Checkout flow - Are we the only client with customers who are getting confused over billing vs delivery addresses?
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Scott
We get quite a few customers who struggle with entering a business address vs delivery address. Enough for me to take a proper look. They have a point, its not the "standard" flow that one gets from much large ecommerce checkout processes, its almost trying TOO hard to label things rather than flowing naturally.
Is anyone else getting this issue and if so is it worth the checkout process being analysed and benchmarked? I know this has been looked at before, but its a constantly evolving process due to available payment methods and behaviours.
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Richard T
agreed, this could be a lot clearer! and also should default to the customer's billing address but sometimes doesn't
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Scott
Richard T: Yepp, as that in itself acts as a reminder to add an alternative address.
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Steven Sproat
" with entering a business address vs delivery address" -- did you mean billing, not business?
What is the feedback from the customers? I've just gone through the checkout and it seems pretty clear to me,
- capture delivery address initially
- confirm if billing address is correct (defaults to the delivery address initially selected)
- - if not, allow the selecting of a previous address, or enter a new one
The only possible confusion I could think of is the "details I've used before" which shows one address in a dropdown (my entered delivery address)
I always go through as a guest, so this dropdow may be a bit redundant?
Perhaps if I'm a guest, then choosing "update billing details" should just go straight to the form with the details pre-populated from the delivery info
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Scott
Steven Sproat: yes it’s billing address.
Looking at several other sites and then the usual prepack platforms such as Shopify, the standard flow appears to be entering you BILLING address, and then selecting IF you want it sending to a different address. The current offer on our sites does not follow this and flips it round. This I think is what’s causing the issue, and with the sensitivity of the citrus lime payment gateway regards fraud scoring and incorrect address details, it causes an issue there too.
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Steven Sproat
Scott: I've checked some shopify sites and they ask for the shipping address first, as does Ebay, Amazon and Tredz.
Personally I'd rather be asked for shipping address first and then to confirm if the billing address is different.
So I don't think there's a best practice as such, but I did come across this: https://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/60846/why-ask-for-billing-address-first
"Research-based recommendation: “Since more customers can relate to what a ‘Shipping address’ is, you should always ask if the ‘Billing address’ should be different from the ‘Shipping address’ and not the other way around”. Source: p. 10 in: Appleseed J., Holst C. (2017) E-Commerce Checkout Usability (Version 1.1.10), Copenhagen: Baymard Institute."
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Scott
Steven Sproat: I don’t disagree as you say there is no best practice - Shopify sites run both ways depending on the subscription level and theme, but something is not right for our customers with how it’s presenting so maybe rather than an ordering thing is a signposting issue.
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Will (RA)
This should be a constant metric being reported on, with a/b tests running 365 days..
I wonder if it’s a generational/screen size issue? As I find it confusing too!
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Scott
Will (RA): couldn’t agree more hence my post last week about a/b testing but although a/b testing of a checkout IS 100% possible and indeed I ran a project at Cancer Research doing exactly that for 6 months to reduce our abandonment significantly - your generational comment was a big component in that project - a/b testing software can’t do checkout testing, so would need citrus lime to support and implement.
The large majority of customers are fine with it but when we are getting reviews saying sometimes that the checkout is confusing it’s enough to warrant investigation or at least ask the question :)