Battle of the Checkout Portals

Hooray! Your customers have loaded up their shopping carts and are ready to check out. Their overall shopping experience has been smooth and pleasant so far. But when there is a jarring break from cart to checkout, the disconnect could mean a lost and an unhappy customer. Is it better to have customers as a guest, making it as painless as possible? Should you require them to sign in? It’s an important part of the process that can prevent customers from buying your product.

Guest Checkout – This is a better option for B2C websites because it’s faster and more convenient. Customers don’t have to sign up for an account and only enter the minimum amount of details required to make the purchases and process their order. This is ideal for first-time shoppers, one-time shoppers, and those who just want in and out as quick as possible. It is also wise to avoid hiding the guest checkout option. By technically having it there but not easily found, you may think you encourage shoppers to create an account. This is not good practice, and frankly, is a little annoying. Nav-to-Net™ can automatically create an account in Microsoft Dynamics™ NAV / Business Central as part of a guest checkout.

Customer Accounts – This is a good option for both B2B and B2C. It keeps track of purchase history and other important customer details. This is especially good for B2B because we want to build rapport and relationships. These are more likely to be long-standing customer relationships. Nav-to Net™ allows customers to review their history of all previously placed orders rendered in real time from Microsoft Dynamics™ NAV  / Business Central.

This also gives us more opportunities for personalization which can add tremendous value to your business. In the competitive industry of eCommerce, your potential customers have high expectations. Cater to them with targeted messaging, unique branding, and making them feel valued. In order to stay competitive, every aspect of your eCommerce solution has to be optimized; there are so many opportunities to win over your customer! For example, profile selling based on their past purchases or even what’s in their shopping carts (for first-time shoppers) is managed directly within NAV. Upsells, cross-sells, and personalized product recommendations from the sales representative are all possible with Nav-to-Net™.  Customer-specific prices can be shown directly from NAV  / Business Central, making the shopping experience even more targeted towards the customer.