Missing Features

Your order confirmation page is probably crap. Your correspondent has struggled at various sites to answer this most important question: Is my order complete, or do I need to click somewhere else?

Try this quick test to determine if your confirmation page is correct:

1. Go through a real purchase process on your e-commerce site (using your bosses Amex);
2. Print out the last page, the order confirmation and complete page;
3. Hand the printout to someone who doesn’t work for you, like your spouse; and,
4. Ask them this question as you hand them the print-out: What is this page?

If you don’t hear It’s an order confirmation page, honey bunny right away, your page is broken.

Nothing is more frustrating in an e-commerce checkout process than struggling to determine if the order is complete. If the confirmation page isn’t clear users customers will unwittingly abandon the purchase process and you will lose a sale (and probably the customer).

Here are some really easy guidelines to follow when creating order confirmation pages:

1. The first element a user should see is Your order is complete;
2. Clearly mark ads — both for your own products and services and others;
3. Don’t use your standard site branding;
4. Exclude site navigation, complex headers and any footers;
5. Use a print CSS file to format the confirmation page for the printer;
6. Include your logo but don’t link the logo to your site (ordering is a process, exit paths are confusing); and,
7. Don’t build a page where clicking refresh will resubmit orders (lazy programmers love to code pages this way).

More reading:

• Did Poor Usability Kill E-Commerce?
• Wishlists, Gift Certificates, and Gift Giving in E-Commerce
• E-commerce User Experience

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