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Abandoned shopping carts are a huge problem for online merchants. And one of the biggest offenders is the form customers have to fill out when they check out. Shopify (NYSE:SHOP) is getting rid of this problem by making Google Autocomplete available for its merchants.
Google Autocomplete for Shopify
With Google Autocomplete, all a customer has to do is fill in the beginning characters of their address, and the information will be populated automatically. This not only ensures your customers always fill in the right address, but it will also expedite the checkout process.
What is the Big Deal With Checkout for Online Merchants?
According to Business Insider, ecommerce merchants were estimated to lose $4.6 trillion worth of merchandise to abandoned carts in 2016. And the problem is getting worse as more people move to mobile. This is because searching on mobile is easy, but entering all the info on a small device is still difficult.
All of this is taking place as Shopify reported mobile traffic growth has reached 72 percent of traffic and 60 percent of orders in its second quarter financial results for 2017. The problem with cart abandonment and mobile is serious. With close to 500,000 small and medium sized business merchants using Shopify, conversion rates are one of the metrics they follow closely.
Richard Btaiche, Product Manager at Shopify, said on the matter on the company blog, “Our testing of Google Autocomplete showed an increase in conversion rate, and almost 20 percent time savings and error reduction on mobile. You save time by no longer dealing with incorrect addresses and the resulting problems, giving you more time for fulfillment and other business-building tasks.”
Google Autocomplete
If you already use Chrome or Gmail, you might be familiar with Google Autocomplete. Once you store the name and address you want on forms, they become the default information until you change them.
The same app is now available on Shopify to quickly and accurately fill out forms whether you are on your smartphone, tablet or PC.
Getting Each Step Right
Many things have to go right from the time a customer visits your site until they checkout with a purchase. Shopify has a platform with many of the tools you will need to get those things right, and now it has added yet another one. While Google Autocomplete alone will not guarantee you eliminate abandoned carts, your customers will remember how easy it was to check out when they do.
Image: Shopify
I enjoy having Google Autocomplete even on desktop. For mobile it’s a game changer.
Michael Guta
Hi Robert,
It is a must-have for mobile. Shopify is bringing many apps and tools to its platform to make the mobile experience more enjoyable.
Our experience is the customers loves anything that makes the process faster and easier but using Google Autocomplete for the address leads to many issues downstream. Many retailers contact us ( Addrexx ) concerning address issues caused by this approach. Google Places Autocomplete is a mapping tool and leads to 5+% addresses that are missing house numbers and have invalid postal codes. Not to mention order without apartment/suites or invalid PO Boxes.
If a customer is able to quickly place an order with an undeliverable address then the merchant needs to correct the address or the customer never receives the delivery. This leads to a high expense for retailers and can also create an uphappy customer shares their bad experience with millions on social media.