Once a customer has made a purchase, the work to entice them back begins. One of your greatest tools in this regard is creating a good order summary page. This page gives the customer a look at the most recent purchase and provides more information that might bring them back in the future. If you’re feeling stuck when thinking about how to take advantage of the order summary page, consider these tips to get the most out of it.
Keep Things Clean and Easy to Read
While it’s very tempting to bombard the customer with anything that you think might be of interest in a future shopping trip, too much information will simply result in a quick click away from your site. Try to keep things clean and simple. Use images where you can, as those draw the idea better than text. As a general rule of thumb, try to contain no more than three or four other pieces of information, and make sure that anything you present has at least some sort of connection to the product which was just purchased. By keeping things simple, you increase the chance that the customer will pay attention to what you have to say and will return to make another purchase.
Highlight Related Products
If you have an effective WooCommerce store setup, you should be able to recognize what products people tend to purchase together. Provide these related products on the order summary page as items of note that the customer may want to purchase in future. Ideally, any product image or link should also have an option to add that product to a cart or put it on a wishlist for later. If you can get a customer to click on any of these related product images, your chances of having that person come back for another purchase in the future go up dramatically. Again, keep this simple – a few product images will suffice. The important thing is to make sure the customer notices the extra options available.
Offer Discounts if Available
The order summary page is an excellent place to provide coupons, vouchers, or other special bargains that customers can take advantage of on their next visit. Because the purchase has already been made, this discount automatically becomes something that the customer will have to come back another time to take advantage of. This causes the customer to make a mental note to return, because everybody likes the chance to save some money. Even a small coupon or a discount code can prove helpful in this regard. Statistically, a customer who shops at your online store twice or more is much more likely to become a regular.
Provide a Link to Your Newsletter or Mailing List
By the time the customer reaches the order summary page, you can assume that they were happy with their experience at least for the most part. After all, they stuck with the process long enough to actually make the purchase. This is a good time to garner repeat customers by allowing them to sign up for your newsletter or email list. Provide an easy, one- or two-click process that can accomplish this. Don’t force a full account registration unless you have to as most customers don’t feel like spending much time on a site after they have already made their purchase. Provide a single sentence or maybe two that gives customers an idea as to the advantages of signing up, such as monthly coupons.
Clarify the Little Details
Even if your customers don’t take advantage of coupons you offer or the chance to get more discounts by signing up for your mailing list, you can still make sure that they come away from your website having had a positive experience. To do this, make sure that you provide useful information on the order summary page in a succinct and easy to understand manner. This should include a breakdown of the order, itemized by product or service and including any tax or shipping charges. If you can provide an estimated delivery date and information about the shipping service, this is a great place to do so.
In many cases, your order summary page marks your last chance to communicate with the customer unless they visit your website again in the future. Make it count by providing useful information, future product ideas, and discounts where applicable. Doing so will increase the odds of that customer coming back again and again.
