Your online presence sets the tone for your in-venue experience. It is a critical part of your business's ability to generate revenue. The guest experience begins before they enter the venue, so the online booking system and checkout must be quick, efficient, and user-friendly.
The latest annual report from Adyen found that 70% of consumers will not shop with organizations that have a bad online shopping experience. And 73% of venues that grew by 20% or more were the venues that allowed customers to shop and complete transactions easily across online and offline channels.
So it’s safe to say that we are in a new buying and selling era. And if your online checkout experience is not mobile-optimized (50% of customers will stop visiting a website if it’s not mobile-friendly), immersive, and intuitive, you risk deterring your guests from purchasing. Or worse still, driving them away to a competitor for good.
So what can you do to ensure your online checkout experience is better than your competitors? Read on as we go through our list of 2022 best practices for online checkouts to help your venue increase conversions and keep it that way!
Online checkout best practices
1. Ensure your online checkout is mobile-optimized
Mobile devices account for over 70% of online sales. So it’s no longer up for debate — your online checkout must be mobile-optimized. Otherwise, you’re missing out on a HUGE chunk of potential revenue.
Progressive checkouts
Guests have come to expect convenient self-serve experiences. They want to be able to book, make payments, sign waivers, manage their memberships, and check or update booking details themselves using a mobile device. ROLLER’s new progressive checkout feature for mobile makes all of this possible.
Progressive checkouts are designed and architected for mobile devices to optimize conversion rates and provide guests with engaging and immersive checkout experiences. It provides guests with a rich experience that visually communicates your brand and generates excitement for your experiences.
Progressive checkouts offer a variety of features, such as:
- Enhanced add-to-cart functions that visually assure the guest of the action and the next step to proceed toward completion
- Order summaries that can be immediately viewed and progressively edited
- Automatic completion of necessary fields required for you to identify guests and bookings
- Guest ability to pay via mobile wallets, browser-stored cards, Buy Now Pay Later, and alternative payment methods
- Ability to publish your progressive checkout via a custom domain (which increases conversions by improving user trust)
Check out our November Broadcast to learn more about progressive checkouts and how ROLLER’s progressive checkout does all of the above and more!
2. Create frictionless payment experiences for your guests
Non-traditional payment methods are rising. Over 50% of guests now want the option of paying with a digital wallet (Apple Wallet, Google Wallet, etc.), and in the US, just this past year alone, Buy Now Pay Later use grew by over 200%!
There is only steady growth predicted for these payment methods in the future, so using a payments processing system that accepts all payment methods is essential for the longevity of your operations. With such a system, you can avoid losing guests to competitors who will accept these payment methods.
Read this next: How To Increase Conversions & Decrease Fraud With ROLLER Payments
3. Allow your guests to purchase add-ons online
This point is advantageous for both you and your guests as it increases transaction values for you and convenience for your guest.
You secure more revenue upfront when your guests can purchase add-ons like food, drink, and merchandise online. They feel more comfortable doing so as they can easily personalize their upcoming experience with you. As the order is already complete, you will also require less staff when your guests arrive at your venue.
As for your guests, they will enjoy the convenience of knowing their entire experience (or party booking) at your venue is pre-organized!
Bonus benefit: when your guests purchase everything online, you receive valuable guest data about what your guests are interested in, and you can use this later in your marketing efforts.
4. Ensure the checkout process is smooth, seamless, and all-in-one view
More clicks = more friction = fewer sales.
Every extra click between selecting an item and purchasing it causes more friction in the purchasing process. 74% of guests will turn away from your online checkout if it is unpleasant to navigate. And worse still, they might tell others about it too.
Because of this, you must ensure that your website is well-built, easy to use, and navigate. Every extra click costs you conversions and increases the potential for abandoned carts.
5. Allow guests to book parties online
Parties contribute approximately 21% of all revenue ROLLER processes. But selling and facilitating parties can take A LOT of time and effort.
Using a feature like ROLLER’s new Party Package feature will save you time by making booking parties super simple for guests and staff.
Guests can select a party experience, a session time, and how many guests are attending. From there, the Party Package product will dynamically calculate the number of party inclusions from the number of guests attending.
For example, if one pizza feeds approximately five guests, and you select 15 guests, the package will automatically add three pizzas to your order!
Optimize your online checkout to optimize your revenue
Having an online checkout experience that not only works for your business but really works for your guests is critical.
Online is where your guest experience starts, so ensure that your online checkout is mobile-optimized, all-in-one view utilizes progressive checkouts, and allows guests to pay using their preferred payment method.
If interested, you can view ROLLER’s online checkout demo here.
