Checkout Page Examples from eCommerce Giants
So, we've discussed why a good checkout page is a necessity, let's talk about how the biggest brands on the web are creating high-converting pages so you can improve your own.
1) Tushy - Offer Multiple Payment Options
Imagine this:
You almost exclusively use PayPal for online purchases. It's convenient, safer than entering details, and means you only need one payment platform to do your online shopping.
You go to make a purchase, and once you're on the checkout page- You find out you'll need to sign up for Google Pay or use your credit card details.
Which means you'll have to go find your card, pull it out, and reenter the details right on the spot.
Odds are, unless the purchase was a complete necessity, you're going to bounce when it comes to that stage.
Tushy's store is an excellent example of how to avoid a situation like this:
They allow customers to use credit cards, PayPal, Google Pay, Amazon Pay, and Shop Pay to cover all of the bases.
This means that it's super unlikely that a customer won't find an option that works for them.
To emulate this in your own store, make sure you're able to take multiple payment options.
Common platforms like Shopify or Wix already support plenty of payment types by default, but if you're not using one of them, you can work with a payment gate like Stripe to ensure that most payments are usable on your checkout page.
2) Nike - Simplicity is Key to a User-Friendly Store
It's not always about having tons of unique design elements.
Or filling your checkout page layout with all the widgets you could hope for to boost conversions.
In fact, sometimes it's about the opposite.
Customers don't want to be bombarded with offers and pop-ups, or have trouble navigating your checkout page.
By the time they've landed at the checkout, they've already decided they probably want to purchase.
And because of that, the best way to help them convert is by making it easy for them to do so.
Nike uses this philosophy in its own checkout page:
Pure simplicity. No distractions, no unnecessary flak, just a clean checkout page to help users make the purchase.
3) Skullcandy - List the Checkout Steps & Keep it Short
26% of shoppers abandon their cart during checkout solely because the process is too long.
Which is why this tip is twofold:
First, give your customers an idea of how long the checkout process is from the start to avoid surprises.
Skullcandy does this by giving a simple preview of the whole process:
A simple 1, 2, and 3 steps is all it takes; which leads us to the next tip:
Keep to the KISS principle.
KISS is a commonly used design principle that goes like this: Keep it Simple, Stupid.
The more complicated your processes, the less user-friendly your customer experience is. A simple, short checkout process means you'll lose the minimum amount of customers due to confusion, impatience, or frustration.
4) Nordstrom - Make it Easy to Enter an Address
No one enjoys having to enter their address, let alone enter it twice when it comes to some checkout processes.
We've all been there: Getting ready to make a purchase, typed in our shipping address in full, and then changed our mind when it turns out we have to enter the full address for our billing details.
To remedy this, Nordstrom's checkout pages have an auto-fill feature:
Once you start to type it, the page gives a list of similar addresses with all of the details.
It might seem like a small detail, but it's a nice quality-of-life feature that makes a bigger impact than you might think.
5) Amazon - One-Click Checkout Pages
One of the most effective ways to increase your conversion rate -on your checkout pages and off of it- is by removing as many barriers possible between a customer and a purchase.
Amazon does this with an extremely simple, yet effective, strategy:
Amazon allows you to go straight from a product page to a purchase with one click.
And if you've got an account with payment details saved, you won't even have to type in an address or a card number.
It makes purchasing products all the less hassle, which is amazing for conversions.
If your platform supports it, consider implementing a similar strategy in your own store.
6) Petflow - Implement an Autoship Option
"Auto-shipping" is becoming an increasingly common feature among online stores.
For products that are often bought repeatedly, a number of ecommerce stores allow you to set up recurring purchases that happen automatically on a predetermined schedule.
Petflow, for instance, allows you to auto-ship products like pet food and supplements each week or month:
This takes the previous tip and turns the dial to 11. Instead of just one click, purchases are made with zero clicks.
While it might not be a viable feature for every product, auto-shipping is an excellent way to make online shopping even more convenient for your customers.
7) Dollar Shave Club - Set Clear Expectations, Minimize Unexpected Costs
21% of shoppers abandon their cart because of unclear or unexpected costs.
Gone are the days when stores could get away with tacking on hidden fees right at the end.
The best checkout page practices in 2022 and beyond are transparency and customer friendliness, which is why Dollar Shave Club lets you know the final price of a transaction right from the get-go.
This means that there are no surprises when someone reaches the final stage of the checkout, they'll know how much they're paying right from the start.
8) Newegg - Optimize for Convenience & Mobile Devices
Mobile traffic accounts for more than half of all web traffic.
Which means that checkout pages that aren't mobile-friendly are losing out on over half of their potential customers.
Newegg's store is a great example of how you can make your checkout process more convenient and mobile-friendly:
Instead of having to enter sign-in details, you can use a simple QR scanner to sign in without the hassle.
9) H&M - Allow Customers to Use a Guest Checkout Option
Sometimes customers don't want to enter all of their details. They just want to quickly purchase a product and be on their way.
H&M's checkout page is an excellent example of how you can encourage customers to create an account while still making it easy to shop as a guest.
New customers get 10% off their first purchase and get free online returns, which is made very clear from this screen:
At the same time, the guest checkout is still easy to find and access.
If you offer accounts on your own ecommerce store (which you should), don't be pushy about it.
Feel free to offer incentives and reasons to sign up, but make it easy for customers who'd rather stay as guests.
That said, guest checkouts are great for boosting conversions. However, customer accounts are great for boosting customer retention. So, how to get the best of both worlds?
Simple - allow customers to create an account on the thank you page!
This small tweak will convert a portion of your 'guest' shoppers into account holders and boost the chances that they'll come back again soon.
What's more, you can add a cherry on top by offering a small discount for the customers that sign up!
Don't have a thank you page plugin yet? ReConvert allows merchants to build thank you pages with over 15 widget options for the perfectly optimized post-purchase experience.
4 Key Lessons For Great eCommerce Checkout Pages
Now that we've gone through all of the examples, let's sum it all up and talk about the best practices for a high-converting checkout page.
1) Make Entering an Address Dead Easy
As we talked about before, address information can be one of the biggest hassles during the checkout process.
One simple trick to remedy this is by allowing customers to use the same details for both.
You can also implement an autofill feature like in our previous examples to make the process even more convenient.
2) Minimize The Barriers To Purchase
Think of each barrier between your customers and their purchases as a "filter" of sorts.
At each barrier, you're going to inevitably lose some of those customers.
That's why using multiple pages during the checkout process leads to higher abandoned carts.
To decrease your own abandoned carts, remove as many barriers as possible between the customer and their purchase.
One-click checkouts, recurring purchases, and subscriptions are all stellar ways to do this.
But even a simple one-page checkout can do wonders for your conversion rate.
3) Optimize for Mobile
With mobile users making up over half of all internet traffic, it's an absolute necessity to optimize your store for the mobile experience and the desktop experience.
Not only will this have a great effect on your SEO, but it'll ensure that your store loses as few customers as possible because they visited the store on their phone.
4) Use Simple Checkout Design Principles to Avoid Distractions
A distracted customer is a not-buying customer.
The same goes for a confused customer, or a frustrated customer.
To avoid distracting, confusing, or frustrating your customers, keep your checkout process design as simple as possible.
A simple checkout page is one of the most effective conversion tools out there.
The Wrap Up: Strong Checkout Pages Can Make or Break an eCommerce Store
A well-built checkout experience can turn a good store into a great one, while an unoptimized checkout page can tank your conversion rate completely.
Hopefully, you were able to learn something from all of these excellent checkout pages.
If you found this guide useful, make sure to read some of the other content on our blog.
Have any tips that you use to increase conversions on your own checkout page? Let us know in the comments, we'd love to hear from you!