Fast food requires a fast and simple checkout process
Tony Charles, co-founder of Hungry House, explains how he created the online service’s super speedy checkout process, why people abandon baskets and what you can do to put a stop to it.
By Martina Mercer
Hungry House is a fast growing online service that allows you to order takeaways from anywhere in the UK online. As a fast food delivery service Hungry House must have a checkout process that’s is super-quick. I caught up with co-founder Tony Charles to find out just how important the checkout process was to the business’ success.
What do you see as an important ingredient(s) of an online checkout?
The most important ingredient of an online checkout is simplicity. It should only ask for necessary information but also be flexible, offering multiple relevant payment options.
Have you made changes to your checkout process recently?
We are always looking for ways to improve the checkout process and recently we’ve made some important developments. For example, as we have a strong focus on mCommerce, we have made it easier to input vouchers on our mobile products.
It’s our intention to revamp the whole checkout process in our apps to reflect the success we’ve seen on the web.
Have you ever noticed and overcome a problem with checkout that saw people abandon baskets?
In the past we have occasionally struggled with slow response times from our payment provider. When this is case it is essential to keep our customers informed, as people need to feel reassured at such an important stage of the transaction process.
To combat any anxiety caused by waiting time we added a progress indicator to ensure customers know the page is still loading and processing the order.
What do your customers like best about your checkout process?
Our checkout process is a little unconventional as it is broken down into three steps. Most websites, including our competitors have one long field. However, we find our customers prefer the short, step by step approach and our cart abandonment rate is very low.
Is the checkout processes an essential part of increasing revenue?
We do upsell drinks and desserts during the checkout process, but what is more important is that our customers feel confident that they will get the food they are paying for. A positive first experience is what brings our customers back, and return custom is the most important way for us to increase revenue.
Does your checkout do more than just checkout, such as sign up for newsletters etc?
Our checkout process does have a few ‘added extras’, for example you can sign up for our newsletter and, much like a supermarket checkout, you can choose to purchase last minute food and drinks at the payment point.
Do you have any plans to change the checkout process in future, add more payment methods or make it even quicker?
We are always looking for ways to improve the checkout experience for our customers, but we don’t believe in change for change’s sake.
We’re currently considering adding additional payment methods and we also plan to develop a functionality to help customers create member accounts directly from the checkout process. However, anything we can do to make the transaction process quicker and easier is priority.
For more information, visit: www.hungryhouse.co.uk
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