We’ve recently been privileged to work on various e-commerce sites. The fundamental purpose of these sites is to transact business, so a cardinal rule must be: make the payment process as painless as possible. Conversely stated, each hoop a user must jump through lessens the probability of purchase completion.

Usability expert, Paul Rourke, may have said it best, “Provide the visitor with all they need to know for them to be happy to progress to checking out, without any un-answered questions.”

We think ASOS does shopping carts justice. According to their e-commerce director, James Hart, one small change to the first step of their checkout process resulted in a 50 percent decrease in abandonment of shopping carts. What was this magical change? Simply allowing the user to continue unimpeded to checkout without having to create an ASOS account.

“People talk about the number of steps they will have to go through, all the extra information they will have to provide, and the fact they haven’t got time to be creating an account. What I find most fascinating is the response I get from people when I ask them ‘what additional information do you expect you will need to provide if you create an account compared to a guest checkout option?’”

The only additional info required is a password. ASOS asks users to create accounts in the checkout form, by including “password” and “confirm password.” The new UX design cuts out steps that waste the user’s time and makes account creation way more approachable.

The definition and use of traditional shopping carts still apply online. The cart should be a tool, provided by the shop, for transporting the user’s merchandise to the checkout counter for purchase. It should help users, not delay them. Spending time upfront on usability and focusing on the sole function of the shopping cart will aid customers in completing purchases without distraction.

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