Optimizing registration checkout

I spent part of this Halloween weekend working on the Emory University continuing education website and learned several things about designing an effective checkout process for registration systems.

A month ago, Emory replaced their online registration system with a new version. For a variety of reasons, the conversion rate (the proportion of website visitors that register for a class) dropped by more than 50%. With over 10,000 weekly visitors, this meant a net decrease of over 200 registrations per week. So what changes did we make? Here are a few.

First, we simplified the color scheme to match the rest of Emory’s site and reorganized the content on many pages. Black text on a white background is clean, simple and doesn’t distract the reader.

Second, we added a progress bar to show people their progress through the registration process. According to MarketingSherpa, over 26% of web visitors report having abandoned a checkout process because the process took too long. The Emory checkout process takes 7 steps, while the optimal number is 4 or 5 at most. Without significant re-coding of the functionality, we couldn’t remove steps, but we added the visual bar to reassure registrants of their progress and encourage them to continue.

Coupons are another reason that people often abandon shopping carts. Visitors feel discouraged when they see an opportunity for a discount, but don’t qualify for it. Some even leave the site to search online for a coupon code. Some of those never return to complete their purchase. Emory does offer discounts to certain populations (alumni, faculty, etc.) and thus need the discount area. However, we placed a “continue” button both above and below this area to help visually reassure registrants that not everyone qualifies for a discount.

We made several other changes and the full extent of our redesign and the impact on conversion rates will be discussed in an upcoming whitepaper on optimizing continuing education registration systems. Let me know if you’d like to receive a copy of it.