One of the reasons why many businesses do not maximize their revenues is because of purchase and customer friction. Friction in commerce is anything that introduces additional difficulty in making a decision or completing an action. In many cases, this action is completing a purchase at a business’ physical or online store. Today, we will look at some ways businesses can use technology to reduce or eliminate purchase friction.
Using Smartphone-based Barcode Scanning
When it comes to barcode scanning, the norm is to use bulky, slow scanners. In most cases, this equipment needs large cash investments and employee training. Fortunately, businesses can switch to something that every employee knows how to use, that is intuitive to use and that requires a lot less cash investment than using traditional barcode scanners.
Smartphone-based barcode scanning is a software-based solution for businesses that want to reduce cost and purchase friction as much as possible. Because of how fast it works, this barcode scanning solution helps businesses register purchases faster, reduces the amount of time customers wait at the till, and improves customer experiences. Because it relies on smartphone cameras, which almost everyone knows how to use, it also reduces the amount of training required, reducing friction for employees too.
Offering Multiple Payment Options
A common reason why people do not complete online purchases is that the payment option they would like to use is not available. They may also not complete a purchase if their primary payment option does not have enough funds and their second one is not supported.
To reduce friction at the checkout point, businesses should provide as many payment options as is possible and logical. Major payment options like popular debit and credit cards as well as e-wallets like PayPal should be supported before adding niche, smaller, or less popular payment options.
Using Website Speed Optimization Technologies
No one wants to stick around and wait for a slow website to finish loading. The most common reaction to a slow website is leaving and not coming back to the website. Businesses that have slow websites lose about 50% of their visitors after 3 seconds of loading and a large percent of the remaining website visitors for every second that people have to wait for a website to load.
There are several ways to eliminate this frustration. These include better website design and using content delivery networks. Better website design calls for the most important elements to be loaded within a second, and then everything else is loaded in the background. This allows visitors to start looking around even before they notice some website elements have not loaded yet.
Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) work by distributing your websites to servers all over the world. Customers who visit your website are served a version of your website from servers that are closest to them. The combination of shorter distances and blazing fast servers make your website load a lot faster and reduces the number of people who might leave due to its speed.
Conclusion
There are several areas in a customer’s purchase journey where friction can be introduced. Businesses can use the tips above to eliminate some of this friction on their physical and online stores.