Report finds 99% of Australia’s top e-commerce sites have basic checkout errors

Basic checkout errors are a make-or-break moment for online businesses according to a new report, with 99% of Australia’s leading e-commerce websites making five or more mistakes at checkout.

Stripe, a financial infrastructure platform for businesses, conducted a review of the 100 top e-commerce websites in Australia in their report, ‘The State of Checkouts in 2022’, by analysing online sales volume.

The report found that the majority of Australia’s most visited e-commerce websites have error-ridden checkouts which cost businesses revenue and customers.

In fact, more than 47% of online shoppers say they will get so frustrated that they will abandon their purchase if checkout takes more than three minutes, and 80% of shoppers will leave their carts if their preferred payment method is not offered.

These figures mean businesses are losing about half of all online customers who actually intend to make a purchase. Additionally, only 10% of customers always complete their online purchases.

According to the report, the five basic errors that slow down the checkout process can be narrowed down to 89% of e-commerce businesses not following up with customers that had abandoned their cart, and 84% not recommending higher-end versions of a product or service through upselling.

The findings also show that 55% of e-commerce businesses do not recommend related products or services through cross-selling and 31% of websites let customers attempt to pay with an expired card, increasing the likelihood of payment errors.

The fifth error is that 77% of Australia’s e-commerce sites do not display security logos on their checkout page, which jeopardises customer trust.

For many consumers, security is at the top of their minds and could make the difference between them completing a purchase or not. Especially so given the recent data breaches being reported across some of Australia’s largest companies in recent weeks.

Stripe managing director of ANZ Karl Durrance says he believes that with Australia being the eleventh-largest e-commerce market in the world and our economic growth projected to decelerate to 1.75% next year, optimising checkout experiences could be the key to retail businesses boosting sales during the economic downturn.

“Australian businesses have embraced e-commerce in recent years, however, those ignoring their online checkout experience are subjecting themselves to unnecessary revenue loss,” said Durrance.

“Addressing the common checkout issues doesn’t have to be complicated. With technology like Stripe Checkout, businesses have the support of a team of engineers and designers working continually and obsessing over every detail of their checkout from the load time to the smallest animation, increasing sales on their behalf.”

The report also details an urgent need for businesses to improve their mobile checkout experiences with more than 59% of Australian customers using their mobile phones to shop for products online more than they use their desktop or laptop. Approximately 77% of survey respondents use platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to make purchases.