New Checkout Infrastructure

badarac:

Yeah, what they said. Man I miss Conor

We especially miss Conor and are trying as hard as we can to support the CEON business, customer base and distribution of his existing (+forthcoming) modules. Advanced shipper is a prime example of a module which has helped so many ZC users around the world to enhance their online business. One shipping module that does everything :)

However, please be aware that at this point in time Advanced Shipper remains commercial and everyone should honor and respect that for the sake of Conor's hard work, the CEON business and family. Please follow protocol.

That said, Wilt & team are all very aware of it's benefits and talks are already underway on it's future. I personally think it would be a great honour for it to be added into future releases.

Enough said for now.

On the topic of checkout - while I'm right behind a new enhanced checkout, I would recommend that we first group together and provide some live reference sites that meet end users needs. (Feeding that useful information to the ZC dev team)

Far too often 'development' decisions are made upfront without end users being considered and that can have a negative impact on a sites performance. This is where UX analyse, design need to come into play (to meet core goals) before development is under taken. The end solution is then based on true findings and avoids complaints.

The last thing any of us what is a brand new checkout process which hasnt taken account of end user usability and because of that our sites drop off rates increase.

A good reference site/checkout is https://www.asos.co.uk who's checkout has already undergone GA analysis, AB testing and has been actively improved over time.

What are others thought about this? Do you know of a checkout that's clear to navigate and use?

Regards

Jamie @JSWeb

JSWeb:

On the topic of checkout - while I'm right behind a new enhanced checkout, I would recommend that we first group together and provide some live reference sites that meet end users needs. (Feeding that useful information to the ZC dev team)

Far too often 'development' decisions are made upfront without end users being considered and that can have a negative impact on a sites performance. This is where UX analyse, design need to come into play (to meet core goals) before development is under taken. The end solution is then based on true findings and avoids complaints.

The last thing any of us what is a brand new checkout process which hasnt taken account of end user usability and because of that our sites drop off rates increase.

A good reference site/checkout is www.asos.co.uk who's checkout has already undergone GA analysis, AB testing and has been actively improved over time.

What are others thought about this? Do you know of a checkout that's clear to navigate and use?

Regards

Jamie @JSWebMy remarks about the checkout process and inquires into incoporating the v2.3 COWOA changes were based on taking into account the shopper and shopowner POV..

I personally obtained feedback came from three clients and some of their customers. These clients were in the process of migrating their stores from a misbehaving version of FEAC to COWOA.. While my clients were onboard with replacing FEAC with COWOA, we also thought from a user POV that COWOA v2.2 did not stand up well to some of the user experiences of FEAC. So we actively sought to improve that user experience before going live with COWOA.

My clients all had customers who participated in the testing and provided feedback that we used to improve the checkout experience.. The customer feedback was invaluable and changes were made to many of the on-screen messages as a result.. We also did some research on the web and I found an article by Delia Wilson to be particularly helpful as she pointed out some long standing inconsistencies with regards to user experience and the DEFAULT Zen Cart checkout that were not addressed in COWOA.

Finally we did some research to see what other large retailers were doing (ie: Amazon, Target, Wal-Mart, Sears, Barnes & Noble). Some of the on-screen headers and messaging they used were very useful in providing clear on-screen information to shoppers.. So we incorporated some of these elements into COWOA.

The result has been that the transition from FEAC to COWOA has been smooth as glass for their customers.. All three clients were doing well in terms of sales prior to the transition.. Since the transition there has been no loss in sales.. In fact we are seeing an increase in sales in all three sites since the transition (one site in particular is seeing HUGE increases which we cannot say with any certainty are due to COWOA, but it probably is a factor)..

All of this feedback and the changes I made to my client's sites was incorporated into COWOA v2.3. These changes are all usuability changes, made from the customer feedback I received and therefore a customer POV. This is why I wanted to raise this to the developers attention as they considered the new checkout functionality..

DivaVocals:

I found an article by Delia Wilson to be particularly helpful as she pointed out some long standing inconsistencies with regards to user experience and the DEFAULT Zen Cart checkout that were not addressed in COWOA.
Changes included in COWOA v2.3 based on the above referenced article:

• Moved the continue to step text next to the continue button for greater clarity.
• **Checkout Payment - **Changed the text next to the continue button to read continue to review which is the correct name for the step that the shopper is taken to (Confirm order happens on the review page). That’s something that needs cleaning up in the default Zen Cart checkout.

Once again, this is a super exciting new direction for Zen Cart. I'm standing on one foot and then the other until this gets released! :) Go Wilt!

swguy:

Once again, this is a super exciting new direction for Zen Cart. I'm standing on one foot and then the other until this gets released! :) Go Wilt!
Funny!!!:laugh: but I do second the sentiment...:laugh:

DivaVocals:

My remarks about the checkout process and inquires into incoporating the v2.3 COWOA changes were based on taking into account the shopper and shopowner POV..

I personally obtained feedback came from three clients and some of their customers.

Great to here. Could you share the sites so we can see the processes in place.

JSWeb:

Great to here. Could you share the sites so we can see the processes in place.
I'll have to see if my customers are okay with me sharing their site for that purpose. I'm sure you can understand that I certainly don't want a bunch of people running through the checkout on their sites just to "see" what I did. I would be willing to share a development site showing what I did instead. And since the development versions of these sites are on my local box I have to put them live somewhere to see.

In the meantime if you're really interested in seeing what I did to the three sites, its all reflected in the latest version of COWOA v2.3. All of the changes I spoke of are bundled up and reflected in the latest version of COWOA.

DivaVocals:

In the meantime if you're really interested in seeing what I did to the three sites, its all reflected in the latest version of COWOA v2.3. All of the changes I spoke of are bundled up and reflected in the latest version of COWOA.

To add to this post.. Correcttion I mean COWOA v2.4, (not v2.3 as I have erroneously stated previously) here's a high level summary of the changes that are reflected on the sites I spoke of of in my previous post:

• Refining and improve the on-screen text and error messages for this module.
  (Many of them are a little awkwardly worded or inconsistent)
• Create a distinct COWOA duplicate e-mail error messages.
  (in prior versions of COWOA the Standard and COWOA flows shared the SAME duplicate e-mail error message which is confusing and incorrect)
• New admin switch to turn off sideboxes during the checkout
  (Many of the larger e-commerce retailers turn off "distractions" during their checkout processes for the same reason - i.e. Amazon. By reducing customer distractions during checkout you can help to decrease cart abandonment, and to increase sales conversions.)
• Corrected the text in the standard flow to reflect that there are FOUR steps not THREE. (in prior versions the confirmation step is counted in the COWOA flow, but not in the standard flow)
• The final confirmation step in BOTH flows and the billing step of the COWOA flow are missing the heading "Step # of #".
• On the payment page the customer is prompted "to confirm your order". Step 4 is actually the REVIEW before confirmation order step.
• Change to the PayPal Express text to make it clearer that no PayPal account is required to use PayPal.(you'd be AMAZED how many people STILL don't know this)

and I documented more details of these changes in the COWOA support thread:
http://www.zen-cart.com/showthread.php?196995-COWOA-%28for-ZC-v1-5-x%29&p=1184148#post1184148

DivaVocals:

I'll have to see if my customers are okay with me sharing their site for that purpose.

Hi, how did you get on? A live model for us to review would certainly help.

Here's a different style checkout I can share http://www.horsehealth.co.uk

What we found most interesting was to see the GA Goals Funnel instantly show less drop offs and more conversions. Additionally, the value spend per customer increased.

We've put this down to being able to edit the basket during checkout.

We also ran A/B testing on the check call to action Conor set and position.

JSWeb:

Hi, how did you get on? A live model for us to review would certainly help.

Here's a different style checkout I can share http://www.horsehealth.co.uk

What we found most interesting was to see the GA Goals Funnel instantly show less drop offs and more conversions. Additionally, the value spend per customer increased.

We've put this down to being able to edit the basket during checkout.

We also ran A/B testing on the check call to action Conor set and position.

Hi Jamie
just fyi it looks like your client's mobile theme could be missing a language file? See screenshot.

JSWeb:

Hi, how did you get on? A live model for us to review would certainly help.

Here's a different style checkout I can share http://www.horsehealth.co.uk

What we found most interesting was to see the GA Goals Funnel instantly show less drop offs and more conversions. Additionally, the value spend per customer increased.

We've put this down to being able to edit the basket during checkout.

We also ran A/B testing on the check call to action Conor set and position.Been a tad busy on other projects to setup a test site.. Besides, my clients are not interested in me sharing their sites here just so folks here can run through their checkout processes on their live sites (I'm sure you understand this right??:smile:).. If you need a live model to review, there's no reason that you can't create a test site to check this out yourself.. :smile:

That said, as I stated previously, if you're really interested in seeing what I did, its all reflected in the latest version of COWOA (v2.4). All of the changes I spoke of are bundled up and reflected in the latest version of COWOA.

DivaVocals:

and I documented more details of these changes in the COWOA support thread:
http://www.zen-cart.com/showthread.php?196995-COWOA-(for-ZC-v1-5-x)&p=1184148#post1184148

picandnix:

Hi Jamie
just fyi it looks like your client's mobile theme could be missing a language file? See screenshot.

Thanks Picandnix - that mCommerce mod on that site is out of date. The latest version is installed on their text server and going through review. Fingers crossed we get that all in place v.soon.

(Note: That will have a different more standard checkout for mobile)

DivaVocals:

That said, as I stated previously, if you're really interested in seeing what I did, its all reflected in the latest version of COWOA (v2.4). All of the changes I spoke of are bundled up and reflected in the latest version of COWOA.

Sure, will have to find the time to install onto a test environment to see what it does. In the mean time, if you get a test site up, do share.

JSWeb:

Sure, will have to find the time to install onto a test environment to see what it does. In the mean time, if you get a test site up, do share.
I will do so.. Might have one to share as one of the sites I converted from FEAC to COWOA is undergoing a minor facelift and I am at the stage where I am working on putting up a live dev store for my client to begin UAT of the new look/feel.. I can share that one when it's at a stage that it's ready to be looked at..