By “check out,” of course, we don’t mean to check out mentally, or to check out of your site. We mean that if you use an e-commerce option on your site where people can use a checkout option to purchase immediately, you need to make it as easy as possible.

You’ve sold the conversion — the visitor wants to buy from you, and buy from you now — so you want to place as few hurdles in the way as possible. It’s an essential element of anything you do on the Internet: Give the visitor a reason to stay, to check out your other pages, and ultimately, to convert into a customer. If you use an online checkout system, keep the following points in mind.

Don’t require registration/login
Sure, you want to get this information for lead generation and research, but it’s not a barrier you want to put up when you need someone to convert.

When someone is on the hook and wanting to purchase your service/product, that visitor doesn’t want to go through several more minutes of inputting info. Provide a guest checkout option to be sure to get the sale. If you want to increase the likelihood of getting a full registration later, include a link in the confirmation email — with a discount on the next purchase simply for registering.

Let shoppers save their personal info
Why do people buy so much stuff on Amazon? It certainly helps that they have their shipping and billing addresses, along with their credit card information, already saved. Amazon’s one-click buying option isn’t just convenient for customers; it also makes it incredibly easy for Amazon to convert a visitor. Just make sure visitors verify their billing with a security code each time.

Keep things concise
The tiniest things can prompt a visitor to duck out on a potential purchase at the last minute. The fewer fields you require a visitor to fill out, the better. Only ask for information you absolutely need, and offer shortcuts for shoppers like providing a checkbox that lets them indicate their shipping and billing address are the same.