How to Customize Your Shopify Checkout Page in Minutes
In the entire buyer’s journey, checkout is the most crucial phase.
So, it’s imperative that you design and optimize your Shopify checkout page for conversion.
In this blog post, we’ll help you with a detailed guide on how to customize your Shopify checkout page along with best practices and examples. Also, we’ll touch upon the all-new Shopify one-page checkout, which may prove to be a game changer in the near future.
Shopify Checkout, combined with Shop Pay, can provide a swift and seamless checkout experience to your customers.
Why Customize Shopify Checkout Page?
Here are some of the key reasons or benefits of customizing your Shopify checkout page:
Maintain Brand Consistency
Throughout your website, displaying consistent branding is important. Especially your logo and color scheme represent your brand. The default checkout page does not reflect your branding.
For example, if you don’t customize your checkout page, it’ll look like the below image. It’s Shopify’s default checkout page without any customization.
Looks quite uninspiring, right?
That’s why you must put in the effort to enhance the branding of your checkout page. When customers see the same branding on your checkout page, it gives them a sense of trust and security.
Increase Your Average Order Value
Customizing the checkout page is more than just branding and visual appearance.
If you’re a Shopify Plus merchant, you can also use the checkout page as an opportunity to offer upsells and cross-sells. This can help you increase the average order value.
Make sure that you promote the right or highly relevant products on the checkout page to increase the chances of conversions.
Boost Your Conversion Rate
According to Baymard Institute, the average large-sized eCommerce business has the potential to increase the conversion rate by 35.26% through a better checkout flow and design. And this alone can help them recover a whopping $260 billion worth of lost orders.
When a customer reaches a checkout page, the purchase intent is at its peak. One step forward and you close the sale. And if the customer bounces off your checkout page, chances are the customer won’t be back and you might lose the sale.
A well-designed checkout page helps you seal the deal.
Littledata conducted a survey with 2,174 Shopify stores in 2022 to find out checkout completion rates, i.e., the percentage of successful checkouts that results in a purchase.
Here are some interesting findings:
- The average checkout completion rate of the surveyed Shopify stores was 45.2%
- If your store's checkout completion rate is more than 58.7%, your store can be considered amongst the best 20% Shopify stores as per the benchmark set by Littledata.
- If your store's checkout completion rate on all devices is less than 29.7%, your store falls under the category of the bottom 20% of Shopify stores with the lowest checkout completion rates.
How to Customize Your Shopify Checkout Page
There are multiple ways of customizing your Shopify checkout page. However, keep in mind that these options depend on your Shopify plan. Some of the options are limited to Shopify Plus merchants only.
But don’t worry. We’ll let you know all these different methods along with the compatible Shopify plan.
Method 1: Customize the Checkout Page through Theme Settings
[Applicable for all Shopify plans except the Shopify Starter plan]
If you want to do some basic or visual customizations to your checkout page, you may do so from your theme editor. We recommend that all Shopify merchants should do these customizations to give your branding to the checkout page.
Let’s go through the step-by-step process:
Step 1: Go to your Shopify admin and click on Online Store > Themes. Then, click on the Customize button on your current theme.
Step 2: Once the theme editor is opened, click on the paint-brush-like icon on the left sidebar for Theme settings. Then, click on the Checkout tab under the Theme settings.
Step 3: When you go to the theme editor, you’ll land on the homepage by default. To review all the changes while making it, go to the checkout page template. Click on the drop-down section (where you see ‘Home page’) in the center of the top bar. Then, click on the Checkout tab.
Step 4: Once the checkout page template is visible, you can start customizing different sections. Theme editor would allow you to customize the following elements:
- Banner - Background image (on top of the checkout page)
- Logo - to upload your brand logo.
- Main content area - This can be customized with a background image or just a color.
- Order summary area - This can also be customized with a background image or just a color.
- Typography - for headings and body texts.
- Colors - for links, buttons, error messages, etc.
Once you’ve customized all the sections as needed, click on the Save button.
Step 5: Open your website and go to the checkout page through any of the products. Review if everything appears as intended. For example, this is how the checkout page that we customized looks on the website.
Use high contrast color scheme for better readability. Don't keep busy background images to avoid distractions. Definitely match the design to your branding.
Method 2: Install Apps to Extend Checkout Functionality
[Applicable for Shopify Plus merchants only]
Shopify gives more flexibility to Shopify Plus merchants by allowing them to install checkout apps. These apps can help you add new sections or functionalities to your checkout page.
A. Install an App from Shopify App Store:
You can find these Shopify Checkout customization apps in the Shopify App Store. For example, if you want to upsell products on your checkout page, you can install an app like AfterSell Post Purchase Upsell. It’ll let you display upsell products in the order summary area of the checkout page.
B. Build Your Own Checkout App
If you want to create some unique functionality that is currently not available on any app, you can build your own app. Of course, it requires technical knowledge. But you can also take help from an app developer or a Shopify partner to custom-build an app for your needs.
Here are some of the features that you can add using Shopify checkout apps:
- Configure a date-picker on the checkout page so that your customers can choose their desired delivery date.
- Create and display a banner on the checkout page to provide some important information to your customers.
- Allow your customers to share additional information with their orders. For example, they can share a name or a personalized message for a gift item.
Method 3: Use Checkout Branding API for Advanced Customizations
[Applicable for Shopify Plus merchants only.]
Well, this method may sound complex and technical, because it actually is.
To use Branding API for checkout customization, you may need to work with a developer. But this method can give you limitless options to customize and you can create a unique checkout design for your brand.
Let’s briefly see what you can do with this method.
Shopify Plus merchants have the option to use the GraphQL Admin API. This method can be useful when you want to go for advanced customizations that are not doable through Shopify's checkout editor.
For example, you can add a favicon to your checkout page. You also get flexibility and control over the design elements like the border-radius on buttons.
Check out more details on getting started with advanced checkout branding.
Shopify One-Page Checkout (Beta/Coming Soon)
When talking about Shopify Checkout, we must mention Shopify's one-page checkout. In Shopify Editions - Winter ’23, Shopify has already announced this all-new update that’s going to change how the Shopify Checkout functions.
What is Shopify One-Page Checkout?
Typically, when customers want to complete a checkout process on a Shopify store, they're required to go through a couple of pages to fill in the billing, shipping, and payment information. However, a one-page checkout is an experience where customers can fill in all those details on a single page only. That's why it's called one-page checkout.
Harley Finkelstein, President of Shopify also announced in one of his tweets that Shopify checkout will be default one-page experience.
Most important part of the buyer journey: checkout. @Shopify checkout will be a default one-page experience.
— Harley Finkelstein (@harleyf) February 9, 2023
The best-converting checkout is becoming faster, friction-free, and seamless. Beautiful AF.https://t.co/uJovoyorTz pic.twitter.com/KHjdHiAS6S
Shopify One-page Checkout Examples
Currently, Shopify one-page checkout is still in an early access phase, and thus, it's rolled out for limited Shopify merchants only. However, one of the Shopify merchants who got early access to one-page checkout for BoomBoom shared a glimpse of it on Twitter.
Yoooo shout out to whoever at Shopify hooked up the one-page checkout 🙏💚 pic.twitter.com/WO2PFCmw2e
— August Noble (@AugustNoble) May 2, 2023
What’s more interesting is that the same Shopify merchant also shared further updates regarding the significant improvements in conversion rates with Shopify one-page checkout.
This is nutty.
— August Noble (@AugustNoble) May 4, 2023
88% WoW conversion rate increase the last 3 days with Shopify's new one-page checkout.
Only change we've made is increasing ad spend yesterday morning. pic.twitter.com/E3URLLnJ28
Looking at the trend of all these tweets, it’s quite clear that Shopify, as well as merchants, are excited and optimistic about the future of eCommerce with a one-page checkout.
Ideas & Best Practices to Customize Your Shopify Checkout Page - With Examples
1. Taylor Stitch
Taylor Stitch is a clothing brand that deeply cares about the environment while creating the best possible clothing items. Taylor Stitch is working towards building a better, more responsible company that believes in protecting people and the wild.
Show the Progress Bar for Checkout Process
Taylor Stitch’s checkout page is a great example of how you can encourage customers to complete the checkout even if you don’t have one-page checkout. Since this checkout requires you to go through multiple pages, they’ve shown a progress bar right on the top.
Upsell or Cross-Sell Relevant Products
By upselling or cross-selling relevant products on your checkout page, you can increase your average order value (AOV). Taylor Stitch displays the upsell product on top of the main content area, which may entice customers to add it to their carts.
Showcase Why Customers Should Buy from You
In this competitive era, it’s important to let customers know why they should choose your brand and not any other. Taylor Stitch’s checkout page does with its ‘WHY CHOOSE US?’ section that provides a list of benefits of purchasing from them. It gives customers more reasons to complete the checkout.
The checkout page of Taylor Stitch has multiple great aspects to learn from. Apart from the upsell section and benefits, it also allows customers to redeem store credits on the checkout page.
2. Tentree
Tentree is a clothing brand with a great mission and an Earth-first approach. For every item purchased from this brand, they plant 10 trees, and so far, Tentree has planted over 75 million trees.
Be Unique and Innovative with Your Brand Mission
Along with the inspiring mission of this brand, its Shopify checkout page is also quite inspiring. Instead of upselling other products, this brand uses the upselling feature to encourage customers to contribute towards planting more trees and reducing their carbon footprint.
On Tentree’s checkout page, customers have the option to contribute to planting 10 additional trees for US$5.00. Similarly, there are two additional options to contribute toward reducing carbon footprint.
3. Endy
Endy offers Canadian-made mattresses that are made with high-quality material and are amazingly comfortable. The brand has already sold over 500,000 mattresses across Canada.
Create a Consistent Branding Experience
Endy’s checkout page matches perfectly with its branding by making proper use of color and fonts. Not only it makes the checkout page looks aesthetically appealing but it also raises the brand’s credibility.
Use Chat Widget to Increase Conversions
Offering support on the checkout page is a great way to ensure you don’t lose customers. Especially when you’re selling expensive products, customers may hesitate to complete the purchase if they have the slightest doubt. Endy has configured a chatbot on their checkout page so that customers can find quick answers to some common questions.
If you can offer live chat as well, it would be even more powerful, and it can help you enhance your store’s conversion rate.
Endy offers assistance to customers through a chatbot and help articles. Considering the high pricing of their products, it’s smart that they’ve prioritized the help article on financing options.
4. Chubbies
Chubbies is an apparel brand founded by a group of friends. The brand offers products like casual shorts, performance polos, sports shorts, swim trunks, t-shirts, hoodies, etc.
Offer a Guest Checkout Option to Customers
24% of online shoppers abandon their shopping carts only because the website wanted them to create an account during the checkout. While it’s definitely good for your business if the customers create accounts, you shouldn’t force account creation to complete the purchase.
Chubbies provides multiple sign-up options to its customers, including through social media, email, and the ‘Checkout as a Guest’ option. Also, they’ve conveyed the benefits of creating an account on top of all these options.
Chubbies has a unique pop-up window for checkout where customers can choose the option to sign in/sign-up or directly checkout as a guest.
5. L'ange Hair
L'ange Hair is a brand that offers hair styling tools and products with a mission to change the lives of 25 million people by 2025. Although the brand has a quite simple checkout page, it has a couple of great points to be noted.
Promote SMS or Email Marketing
Building a list of SMS or Email subscribers can help you run successful marketing campaigns. But customers expect some sort of value to sign up for texts or emails. L'ange Hair offers a 10% discount for the next order when a customer agrees to sign up to text messages from them.
Display Trust Badges
One of the things that may bother customers during the checkout is security. By adding trust or security badges, you can give your customers a sense of security about their personal information and payment details. L'ange Hair displays the trust badges right below the link for policy pages.
L'ange Hair has optimized its checkout page for marketing as well as conversions with SMS marketing sign-up and trust badges.
Conclusion
Since Shopify checkout customization depends on your Shopify plan, it may not be feasible for everyone to go for advanced customizations. However, all Shopify merchants with Basic and above plans should definitely edit the checkout page for branding purposes.
Check your Shopify store’s checkout completion rate and see if there are any areas of improvement. You can also test with different customizations and see which one works the best. But you should definitely not miss out on customizing your checkout page as it can influence customer behavior and help you increase your sales and conversions.
