If you’re searching for proven methods to boost your checkout conversion rates in Southeast Asia, you’re in the right place. This article explores the unique eCommerce landscape of Southeast Asia, guides you on calculating your cart abandonment rate, and offers ten effective ways to improve your checkout conversion rates in this dynamic region.
The eCommerce Landscape in Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia’s eCommerce landscape is distinctive, marked by diverse cultural, financial, and socioeconomic nuances. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated internet adoption in the region, with 40 million people coming online for the first time in 2020, bringing the total number of internet users to 400 million, up from 250 million in 2015.
In Southeast Asia, where many consumers are latecomers to the internet, desktop computer usage is relatively low. Instead, mobile devices dominate. By the end of 2020, 1.6 billion people were subscribed to mobile services, representing nearly 60% of the region’s population.
Consequently, mobile devices are the primary means for online shopping. In 2021, Indonesia emerged as the world’s largest adopter of mCommerce, with 79% of internet users in Indonesia making online purchases via mobile devices. Thailand and the Philippines closely followed with 74% and 70%, respectively.
Why Cart Abandonment is a Challenge for Merchants
As of 2022, the average cart abandonment rate hovers around 70%, meaning over three-quarters of shoppers leave websites without completing a purchase. While this figure may vary for your specific business, it’s a staggering statistic that costs eCommerce retailers millions in lost revenue annually.
Calculating Cart Abandonment Rate
Calculating your cart abandonment rate is straightforward. Simply divide the total number of completed transactions by the number of initiated transactions. This percentage represents users who showed purchase intent but did not proceed through the checkout process. Creating a checkout experience based on trust and convenience can convert more potential customers.
10 Strategies to Enhance Checkout Conversion Rates
Prioritize a Mobile-First Approach: In Southeast Asian countries with high mobile penetration, such as Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, and Malaysia, over 72% of shoppers engaged in mobile online shopping in the past month, surpassing the global average of 55.4%. Ensuring a seamless mobile experience is crucial. Additionally, speed matters; even a one-second delay in mobile load times can decrease conversions by up to 20%.
Optimize Checkout Speed: Lengthy payment processes deter customers. Approximately 34% of Asia Pacific consumers say they’d abandon a purchase if the checkout process takes more than two minutes. Ensure a smooth and efficient process by eliminating obstacles like lengthy forms, unnecessary account creation, or disabling one-click payments.
Familiar Checkout Design: If your brand is not well-known in a market, first-time customers may not fully trust it. Design your checkout to reflect your branding and incorporate familiar payment methods to build trust.
Offer Optional Account Registration: While capturing customer information is essential for repeat purchases, allowing customers to bypass account creation—known as ‘guest checkout’—expedites the process. Customers can complete their purchases faster, and if they’re satisfied, they might willingly create an account on their next visit.
Diverse Payment Methods: Besides local payment methods, cater to various demographics with alternative payment options. Include digital wallets for unbanked populations, Buy Now Pay Later for Gen-Z and Millennials, and subscription services for convenience.
Connect to Appropriate Payment Gateways: To provide the right local payment methods, connect to multiple payment gateways and processors. A more efficient option is to use a payment orchestrator platform to ensure access to suitable payment methods, guaranteed uptime, and dynamic payment routing for optimal pricing and conversion rates.
Use Site Seals: Including trust symbols like site seals can boost customer trust. Seals such as Secure Socket Layer (SSL) or Google’s Trusted Store badge indicate that your website is secure and trustworthy.
Save Shopping Carts: Real-life distractions often lead to cart abandonment. Allowing customers to save their carts via cookies, without requiring account creation, increases conversions. You can then retarget these users with ads to encourage them to complete their purchases.
Localize Payment Methods: Localize payment options to align with customers’ preferences in each market. Integration with a payment orchestration platform grants access to a variety of local and alternative payment methods with minimal effort.
Allow Saving Payment Methods and Details: Offering customers the option to save their preferred payment methods and details for quick checkout on subsequent visits enhances user convenience and encourages repeat purchases.
How a Payment Orchestration Platform Enhances Checkout Conversion Rates
While numerous strategies can improve checkout conversions, implementing them may require time, effort, and resources. Advanced payment technologies like payment orchestration platforms offer substantial benefits:
Connect to Multiple Payment Gateways: Payment orchestration platforms streamline integration with multiple gateways, providing comprehensive market coverage and simplifying the payments infrastructure.
Access to the Right Payment Methods: By connecting to multiple gateways simultaneously, you gain immediate access to local and alternative payment methods across Southeast Asia.
Ease of International Scaling: Payment orchestration platforms simplify international expansion by granting immediate access to payment methods and local currencies in new markets.
Immediate Tokenization: Payment orchestration platforms offer tokenization, a crucial security measure, ensuring the safety of customer data.
Higher Conversion Rates: The dynamic transaction routing capabilities of payment orchestration platforms lead to higher conversion rates by directing transactions to the best-performing gateways.
Why Web Technology Expert is the Ideal Payment Orchestrator for Southeast Asia
At Web Technology Expert, we specialize in aiding merchants in their Southeast Asian business ventures. Our platform simplifies integration by connecting to multiple payment gateways and processors at once, granting immediate access to over 300 international payment methods.
We empower you to offer a localized checkout experience with diverse payment methods, languages, and currencies, all while maintaining your brand’s identity through a customizable front-end. Dynamic payment routing ensures optimal conversion rates, and our CXO dashboards aid in refund management and conversion rate assessment.
With immediate access to tokenized payment technology, we guarantee the security of payment data, simplifying compliance with PCI-DSS and GDPR standards.