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[00:00] Hey, Oslo! Are you awake? Oh, great! You probably wonder what I'm doing here as Swedish. I ask myself, yes. But it's like I'm burning for checkout. And I've had the pleasure of running the checkout team we have in PostNord, where we can help you as online shops to go through the checkout — the entire checkout, but above all, when it comes to the delivery in checkout. So that's what I'm going to talk about a little bit today. I was going to start talking about the world's most famous checkout-case. It's always a little hard to include such an example, because it's so known that many people already know about it. I'm going to start by asking about 70 percent. What do you think it is? I can give you a clue — it's about checkout.
[01:16] There are so many people going into a online store, placing a product in the shopping basket, going to checkout, but never executing the purchase. Seventy percent. In Scandinavia, it is actually even higher — in Norway, the number is specifically 75.1%. And of course, that number is going to be a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a reduction. So, let's move on to the world's most famous and well documented checkout case. What is it? Well, it's a big American company — not officially which, so I don't mention it here. But they had just this problem: very many people put goods in the shopping basket, but never carried out the purchase. So they picked up a consultant to see what could be done — why did they have so many people who did not carry out the purchase? The consultant went through the purchase trip and began interviewing customers and similar things.
[02:38] And then you said, OK, we've probably thought a little bit wrong here. Because what they had done was there were two ways to act when you came to checkout. One was that you were an existing customer and logged in. The other one was that if you were not a customer from before, you had to create an account to create a relationship to the online store. It was the idea behind it: simply for existing customers to just log in and complete the purchase, while those who were not customers were going to create an account to build a relationship. What did customers think of this? No, they wouldn't create an account or log in — they would just act. So what they did, simply, was to add a 'gift' button, where you didn't have to log in to complete the purchase.
[03:30] The month after that, sales in their online store increased by 45 percent. And what would I say with this example? Well, that's this: when you talk about checkout, the technical and different parts are going to work, but in their entirety, checkout is not a technical part — it's a commercial part, where we're going to make it as easy as possible for customers to take the last step. So if you go away from the technical and look at the commercial, you can get very far. So let's think about where we come from, where we are today, where we're going in terms of checkout, we actually have the first picture here, where it just says "delivery" and "delivery or delivery". It might look like that 10-15 years ago in a checkout.
[04:33] Often, there may not even be anything there. You just chose to buy a product, and you didn't know exactly how to get it — it came either home or to a pick-up point, you didn't know that much. That's why I'm here as Swedish. In Sweden, we've been going to a fantastic multi-carrier trend, which we call it, where there are several carriers in checkout. Here we have the example on the right, Apotea, a Swedish pharmacy chain, which has — I think — all freight operators available in Sweden in their checkout. So that's the reality: we go from not seeing anything, to now, where there are very many choices. Where are we going? I think the multi-carrier trend will still exist, of course with several freight actors in checkout.
[05:39] But maybe it doesn't look like that anymore. More and more purchases are made on a mobile phone now. But most online stores may only show up on mobile two or three delivery options without the need to scroll. And then the question is, why do you need ten alternatives? It could be too much. We also see that more and more people experience an increase in conversion and a better internal cost control through fewer agents. Among other things, a large European online store now in Denmark is testing to have only one agent in the checkout, where they had more. And what do you think about in checkout? Price, of course — there are a lot of people leaving checkout because of. What do you think about there?
[06:52] Something that Andreas from Villoid spoke about earlier: you must have a price strategy. It also applies to checkout. This means that you have to have control over what competitors do. You have to have control over what you actually sell the shipping options for. And you have to have the right shipping options at the right price, in the right perspective. So here it's important to test out — like A/B-test different prices. Once a good, well-worked price structure has been found, it must work for you. But it's not a one-time job — it's something you have to keep checking. Suddenly, a new competitor with another price strategy in the checkout can come, and then you can start losing conversion. It is always about checking the price strategy in checkout. Let's go on.
[08:03] There we see that there are very few who choose something different from the top shipping option. It may be good to include in this case that the shipping option you find most advantageous in online shops should be at the top — for it is the choice of most customers. And then we have 22 percent on the top right: they choose not to act if they think it's unclear when delivery comes. We call that ETA -- estimated time of arrival. It's very important, I'll get back to it on the next slide. 85 percent say that the principle of subsidiarity is important — there is no nearby resort, you choose something else, or you go to another online store. And the last one: there are quite a lot of online stores that aren't so good at that particular part.
[09:28] It is about being clear about return conditions — clearly and visible on the website. Many people are looking for the terms of return that apply. We did a small survey in January this year, where we looked at the customers around just these themes. The previous figures we saw come from an institute in Denmark called Baymard Institute, which controls checkout solutions worldwide. Price is what customers care most about. But then it becomes a little bit interesting: then the proximity and simplicity — the second two most important factors. Good tracking of the package. In the past, speed has been important, it's not as important for customers anymore. What's more important now is precision: when comes the package? That's what customers are interested in — not just how it comes, but when. And that it's easy to have proximity to the pick-up point.
[11] On the right we see what customers have actually chosen when it comes to delivery, and what they would prefer to choose. On return or to the door, fewer people have chosen it than those who wish they could choose it. The same applies to the package box. What conclusions can be drawn from this? In the case of return, the price may be the reason — they would like to have it delivered home, but they thought it was too expensive, so they chose something else. As far as the package box is concerned, it is more likely that they would choose it, but that this option simply did not exist. There is something you can bring: make sure that you have that option available. I think many people in here think of checkout as the end of the purchase trip.
[12] But for the customer, it's actually the beginning of their purchase trip. It is what happens after they click on the 'buy' button in the checkout, that their journey really starts — with how to handle packaging in the warehouse, how to pack when the product is ready, and the whole delivery, and how to follow delivery. It's important to think about. And it's in checkout we put the lift. If we put the wrong promise in checkout, we end up with a dissatisfied customer. So it's very important to have control, so that you put proper expectations at the customer's disposal — when the package is due, how it is delivered, close and so on. And how do you know that? Now, a little AI jumps in here — it should be "Checkout" and "Check Point AI" on top.
[13]:43] We have to include some AI in this presentation too, I thought. How do you know that the checkout you have is good, or meet the requirements we in PostNord think should exist? Well, we've developed this -- it's a pilot we're testing, where you can test your own checkout. You just go in, record it, take a screenshot of the checkout with the delivery options you have and what it looks like, upload it, and get immediately, using AI, a score of how well you meet what we call best practice for delivery. You can also get a more detailed report. We help with this — absolutely free of charge. You want a checkout review, or someone to discuss with, there's a possibility in us.
[14:57] But! Now we were also going to talk a little bit about what those who have been nominated to and won the Online Trading Prize have actually done correctly. In short, what they've done is essentially what we've been talking about here. We have Karma, one of the winners — they are very good at creating their own universe. It's their own employees who are the models on the website. They are very nice when they pack the products, so when you receive the package, it almost becomes an experience in itself. They have had the entire purchase trip hang together. And then we have Vita, which also won one of the categories in the middle segment.
[16:16] They're very good at what Andreas talked about, which Villoid also does: A/B testing, a lot of data as basis and similar. The A/B tests all the time to make sure they make the right choices in their online store, also in checkout. And then we have the Bemaks, who are used to in the big segment. They're really a watch type of a online store testing things — tests and tests to see what works and doesn't work, and I'm sure I'm going to try different things in checkout as well. So what you could say is, for both the winners and the finalists in the Online Trade Prize, they're not afraid to test. They often work with computer-based decisions. But they also see the delivery as part of the purchase journey — it does not end in checkout, they look beyond that.
[17:27] Often it is about the package product itself — that you get an experience when you open your package, and really know that ‘I will act again’. It's a good idea to be a finalist or a winner. But if there's anything you're going to take from here today, there's these three points: One, of course, put some energy in the checkout. It's too often we're out at online shops and start talking about checkout, and then they say they haven't looked at the checkout in a while. Or, for those of you who have online shops in several countries: very often we encounter a Swedish or Norwegian online store that also sells to Denmark, and then it says in Norwegian or Swedish in the Danish checkout.
[1:39] Or, excuse me, Norwegian or Swedish in the Danish checkout. It does not provide certainty — not many people complete the purchase. So put energy in the checkout. The second: testing in their own checkout. Deal from yourself, test what it looks like, how it works — if I was a customer, would I think this was good? Very easy to see how it actually works. And the last thing: hang on, lie in front. Please help us. Now it comes, many say, that agents are going to start trading for us. And then I can end up saying, if there's someone in here who's thinking, "Why should I spend time on my checkout, there's agents coming to start trading soon, nobody's going to look at my checkout?"
[19:36] Then I can say that: you don't have control of your checkout, and that it converts today when people act there, yes, it won't work either when the agents start trading.