eCommerce Checkouts on B2B Platforms

What You Need for Checkout UI

eCommerce checkout can be very complicated, but the end-user should always feel like it is a simple process. Unfortunately, many eCommerce businesses don’t take checkout UI into account, thinking that, once the customer has their cart full, the sale is a done deal. We’re here to tell you that the checkout module you use on your eCommerce platform isn’t about marketing; it’s about getting the customer to buy and making the experience a pleasant one for them so that they come back. Let’s take a look at some of the most important website checkout UI design features you’ll need, as well as the important choices going on behind the scenes. 

Typically, one of the first things done during checkout is determining if a user is authenticated or not. If they are not, then the module should offer a guest checkout. The checkout can, of course, offer low-key nudges to get the customer to switch from a guest to full account user.  

In addition, we want to make sure that information isn't duplicated with a customer that's already in the system. From a security perspective, we don't want to directly tell the user that an account already exists with this information and it's duplicate, so we may want to say it's not available and keep it very concise. Many times, the easiest thing to do is to just let them know that a particular username is not available. This needs to be as seamless as possible so that the customer isn’t confused. It’s even possible to not mention the duplicate situation at all, complete the process, and then reconcile any duplication post-checkout. 

eCommerce Checkout UX/UI

An efficient checkout process begins with excellent checkout UI design. Simplicity often comes from removing ancillary objects on the page, including anything that’s not important to the checkout process. Once a user has progressed into the checkout phase, a business can’t have the customer experiencing confusion or offer options that could make them abandon the experience altogether. 

Checkout is Not the Time for Editing 

Generally speaking, it makes sense to have some visual representation of the items that are in the cart. It's most common to have this on the right side of the page, where there is a visual representation of the items that are in the cart. Once a customer reaches the checkout page, you want to avoid clicking away from it as much as possible while still allowing the customer to make any edits they need. Removing distracting material makes sure that the eCommerce checkout UX during checkout is simple and clean, and that it’s directing them seamlessly to complete the process. 

Depending on the workflow for your business, this can offer a myriad of options. Clarity website checkouts can handle many forms of payment, including checks or wire purchase orders. It can be other unique payment forms such as an account balance, where a company keeps a balance with the eCommerce business and the company’s purchaser is allowed up to a certain amount to spend each month. Our clients can also offer for the user to pay later or offer payment options.  

The most traditional method of payment is, of course, a credit card. Clarity works with more than 30 different payment providers, and the list continues to grow as more providers come along. We can work with any payment provider that has API's and PCI DSS security compliance.  

Most times we recommend our client choose a payment provider that tokenizes any payment information so that our client is not actually saving any credit card information. Instead, our clients send the information to the payment provider and get back a representation of the sensitive information as a token. Keeping that token means that customers can return and purchase without having to reenter credit card information, and at the same time our clients don’t have to worry about keeping credit card information on file. It’s a very secure way to handle the  hand-off of the data without putting a business at risk for storing that information, making it an affordable and smart eCommerce business solution.  

The tokenization model is also applicable for other forms of data that are collected during the checkout process. A HIPAA compliant website must account for protected health information (PHI) and insurance information. In other cases, a customer’s date of birth has to be verified. Clarity can tokenize and securely process this data as well, preventing our clients from holding the sensitive data. In short, if you aren’t the one providing the stringent security, you can’t be found at fault for failing to do so. 

During the checkout process, we also offer presentation of the payment information. Any account-specific information there may be — such as specific credit cards that an account is supposed to use — can be offered based on the business rules and based on each of your customers' needs. Such information can come from the ERP integration or from sales reps who are adjusting large accounts who know the business logic of their customer. 

Shipping

In addition to payment information, we're also dealing with billing and shipping information. Many business’ customers have multiple locations, and they want those locations to show up from ERP or CRM system that the shipping module is integrating with. We can dynamically pull in information based on a user's login. We also allow the user to add data at the time of the checkout process so they can include shipping and billing information. They can also determine if they want to do address verification. If so, we work with dozens of address verification providers. 

Most small companies who utilize the B2C business model don’t need advanced shipping and payment options. They’ll just take a credit card from a single user and then ship out from one of the most popular three shipping carriers. Those using the B2B eCommerce business model, however, are dealing with other businesses who have their own workflows, budgets, and shipping needs. Here’s how Clarity can help you accommodate them. 

Split Shipping

The checkout page should be able to intuitively show with items are going to a specific address. Lead times should also be broken out so that a customer can know just how long they’ll have to wait for items. Shipping costs and carriers to different locations might also be different, so the shipping module should be able to easily break all of this down. The shipping software should also be able to handle as many different carriers as you and your customers demand. In addition to the most common carriers — UPS, USPS, DHL, FedEx — Clarity can provide dozens of LTL and freight carrier APIs so that shipping become much easier. 

Split Payment 

It's possible to split the payments across different types of payment forms, such as multiple cards, gift cards, loans, and billing. Maybe a customer wants to split a payment across three different credit cards because otherwise their daily purchase limit is going to be maxed out. They could also be shipping to different locations, and for each location they want to provide a different payment card. These are all options that we can present to the user no matter your eCommerce business model. 

Taxes and customs can be difficult to figure out, so why not have your module do it for you? We can offer many APIs that will determine federal, regional (state, province, etc.), and local taxes. If you’re shipping to someone outside of your own country, both taxes and customs can be calculated. These are all based on the customer’s currency that was already converted during the purchase process. 

ERP integration helps with this. If you have and ERP that's typically providing all the tax data, we can integrate with it and pull the tax information during ERP or CRM integration. Many of our clients have different regions that they have different tax rules for. They want Clarity to use dynamic and detailed tax rules for this region, and very simple tax rules for a different region. Of course, we always recommend you consult your CPA and any applicable resources to make sure that you're selecting the right tax, customs, and duty options. 

Check Clarity Out

Clarity can tackle any scenario and help you create a workflow that's reasonable and logical for your business. We want to make it consistently very simple for the end user. But it needs to have the level of fidelity necessary to allow them to self-service. Few companies want customers to have to call in so that the customer service agents must manually complete all the steps. 

We’re ready to show you exactly what we can do with website checkout UI design and implementation. Schedule a demo today