99 per cent of Malaysian customers said it was important for a website to provide common payment methods, while 53 per cent of Malaysian shoppers say they’ll abandon a purchase if checkout takes more than three minutes.
A new study from Stripe, a financial infrastructure platform for businesses, reveals that many of Malaysia’s most visited e-commerce websites have error-ridden checkouts, which frustrate customers and cost businesses revenue.
Stripe conducted a detailed review of the 100 top e-commerce websites in Malaysia, uncovering significant errors in the checkout pages of many of the region’s most visited websites. The report, “The State of Checkouts in 2022,” presents the stark results: The checkouts on the largest e-commerce websites are riddled with mistakes and fall far short of the standards shoppers expect.
With economic growth in Asia-Pacific (APAC) projected to decelerate to 4.2 per cent this year, optimising the checkout experience will allow businesses to make more money for less effort—a simple, efficient way of boosting sales during the economic downturn.
Websites are losing money in onerous checkouts
Online shoppers expect the checkout process to be fast—and they leave when it’s not. In Malaysia, more than half (53 per cent) said they would abandon a purchase if the checkout process took three minutes. This means businesses are losing about half of all online customers who intend to make a purchase. Additionally, only 10 per cent of customers always complete their online purchases, implying the majority (~90 per cent) do not make a purchase.
However, 99 per cent of e-commerce sites in APAC make five or more basic errors that slow the checkout process and are missed opportunities:
In Malaysia:
- 58 per cent do not display security logos on their checkout page, jeopardising customer trust
- 69 per cent do not follow up with customers who had abandoned their cart
- 94 per cent do not recommend higher-end versions of a product or service through upselling
- 44 per cent do not recommend related products or services through cross-selling
- 34 per cent of websites allow customers to attempt to pay with an expired card, increasing the likelihood of payment errors
Not optimised for mobile
On average, over 70 per cent of Malaysian customers use their mobile phones to shop for products online more than they use their desktops or laptop. Customers are also shopping through social media, with 92 per cent of survey respondents saying they use platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to make purchases.
This signals an urgent need for businesses to improve their mobile checkout experiences. While 98 per cent of APAC businesses surveyed adapted their checkout flow to a smaller screen, the majority did not support wallets, a mobile-friendly payment method that allows customers to store payment information, such as debit or credit cards, on their phones. Top mobile optimisation errors in APAC include:
- 89 per cent do not support Apple Pay or Google Pay
- 66 per cent do not provide the ability to save payment information for future purchases
- 26 per cent failed to surface a numeric keypad to help enter card information
Payment options not localised
Offering the right local payment options can help increase revenue. An overwhelming 99 per cent of Malaysian customers said it was important for a website to provide common payment methods.
With Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) methods, like Grab’s PayLater, becoming increasingly popular, 74 per cent of Malaysian customers said they would be more likely to complete a purchase if a BNPL option was available. However, only 40 per cent of e-commerce sites in APAC offer them.
Poor practices for subscriptions
Subscription businesses are on the rise, with Stripe’s findings revealing that, on average, consumers in APAC pay for two active subscriptions. To win subscribers, merchants could do better:
- 57 per cent of subscription sites did not offer a free trial, which would allow users to try before they buy
- 79 pre cent of APAC customers has had a negative experience with subscriptions—with the top reason being that it takes too many steps to cancel a subscription.
“In light of economic uncertainty, businesses that are ignoring their checkout experiences are subjecting themselves to unnecessary revenue loss,” said Paul Harapin, Head of Asia Pacific & Japan, Stripe. “There are easy fixes to these issues, especially with using technology like Stripe Checkout, which addresses these common errors seamlessly, ensuring no money is left on the table because of an abandoned cart.”
