With online retailers jockeying for higher mobile sales, Fun.com experienced a lift in conversion after giving shoppers the ability to check out as a guest, eliminating the need to sign into an account to make an impromptu purchase.

Fun.com, which owns subsidiaries such as HalloweenCostumes.com, revamped its mobile Web offerings by teaming up with personalization company Qubit, using its customer experience management and analytics solutions. The focus on streamlined mobile shopping experiences resulted in higher conversion rates, most notably after HalloweenCostumes.com’s checkout process was condensed into one page, and users were allowed to make a purchase as guests.

“In a category like Halloween costumes, people who shop on mobile aren’t looking to browse,” said Charleton Lamb, senior product marketing manager at Qubit. “They know exactly what they want, so the goal is to help them find it quickly and make it very simple to purchase.”

Optimizing mobile checkouts
Fun.com sees approximately 70 percent of its traffic stem from mobile devices, meaning it must combat shopping cart abandonment by providing easily usable, fast checkout experiences. The brand increased conversion rates by 2.7 percent after Qubit’s solution condensed checkout into one page.

This highlights the necessity of eliminating the number of steps shoppers must go through before buying an item. If a customer is in the process of making an impromptu purchase on one of Fun.com’s sites, he or she may become deterred if the process requires him or her to make an account, save passwords and enter personal details.

Qubit recommends that retailers include a visible call-to-action in their baskets so that shoppers will not have to scroll extensively to locate a purchase button. HalloweenCostumes.com also implemented a product recommendation tool on the checkout page that suggests complementary pieces a customer may want to add to his or her shopping cart at the last minute.

Qubit also advises brands that accept PayPal to advertise that as an option as early in the process as possible. Other best practices include ensuring that form elements are large enough for thumb navigation, and that entry fields for addresses are easy to edit.

A slew of online marketers have leveraged these same tactics for their own optimization strategies, with great success.

Two Overstock.com executives at Mobile Marketer’s Mobile FirstLook: Strategy 2016 discussed how the online retailer leverages one-hand ergonomics to modernize checkout experiences with larger forms, swiping gestures and contextual keyboards (see story).

Additionally, enabling shoppers to save their favorite items and check out later – perhaps on a different device – is another revenue-generating tool.

“For more advanced retailers whose backend can support it, we recommend allowing shoppers to save the cart and email it to themselves so they can complete the purchase later on via desktop,” Mr. Lamb said.

Guests come first
Fun.com also maximized its mobile site usability by letting users check out as guests instead of requiring all shoppers to sign into a pre-existing account, or make a new one.

First-time customers may not have enough of a relationship with a brand to be persuaded to sign up for an account, thereby requiring marketers to optimize their commerce experiences to newbies as well as established, loyal consumers.

However, per Qubit, one useful strategy is to offer a bonus or some form of added value to customers who do opt to sign in before buying products.

“It’s less about preferring to check out as a guest and more about giving them the option to do so,” Mr. Lamb said. “We often see retailers try to collect data and build their customer profiles by requiring sign-in to check out, but that’s a huge turnoff to even loyal customers who happen to be in a rush that day.

“The better strategy is to show customers that there’s value to logging in. Whether it’s remembering their preferences, saving their payment information, or of course a rewards program, make it worthwhile and not just one more form to fill out.”