An e-commerce shopping experience will not be enjoyable - or worse, a purchase might not be completed - if the checkout process is cumbersome, confusing, or error prone.

By the time your customers reach the checkout process on your site, they may be impatient to finish the order and move on.

Online shoppers do not want surprises, such as hidden charges, unavailable items, tedious text entires, confusing links, or broken pages.

Only a straightforward process that is streamlined to include minimal navigation and data entry can make the process feel easy.

Eliminate Distraction. Customers who are ready to make a purchase don’t like long or complicated instructions. Provide a progress bar to let people know where they are in the checkout and how many steps are left.

Address Potential Deal Breakers. When customers are about to place an order, they may have questions about shipping or return policies, is international shipping available, is gift wrapping available, etc, and they will want answers even before they begin to check out. Your ability to answer these questions can help improve sales.

Build Trust throughout the Process. Customers are sensitive to the amount of information you request and the order in which you request it. If a web site asks for too much information up front, customers become suspicious or negative.

Checking out should be a simple four steps process that funnels customers toward completion of an order.

1. In a secure area of the site, allow customers to check out without storing their information, or let them create or use a customer identifier so that they don’t need to reenter information.

2. Gather shipping and handling information so that you can tabulate the total cost of the order, including taxes, at the next step.

3. Show the total cost of the order along with order summary so customer can verify the information.

4. Confirm that funds for the order are currently available, and give the customer a final opportunity to confirm the order. Once the order is complete, provide a printable receipt and invite the customer to return