When you build an e-commerce business, one of the biggest decisions you must make is to choose between a shopping cart and an order page. That’s because the one you choose will impact your sales results. And if you choose the wrong one, you will lose customers and sales.

You cannot make a sale until the customer submits the order. A persuasive landing page and compelling sales copy are vital to get the prospect to want to buy. But it is equally important to have a smooth order process that helps to close the sale.

Any point within this order process can cause would-be customers to not buy anything. For example, if they encounter a detour or something unexpected, they can quickly lose interest and not buy.

To close the sale, the order process must confirm the offer to keep them excited. Plus, make it fast and easy to complete the order form.

The Difference Between a Shopping Cart and Order Page

In online marketing, a shopping cart is part of e-commerce software that allows visitors to a website to select items to buy. It can be integrated with a small or large catalog of items, each with a unique price.

The shopping cart can allow customers to choose different features, such as size or color, plus the quantity. Then upon checkout, there is a form to collect the customer’s name, address, plus billing and shipping information.

An order page contains a summary confirmation of the offer. Plus a form that collects the customer’s name, address, plus billing and shipping information.

Depending on your software, both the shopping cart and order page can give a wide range of features. These may include integration with an online payment gateway, such as Paypal or Stripe. Plus, product quantity, shipping, real-time pricing calculation and data encryption upon order submission.

But while both can facilitate a sale, the order page has three big advantages in getting the prospective customer to buy. The following are 3 reasons why it trumps shopping carts for most types of products and services.

Order Page Advantage #1: Speed of Sale

Once you get a prospective customer to want to buy, you must do so as fast as possible. That’s because doubt can quickly enter the consumer’s mind that can cause them to hesitate to buy.

Perhaps the biggest difference between a shopping cart and order page is the number of clicks and pages the consumer encounters. A shopping cart can require anywhere from one to upwards of 6 or more clicks that take the consumer to different pages to enter information. Pages may take time to load. The number of clicks and pages plus long amount of time it takes to complete the process are big reasons for why there are so many abandoned shopping carts.

Yet an order page has everything on one landing page. So the consumer can quickly follow the information, usually from top down, enter the information requested, and click just one button in the whole process to submit their order.

Order Page Advantage #2: Persuasive Content

A shopping cart is bulky with respect to the layout and information displayed. Yet the information that is displayed is factual. The longer the consumer sees this, the more likely their emotional excitement about the product or service will wane.

Order pages on the other hand can start off with persuasive content that confirms the offer. So when the consumer is completing the order form, they are more likely to retain an emotional connection with buying the product or service. Emotion is what sells. The longer you can keep the consumer emotionally engaged with your product, the more likely you are to close the sale.

Order Page Advantage #3: Personalization

Shopping carts are a one size fits all. Each consumer uses the same cart with the same content to select the specific products or services and quantities they want to buy. There is very little if anything that is personalized for each customer.

Order pages can be personalized for each customer based on information in their contact record or specific landing page they visited. Personalized content can increase sales conversion. So you can not only make the customer happy, but your wallet too.

In summary, shopping carts and order pages enable consumers to buy and merchants to earn sales. Yet order pages have 3 distinct advantages that can lead to higher sales conversion. They also take less time to close the sale and results in fewer contacts that abandonment the check out process.

Plus, they can boost sales conversion with persuasive content that keeps the consumer emotionally engaged with your product or service. And they can contain personalized content which further enhances customer satisfaction and higher sales conversion.