WebProNews

The majority of online retailers (79%) say improving the checkout process is one of their top priorities for the remainder of the year, according to a new Forrester Research report.

Online retailers are also focusing on shipping, specifically they want to increase the transparency of shipping charges to reduce shopping cart abandonment. The survey found, 88 percent of retailers will focus on providing more shipping information within the next year, including details when a customer can expect to receive a package and information about when items have left the warehouse.  In addition, 67 percent of retailers said they would pay special attention to calculating the loaded cost of an order prior to checkout.

Sucharita Mulpuru

"Retailers realize that, particularly during an economic downturn, shoppers who understand shipping charges at the beginning of the checkout process are less likely to abandon their purchases," said Sucharita Mulpuru, Forrester Research Vice President, Principal Analyst and lead author of the report.

With online shoppers wanting as much information as possible before making a purchase, retailers continue to improve the quality of information on product detail pages. Fifty percent of retailers will focus on adding alternative product images, zoom, and color or fabric swatches (31%) this year.

Retailers are also relying on shoppers to provide key information to product detail pages. More than half (60%) use customer ratings and reviews and 55 percent of retailers will make ratings and reviews a priority for the coming year. In addition, 34 percent will incorporate automated recommendation tools by third parties.

Along with improving details on current pages, retailers are adding new pages to their sites to help shoppers on a budget. The majority (89%) of retailers say they are introducing sale or clearance pages to their sites in the coming months.

According to the survey, 73 percent of retailers plan to add different skins or filters to their search functions, which would allow shoppers to choose multiple attributes like brand, color, color, price and size to their site search. In addition, 41 percent of retailers said they are considering introducing an entirely new search engine to their websites.