More than half of European checkouts have multiple errors

The checkout page is the most important page on every e-commerce website. The checkout page is the page where visitors turn into buyers. Therefore, it is necessary to offer a frictionless experience on the checkout page. According to Stripe, 58% of European checkouts had at least three basics errors. These errors added unnecessary friction for customers.

E-commerce businesses spend time, money and resources on building brand awareness, driving website traffic and optimizing their product pages. E-commerce businesses do this with the goal of getting their target audience to make a purchase. However, a large number of European businesses are neglecting a crucial step in the conversion journey, the checkout flow.

Errors on checkout pages

The most common errors on checkout pages were not automatically verifying the card number as it was entered (42%), the absence of a numerical keypad for entering card numbers on mobile devices (29%), and allowing transactions to be submitted with incorrect card numbers or expiry dates (39%). In addition, 45% did not confirm the card type when a card number was entered and 19% did not allow card numbers to be entered without spaces. “On their own, these issues may seem small. But, when combined, they add up to a needlessly difficult checkout experience for customers”, says Stripe.

450 e-commerce websites

Stripe analyzed the top 450 e-commerce websites across the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy and Sweden. Checkouts in Italy and the Netherlands performed the worst for many of the factors which were assessed. In Italy, two-thirds of the analyzed websites did not confirm the card type when a card number was entered. In addition, 56% did not automatically verify the card number. And in the Netherlands, half of the checkout pages did not confirm the card type and 56% let customers attempt to pay with an expired card date.

Local languages

Many e-commerce checkout pages have another problem. The checkout pages are not translated into the local languages. Furthermore, 81% of all European checkouts did not offer local payment methods, such as, iDeal, EPS or Bancontact.