Optimising the smartphone checkout process in the UK

The journey from basket to checkout – and, crucially, to payment – is an important one for optimising your strategy for UK markets. Smartphone shopping has risen in popularity, with many large retailers now offering incentives to shop on their mobile apps. Our data shows that in Q2 of 2021, the average market breakdown of traffic from different devices attributed 62% to smartphones, compared to only 28% and 10% for tablets and desktops. Similarly, when looking at revenue streams in the same period, 50% comes from smartphones, 41% from desktops, and 9% from tablets. In both traffic and revenue, smartphones drew the most sales. Optimising your UK smartphone checkout is, therefore, key to securing those sales. 

Go to checkout 

The first stage of the mobile checkout is what’s called the ‘go-to checkout’ phase, in which the customer moves from the basket page to the checkout itself. At this point, an average of 38% of people who have added items to their basket will actually make it to the checkout. So, what strategies can you utilise to try and make this rate as high as possible? We looked at how the offering of voucher codes impacted this conversion from basket to checkout. The most popular technique employed by retailers was to offer ‘voucher code at basket’, whilst both ‘discount at checkout page’ and ‘no discount’ weren’t offered nearly as much. Those who didn’t offer a voucher code at all tended to have the lowest conversion rate. 

This graph shows how many customers went from basket to checkout using a voucher code. The bars on the graph depict retailers and their sector (for example, the green t-shirt is clothing, and the heart is health and beauty) against the percentage of their customers who went to checkout using a voucher code. 

Graph 1 – Percentage of customers who used a discount code 

Some retailers answered that as much as over 60% of their customers used discounts. Due to the steep curve, our data suggests that the option to add a voucher code is an important aspect of ensuring the customer follows through from the shopping basket to the checkout page. 

Checkout delivery 

The next stage of the customer’s journey to completing checkout on their smartphone is delivery. The top performers will get an 80-90% conversion rate at this point, but there are also low performers, converting at under 30% at this stage, that drag the overall average down. 

What we’ve seen is that free delivery over a certain amount is very common; however, a lot of customers know they can order the items and return them for free, so perhaps this isn’t always the ideal strategy, just because it’s popular. Free delivery is commonly offered, often with a longer waiting time, whilst free next-day delivery is quite rare. 

The delivery considerations usually come from cost and speed, as these are what customers are looking for. We found that the top-performing retailers, with the highest conversion rates, tended to offer more delivery choices. With the 4 types of delivery options, the retailers performing in the top third of our sample had an average of 1.9 options, whereas those in the lowest third offered an average of 1.5 options. This is a significant difference, highlighting the importance of optimising your delivery options to increase the conversion rate on a mobile checkout. 

Payment optimisation 

Finally, the last stage of the checkout journey for mobile users is the payment point. After adding items to their basket, only 53% of customers will make it through the payment stage. With a smooth, accessible system, customers are more likely to follow through with a purchase. Our data focuses on checkout conversion and payment types, as we found that, on smartphones, orders made on PayPal averaged at 30% of the total, whilst 9.6% are using Apple Pay for retailers that offer these options. Fewer retailers offer Apple Pay, however, of those who do, 1 in 10 customers use it, which is of significance when attempting to optimise conversions. Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) solutions have become far more popular in recent years, especially with retailers who have a higher conversion rate. The graph below depicts the distribution of payment options across the retailers (at the top), ranked by their conversion rate (CR) and performance. 

Graph 2 – Retailers and their payment methods, ranked by CR performance 

The top third performing retailers with the highest conversion rates all offered the greatest variety of delivery options at the checkout, with everything from PayPal and Apple Pay, to BNPL options. The least popular form of payment, however, was Google Pay. It is this variety of options that drives a high conversion rate from checkout through to completing the payment. 

Acquiring and retaining customers via smartphones is absolutely essential when it comes to creating a successful strategy in the UK market. Pay close attention to voucher codes, delivery options, and payment, as providing options and ease is the way forward. 

This editorial was first published in our Cross-Border Payments and Ecommerce Report 2021–2022, which taps into the fast-growing cross-border market and provides a comprehensive overview of trends and developments that are pivotal in this space, being the ultimate source of information for ecommerce businesses interested in expanding globally. 

About Emily Black 

Emily Black is Content Executive and Analyst at IMRG. With a background in marketing and writing, she creates meaningful reports, blogs, newsletters, and articles. She aims to cut through industry noise and delve into the insight that IMRG has to offer. 

About IMRG 

At IMRG, we’re unique in our emphasis on helping retailers and brands, to better understand and improve their online performance. In recent years, IMRG has grown to become the UK’s largest ecommerce membership community. Comprised of retailers, brands, and technology partners, we actively work together to deliver growth. We generate valuable connections and build long-term relationships through the sharing of ideas and imrg.org best practices between ecommerce professionals.