How should you approach split-testing your checkout process?

This question was asked of Bryan Eisenberg in yesterday’s Google Website Optimizer webinar. Bryan recommended split-path testing, reducing the number of steps in your process and using your analytics data to determine what part of your checkout path needs attention.

What is Split-Path Testing?

The definition of a split-path test, according to GrokDotCom:

Split-Path Test — This test will split your traffic among different linear paths containing multiple pages for each path. This is different in that you’re testing the performance of grouped pages against other grouped pages. For example, you could test a checkout process by splitting it into two variations; one with four steps (or pages), and another with only three steps. Each variation of grouped pages will have the same Goal Page (e.g., order confirmation page). Once the data is collected, the winning checkout process will be the one that converted a higher percentage of visitors.

Reducing Checkout Steps

Different ecommerce stores have different checkout paths, ranging from one-page AJAX checkouts to 6 steps or more. Bryan believes less is more - in fact, he recommends going under 4 steps. But you can find out for yourself if this is so for your website by doing your own testing.

I’ve gathered some examples of checkout steps (many are generally the same aside from labeling) that can give you some ideas for how to simplify your process. For example, you may want to test a new path with a combined billing and shipping page vs. your existing separate steps. Or you may want to ditch a step that may be clogging your funnel, such as “Rewards Program.”

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Checkout Process Split-Testing Tip from Bryan Eisenberg »

I love it when the “little guy” does something that I haven’t even seen on some of the larger sites I cite as examples here on the Get Elastic Ecommerce Blog. I recently bought a few items from C28, a Christian-lifestyle-clothing shop in California and noticed they were doing a couple of cool things I’d never seen before.

Even when scoping out sites for personal purchases, my usability consultant’s hat is always on. (It’s like those people who take film studies and can never watch a movie the same.) So I was really impressed by this virtual unknown offering features like “Email Me if My Size is Re-stocked” and “Email Me Before This Item Sells Out.” I even went to the search engine to see if I could find another site with this features (after trying a variety of word combinations) and so far haven’t found any. If you’ve seen another store doing something similar, please comment.

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Small Etailer Packs Big Usability Features »

Guess what? People like to shop online (or by cellphone) and pick up in-store. We all love research to back up our theories, so here goes:

“Jupiter Research states that 51% of consumers are researching on the Internet and then completing their purchases offline; online research influences more than $400 billion of in-store sales and projections call for that sum to surpass $1.1 trillion by 2012.

A Gartner Group study reveals 68% of consumers are comparing prices online before shopping in a physical store and 58% locate items online before going to a store to purchase; only 13% say the Internet has not improved their in-store shopping experience.”

Source: http://view.exacttarget.com

The e-Tailing Group is offering a report of the Buy Online/Pick-Up In-Store Experience. The study sent mystery shoppers to 23 retail stores who offer in-store pickup to report on their customer experience. I won’t rehash the findings of the study here, I’ll leave you to getting those goodies yourself. Today I want to zoom in on what you might think is a minor detail: the Store Locator page. I hit up a few of the top 100-some etailers of 2006 and I offer you the following tips:

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In-Store Pickup and Store Locator Usability »