One of the key advantages of e-commerce is being able to do business internationally minus the actual cost and hassle of being there physically. On the other hand, e-commerce merchants are faced with an often overlooked yet extremely vital task: making sure that their international checkout forms are usable and effective. After all, giving your customer the power to successfully complete a sale online is the final test of your success as an e-commerce merchant.
In an article for GetElastic.com, Linda Bustos, a well known expert in the marketing community, analyzes some of the international checkout forms of well-known and well-loved companies and e-commerce veterans, and culls helpful tips for other e-commerce merchants. Using the Victoria’s Secret website as a reference, Bustos notes that asking for the customer’s billing address is a prudent decision, instead of simply assuming that a customer’s IP address corresponds with their billing address. Additionally, Victoria’s Secret’s website has two checkout forms to better accommodate international customers—an international form and a US/Canada form.
The writer notes that for businesses with “multiple stores for multiple countries,” having multiple checkout forms for each country is good for usability, but there is also a potential problem e-commerce merchants should be wary of—if their customer is not directed to the correct site, they might get stuck in the domestic site thinking that the company is not willing to do business with them. She cited the case of Apple where the country selector is not easy to spot. As Bustos puts it, it sends an all too wrong message, “it’s USA or go away.” A better approach, according to the writer, is to include a message to international customers who are in the wrong site.
Doing e-commerce is never an excuse to forgo good customer service practices. There is no single template for an effective and usable checkout form. If you are an e-commerce merchant catering to international visitors, always consider what would be usable, helpful and easy for them. After all, international visitors are the ones who are helping keep your business afloat, so take the time to assess or reassess whether your checkout forms are there to be of service to your customers.