Loco for Local Checkout Experiences

Do you remember that Cuckoo bird in those Cocoa Puffs commercial from the 80s? “I go cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs!” Well, let’s just say we are a bit “loco for local checkout experiences.” And there is a good reason why.

Global eCommerce is set to reach $4T in 2020 with 50% of sales happening on mobile. Shoppers don’t have time or desire to figure out a complex checkout page. You need to make it simple, fast, and frictionless and this all starts with a local checkout experience.

Why do we mean by local?

We are talking about the language, currency and payment types your shopper is expecting to see based on where they live. Let’s use an example. A German shopper is looking for a new t-shirt to wear for Octoberfest. He finds the perfect shirt that will give his buddies a good chuckle.(There is a risk it might turn away the gals.) But the price is in USD and he’d rather know exactly what the cost would be to him in Euros. He adds it to his cart anyway and now the address fields are in English. He speaks English and can understand the gist of what the page says, but it takes more effort than he wanted to put into this online shopping trip. And all the typical US address fields are unnecessary. He’d like to pay with a popular online bank transfer called GiroPay since he doesn’t like to use his credit card. But the options presented to him are: Visa, Mastercard and Amex. Frustrated, he bails and gives up on his beloved t-shirt.

Show me the data

Our german friend is not the only one who suffers from Checkout Abandonment. We’ve studied this extensively in the Checkout Conversion Index  and can assure you this is not to be ignored or taken lightly. This issue is trifold, so let’s take a closer look.

Local Currency

Currency is a big issue. It isn’t just helping the shopper know exactly what they are paying but it also affects your payment conversions. If that German shoppers decides to buy the shirt even though the price is in USD, his bank may decline it because of the US currency. But if the transaction is in EUR his bank is more likely to approve it. Processing in local currency can save you up to 10% of sales.

Local language

This doesn’t affect payment conversions but it will impact checkout abandonment. This is purely about making your shoppers feel comfortable on your site and giving them the feeling that they are buying from a local merchant. Beyond making shoppers feel more comfortable, presenting in local languages adds legitimacy to your brand. If the t-shirt site only presented information in English, it is likely that they do not have a strong global presence. This may make our German friend begin to feel uncertain, or even weary of making the purchase. 75% of shoppers prefer not to make a purchase decision unless the site is presenting their native language. Even if you are somehow able to convince a shopper to complete a purchase something by presenting in a non-local language, you are unlikely to get repeat business or positive reviews from that customer.

Local Payments

When we say loco for local, we are extra loco for payments. Don’t you hate it when you go to a store and they don’t accept credit cards or only take Visa and Mastercard? It’s annoying. And in many cases, it prevents us from being able to make a purchase. Don’t do the same thing to shoppers on your eCommerce checkout page. Many countries have local payment types that shoppers prefer to use when buying online. We’ve outlined 9 of them in this recent blog which also shows the countries to sell into for the biggest ROI.  And don’t forget about mobile wallets. These will be key to your success as more and more shoppers buy on their phones.  Without local payment options, you could lose up to 13% of shoppers. Now that’s just “loco”.

Want to see how your site measures up? Be sure to try our Checkout Conversion Calculator to see where you may be losing sales during checkout.