When running a race, you never slow down right before the finish line. The same idea goes for mobile optimization. You don't optimize an entire customer journey just to get lazy when it comes to the finish line; or, in this case, the checkout. The checkout portion of your customer journey must be optimized so that the user finds it easy to navigate, and complete. If your mobile visitors find the checkout too hard to complete on their small screens they will go to somewhere else. If you are having trouble coming up with ways to optimize your mobile checkout, you are in luck. Here are 6 mobile optimization tips from influencers on how to optimize your checkout process.

6 Mobile Optimization Tips for the Checkout

1. Allow Checkouts as a Guest

Sometimes users just want to buy something and be done with it. Something like creating an account for your page may persuade them to leave. They don't want to be bothered by the hassle of creating an account to get what they want. A good way to optimize your mobile checkout is to allow visitors to make purchases on your site as guests. According toDerek Nelson, the co-found of Clique Studios, “Providing an option to check out as a guest should be standard practice across media (although 24% of e-commerce websites don’t), and especially on mobile. A user is much less likely to complete an order if they have to go through the process of creating an account and confirming it.”

2. Limit the # of Images

When focusing on mobile optimization, you must be aware of the amount of images you use. A lot of images on your mobile app can end up killing your loading times. If a user has to wait for your page to load, they will shop elsewhere, period. Entrepreneur and digital marketing consultant Rocco Baldassarre agrees claiming, “The faster your website loads, the better. A vast amount of images slows down the website and does not exactly contribute to a great shopping experience. Images on smartphones and tablets should generally have smaller sizes and should be adapted to the respective screen size". You must reduce the weight of the images you put on your application if you don't want to lose customers to slow loading times.

3. Keep Form Filling to a Minimum

Customers want to shop online without obstacles getting in their way. The more forms a customer has to complete, the more likely they will bounce off of your page. “Form filling can be extremely frustrating for users, especially on a mobile device. Avoid cart abandonment opportunities by only asking for vital information during the checkout process" saidKristian Bannister, a Digital Strategist for Brandwatch. Make it as easy as possible for a customer to finish their journey and it is guaranteed that you will see more conversions.

4. Use a Progress Bar

According to Hanna Stacey, a content marketer at OmetriaData, "A well-designed progress bar is a staple of any good eCommerce checkout. Checking out is perhaps the least exciting part of the purchasing process; progress bars let users know that the end is in sight, alleviating the worry of being caught up in a lengthy process." Using a progress bar is a great mobile optimization design idea for the checkout process. It creates a better user experience on a mobile device and alleviates the stress of not knowing when the process is done.

5. Pre-Fill Locations

Some form sections can be a little bit redundant. Having a pre-fill option on them can greatly improve checkout conversion rates and will make the consumer very happy. Vivian Suen, a UX researcher at UserTesting said, "Another bonus could be if the website had an auto-fill option where the city and state would automatically be filled in once the zip code was entered". Auto-filling location after the zip code has been entered is a great way to optimize your mobile check out. This will also make your customers a lot happier and likely to finish their customer journey.

6. Ensure Instant Page-to-Page Transitions with Dynamic Caching

The ideal checkout process would occur on a single-page, but that’s a challenge because of the up-front costs in development and risks of validation errors, especially for mobile. If your checkout has multiple pages, ensure the transitions are fast with dynamic caching. Since checkout pages are heavily dynamic, most CDNs won’t be able to cache them. But with dynamic caching (see InstantON) the user will see the header and navigation to get instant confirmation that the page is loading, even if the dynamic data from the servers takes a longer time to populate.

Using these six tips will allow you to create an easier check out for all of your visitors. Always remember, don't slow down before the finish line, and don't stop mobile optimization before the checkout. You want to make the journey as simple as possible for your mobile visitors. They want to purchase your products and services, so why stand in their way? Optimize each part of your application, especially the checkout, and you are guaranteed to see a spike in your conversion rates. If you are looking for more ways to optimize your application, try downloading our Free Ebook to assemble your own optimization plan.