When building a checkout flow, don’t just think about your offers, your USPs, or how much you’re trying to increase your AOV.
Think about what your customer might be feeling at that moment. Then, try to build your experience around that.
Here are the 4 common emotions to consider when trying to get a customer across the finish line:
- Confusion
- Trust
- Anxiety
- FOMO
Confusion is an easy one. If your UX and checkout flow isn’t clear, some folks are going to abandon. Make sure things like costs, shipping times, and discount codes are direct, obvious, and easy to use.
If you have in-cart offers, free shipping thresholds, and upsells, test them to be sure they aren’t clogging up your checkout and driving people away.
Trust is big, especially for first-time purchasers. If they haven’t bought from you before and don’t know the brand, you’ll need to assure them you’re legit. You can battle this with trust badges and social proof.
Trust badges can range from payment/security or payment badges, to “guaranteed money back” promises.
Social proof can include “as seen in…” logos that list coverage of your brand by influencers or mainstream media. Or you can also add 5-star reviews that talk about how much they love the product or brand.
Price anxiety is one of the most common listed reasons for abcarts. But it can go a bit deeper than that.
No one wants to regret a purchase they’ve made once it arrives. That’s called cognitive dissonance, and you want to combat the anxiety around this for your potential buyers.
This is a challenge in DTC because the person can’t physically interact with your product. So there’s that extra, subconscious layer of “Is this really for me?”
Counter price anxiety with offers like free shipping thresholds and discounts. But you can also add things like a Free Gift With Purchase to increase the perception of value for money.
Segmenting your audience and personalizing your messaging is a huge unlock here as well, which we are able to pull off with AfterSell by Rokt.
If it feels like your product was made FOR THEM, you can get past the “not sure it’s for me” feeling.
Last is fear of missing out (FOMO). If you’ve done your job, then hopefully the user is excited about buying. But even then they can sometimes use a little push.
Scarcity or urgency messaging works here. Add a countdown timer for any bonus offers they may have opted into. Or talk about how quickly their SKU sells out.
You can also encourage them to start their new journey TODAY so they can get to where they want to be faster.
To sum it up:
Confusion - clear, low-friction UX
Trust - badges, social proof
Anxiety - offers, discounts, personalization
FOMO - scarcity & urgency
If you aren’t testing ways to leverage these emotions in your checkout flow, you’re leaving money on the table.
