Discover how shoppers want to buy: Insights from 110K+ checkouts

The world of online shopping is flourishing. More people are online than ever before, more people are making purchases on their laptops, mobiles, and tablets than ever before – and brands have more avenues to turn consumers into customers than ever before.

In 2023, the UK had almost 60 million e-commerce users, while the UK’s e-commerce market leads the way in Europe. The future also looks bright: PwC’s recent global consumer insights survey found that 43% of respondents plan to increase online shopping in the next six months.

In this following report by Simpler, a one-click checkout solution, we look at how shoppers are changing their online behaviour and consider how brands can find solutions to increase conversions, drive loyalty and improve customer satisfaction.

Shopping in the age of instant gratification

According to the Baymard Institute, the traditional checkout process sees a cart abandonment rate of nearly 70%, a concern for brands. In Spain, this figure rises to 86.15%, as reported by IAB Spain's Annual E-Commerce Study. The checkout's length and complexity make 16% of Spanish online shoppers to abandon carts, per the study.

Gen Z and Millennials prioritize shopping convenience, abandoning carts when experiences are lacking. A 2022 Capterra survey discovered that 66% expect checkout in four minutes, 28% in two minutes. Additionally, 82% avoid purchases due to intricate registration.

Are brands adapting to changing behaviours promptly? Is the customer experience optimal? Marketing efforts fall short if purchases aren't completed.

Ultimately, it's all about conversions. Simpler's research, stemming from 100,000+ checkouts with the Simpler button, offers insights for brands to enhance speed and user-friendliness:

Snooze, and you may lose

The buying funnel starts with the product page, followed by the mini cart page, then the cart page, and, finally, the checkout page. Shoppers prefer the option to buy earlier in the funnel. So, rather than making the purchase after reaching the checkout page, 78% of shoppers would choose to checkout earlier in the buying journey: 21% for the product page, 32% for mini cart, and 25% for cart. If you’re not converting a consumer into a customer as quickly as possible, then you may well lose them.

Alt text - Shopper checkout preferences

Single and impulsive

Throughout the buying funnel, the product page receives the most traffic. This traffic drops off throughout the funnel at a rate of 62.3% between the product page and mini-cart, 89.02% between the mini-cart and shopping cart page and 55.1% between the shopping cart page and checkout.

This is very relevant to those shoppers who only want to purchase a single item before moving on with their day, and those who jump from browsing to making an impulse purchase. Why put those valuable single-item shoppers through the friction of having to go all the way through the funnel, and why risk losing the impulse shoppers? By enabling checkout earlier in the funnel, retailers can take advantage of window shoppers and capitalise on the traffic on the product page.

Customers spend more when they can check out faster

For shoppers who are buying multiple items, the cart page is where they are most likely to checkout, while the average order value (AOV) of items is also at its highest on the cart page: £57.60, against checkout page (£49.70), product page (£48.25), and mini cart page (£45.62). That the AOV for the cart page is significantly higher than for the traditional checkout page indicates that people don’t have to go through the entire checkout process to spend big. By the time they get there, they may rethink their purchasing decision or reduce the number of items they want to buy. Adding checkout options in the mini cart and cart pages improves customer experience and increases sales.

High ticket v low ticket

Brands that sell high-ticket items, such as electronics, jewellery and home and furniture, tend to see customers checking out earlier in the funnel. Why? Well, customers often engage in extensive research before making an expensive purchase, which means they are generally ready to check out from the product page or mini cart page when they arrive at the site: 71.5% of electronics purchases and 74.3% of home and furniture purchases are made before the cart page. In contrast, brands that sell low-ticket items which rely more on impulse buying tend to see customers checking out evenly across the product page, mini cart, or cart page. For example, 44.8% of fashion and accessories purchases are made on the product page or mini cart page, 55.2% are made on the cart page or checkout page.

People want to pay their own way

A brand wouldn’t insist a shopper buy their products in-store using only cash. So why do some online checkout experiences offer only one form of payment? It makes for a poor customer experience and loses potential sales. Brands should offer multiple payment options. With 55% of shoppers choosing wallet payments, wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay should join credit cards and debit cards as payment defaults. Meanwhile, BNPL (buy now, pay later) is soaring, particularly among Gen Z and millennials - it is integral that brands provide a BNPL option at checkout, such as Klarna, PayPal, or Clearpay.

Purchases, made simpler

Retailers should aim to simplify the purchase process as much as possible, wherever it exists in the funnel. This includes reducing the number of steps required to make a purchase, minimising the amount of information customers need to provide, ensuring the checkout experience is optimised for all devices and making sure the checkout process is simple to navigate.

Simpler, which was set up in 2021, has a strong footprint across Europe, giving it access to significant amounts of first-party data, which can provide merchants with detailed insight into online consumer behaviour. Its one-click online checkout provides a solution to the problem of abandonment: its secure checkout doesn't require a username, password, or any long forms filled out, and provides all major payment options. This leads to higher conversion rates, greater customer satisfaction and reduced cart abandonment. By placing its ‘Quick Buy’ button throughout the buyer journey – product page, mini cart page, cart page and checkout page – brands can encourage customers to make purchases at any stage of the journey