Forms and checkouts impact on your conversion rates. Tom New, the co-founder of Formisimo, shares his slides presented at Sascon. There's tips on how to improve your checkout/form to improve conversion rates, as well as real world examples of how companies have got it wrong.

1. Why the
long form?

2. A little about Formisimo
Advanced form analytics tool (out of beta!)
Tracks every interaction with online forms
26 metrics measured
Over 43 million form interactions tracked so far

3. Online, forms are everywhere.

4. And they carry a huge burden
You
r
for
m

5. Offline Advertising
Branding
Website
design
PR
Digital Marketing
Sales
Word of
Mouth
Affiliates
Online
advertising
Social
Media
Forms
A sales funnel (of sorts)
Customer

6. But, surely people know they
are important, and get them
right?

7. Nope, they are (mostly) terrible.
How do we know this?
70% of people who start a form do not
complete it.

8. WorldPay Study:
Why do people abandon
online checkouts?
26% - Decided against buying
21% - Process was taking too long
Polite way to
say rage quit

9. Some examples

12. Counties are no longer used for delivery
(Royal Mail has deleted them from database)

13. How much difference does it make?
1 field removed from form
$12 million extra revenue

14. A one-off, surely! Erm...
Register Continue
“You do not need to create an account to make purchases on our site.
Simply click Continue to proceed to checkout. To make your future
purchases even faster, you can create an account during checkout.”

15. Back to basics: Forms vs. Content
Jessica Enders (Formulate):
Content Forms
Exploration and task completion Task completion only
No one point of focus Users are “field focussed”
Many possible entry and exits points Often only one entry and exit point
Concepts of “success” and “failure” vary
Strictly defined concept of
“success” and “failure”
Often visited many times Often only used once

16. How does this impact visitor behaviour?

17. How does this impact visitor behaviour?
Task completion
Forms are a barrier or hurdle to some greater good, not
an end in themselves. They are a necessity, but not one
visitors enjoy

18. How does this impact visitor behaviour?
Field focussed
Careful examination of every word, instruction and label.
Much more scrutiny than browsing. Confusion and
consternation more likely.

19. How does this impact visitor behaviour?
One entry and exit point
No browsing, clear path for users, no distractions.

20. How does this impact visitor behaviour?
Success and failure strictly defined
Either a visitor becomes a customer, or they don’t.
Visits, time on page, etc do not really matter (for forms).
Conversions matter.

21. How does this impact visitor behaviour?
Often only used once
You often only get one shot!
If you fail to get it right, potential customer may get good
or service from a competitor.

22. Some common pain points

23. Captchas
Why do they exist?

24. Captchas
To prevent spam
To annoy humans

25. Captchas
What is their effect on conversion?
How many of these

26. Captchas
Are there better options?

27. Captchas
Is a simple Maths quiz any better?

28. Other options
1.Email confirmation (registration)
2.Honeypot Traps – hidden fields that users
cannot see. If filled in, likely to be spam.
3.Plugins – Akismet for Wordpress
4.No CAPTCHA

29. How much spam
do you get?
Test!

30. Double entry of information

31. Double entry of information
Why do sites ask
for this?
Prevention of
errors
But...

32. Double entry of information
Can copy and paste email address, so
benefit is negated.
Plus...
Which of these fields
contains the error?

33. The consequences for conversion rates...
Errors + Drop offs

34. - Increases effort for every user
- Can be bypassed
- Only ensures fields match, not that they
are error free
- Can cause more corrections and
drop offs
Double entry of information

35. Alternatives:
1. Unmask Password
2. Email activation
3. Get rid (if easy to reset password)
Double entry of information

36. Buttons

37. Call to action buttons exist across
websites; also on forms.
Buttons guide a user through a
form, and help task completion
Sign up for your FREE trial
Apply Now Retrieve My Quote Proceed to Checkout

38. Where are the buttons?
These
are
obvious
ly
buttons.
..
But
these
are
harder

39. So difficult
to see quickly

40. Compare with....

41. Forms
are not
like
Angry
Birds

42. Some tips - from Caroline Jarret
1. Make buttons look like buttons.
2. Put buttons where users can find them.
3. Make the most important button look like
it’s the most important one.
4. Put buttons in a sensible order.
5. Label buttons with what they do.
6. If users don’t want to do something, don’t
have a button for it.

43. Coupons & Discount Codes

44. What would
your next
move be?

45. Vouchercodes.co.uk and Forrester report:
1. The frequency of use of online voucher
codes is increasing
2. Online voucher codes reduced shopping
cart abandonment
3. Vouchers often finalised the deal for
undecided shoppers
4. The use of vouchers drove more customer
conversions
5. Spending by those who use online voucher
codes is increasing

46. But...
Giving a user a reason to leave the
checkout process.
Paypal study
45% of shoppers have abandoned
multiple shopping carts in last three
weeks, and 27% of those are in search
of a coupon.

47. And...
It’s addictive!

48. 12,000 searches a month:

49. 8,000 searches a month:

50. The sofa effect

51. How to avoid this?
Advertise your own discount codes

52. How to avoid this?
Make less prominent

53. How to avoid this?
Linguistic trickery
“Gift code” vs. “Discount code”
“Discount code (if any)”
Instantaneously input
the combination of
alpha and numeric
characters to realize
your transitive and
ultimately futile
concession.

54. How to avoid this?
Only display box if visitor arrives
via an affiliate link
OR
Don’t have them!

55. Labels and field names

56. Remember:
• Field focussed
• Task completion
Users need to achieve a goal, but will
not give over anything and everything to
achieve it.
Some fields require explanation, or
provide users with reassurance as to
why you are asking for it
(DOB, mobile numbers, sex)

57. Why do I
need to
give this
informati
on to buy
a scarf?

58. They have to provide additional (and
useful information)

59. Better...

60. Your users and potential
customers deserve better.
Better forms = happier customers
Happier customers= more
customers

61. Embrace
new
technology

63. Build
Learn Measure
Without
this, you
cannot
improve

64. 96% of people find cart
abandonment analysis highly
valuable or quite valuable

65. “Of all the methods used to help
increase conversion, cart
abandonment analysis shows the
highest correlation to an increase
in sales.”

66. Thanks for listening!
@tomnew_
tom@formisimo.com