Boosting Satisfaction and Sales: An E-commerce Checkout Design Case Study

A recent case study highlights how strategic e-commerce checkout design can significantly boost customer satisfaction and sales. By focusing on user empathy, particularly for an older demographic, and streamlining the purchase funnel, a major retailer successfully tackled high cart abandonment rates and improved conversion, demonstrating the tangible business value of thoughtful digital design.

Revolutionizing Retail: Belk’s E-commerce Overhaul #

Belk, a prominent department store chain, embarked on a six-month e-commerce overhaul to address industry-wide challenges, including a staggering 70% global cart abandonment rate. The redesign focused on the shopping bag and checkout experiences, with a primary goal of simplifying the purchase funnel for its largely female audience, with a significant portion aged 55-64.

The E-commerce Checkout Challenge #

Belk’s design process leveraged existing user analysis, revealing key demographics: nearly 80% female customers, with 65% aged 45 or older. Challenges identified in the previous checkout flow included:

• Too many pages and excessive text.
• Inconsistent and poorly positioned call-to-action (CTA) buttons.
• Insufficient product images, particularly problematic for older users with potential vision impairments.

The core objective was to simplify the flow of screens and interactions, making the experience more intuitive for all users, especially the target older demographic.

Streamlining the Shopping Bag Experience #

The redesign of the shopping bag aimed to simplify the page and guide users to verify their selections. Key issues addressed were:

• Cluttered promotional offers distracting users.
• Product images that were too small.
• An editing button that allowed changes at every step, rather than at the end.

Inspired by the “paradox of choice,” which suggests too many options can lead to indecision, the team implemented several tactical recommendations:

• Collapsing the search bar on mobile to reduce abandonment.
• Reducing the size of promotional banners and allowing users to close them.
• Auto-collapsing product details into a single, uncluttered container.
• Presenting express checkout options later in the flow.
• Adding a modal for bag editing to keep users on the page.
• Using a sticky CTA button on mobile to encourage progression.

Reimagining the Checkout Flow #

The primary objective for the checkout experience was to condense a three-page process into a single, scrollable page. Applying the 80-20 rule, the focus was on accessibility and ease of viewing and adjusting order details, contact information, payment, and shipping.

Key recommendations included:

• Reducing a multi-step checkout to a one-step process.
• Adding a sticky CTA to the bottom of both mobile and desktop screens.
• Consolidating form fields to improve scroll depth.
• Incorporating large, legible text fonts for improved accessibility.
• Displaying an above-the-fold order summary with thumbnail images and fulfillment details.
• Defaulting to credit card payment for guests, with alternative options like PayPal and Afterpay.

Coding Design Solutions #

Implementing the new checkout flow required significant collaboration between design and development teams. Accommodating various payment and fulfillment options, such as in-store pickup and same-day delivery, necessitated complex software engineering. Distinguishing “marketplace products” with different shipping and return policies was also crucial for clarity.

Collaboration Breeds Confidence and Trust #

Open communication between design, development, and marketing teams was vital. For instance, promotional banners were retained but shrunk to avoid pushing the CTA below the fold. An audit by Ovative Group in early 2024 confirmed the success of the redesign, with only minor suggestions for improvement. This project underscored the business value of intuitive, user-friendly e-commerce design in combating cart abandonment and boosting sales.