When you're looking for a Point-of-Sale system for a brick and mortar store, it's usually pretty easy to identify what functions and perks you want and need. Being able to track sales and cash flow, easily update accounting records, and even manage employee permissions are all standard items on the list. If you're a particularly forward-thinking store owner, you might hunt down modern PoS systems like AccuPOS or Lightspeed because they can ask for customer emails for your brand's content marketing, or show you customer retention analytics.

But what about when you're looking for checkout options for a business website? How do you know what features you need, and which represent the best-of-the-best? We've analyzed dozens of popular checkout and cart options available to website builders and online store owners, and have created a thorough list of all the best features for you to look for!

Mobile Responsive Checkout

Depending on your website's niche, as many as 60% or more of your website's traffic (and potential clients) are all viewing your website on mobile devices. And if your checkout process and shopping cart aren't mobile responsive, you can bet that they're not likely to complete a transaction. Bottom line? The easier it is to use all elements of your website on mobile, the more likely that customers will actually engage in all its features.

Use Bright Indicators

You've probably had a bad checkout experience where at some point, you couldn't find the option you wanted to select or the right button to complete the process. It's frustrating. Sometimes so much so that you might be tempted to leave the website entirely. When you're looking for a checkout plugin or option for your website, always be sure to beta-test it almost to completion on another website. Are all the options well-placed and clear? Are the button call-outs bright, big, and easy to navigate to? If not, it's time to look for another one!

Allow Many Payment Options

Even in this digital age, there are still many people who refrain from actually using their debit or credit cards online. These people will usually want to pay with third-party apps which provide protections, like PayPal or Google Wallet. At the end of the day, the more payment options you allow potential customers to use, the more sales you'll likely make. So when you're hunting for the best checkout experience, it's important to consider finding one which allows as many payment options as possible... and that they're well-advertised in the checkout process.

Don't Force Registration

Did you know that Amazon, the giant online retailer, increased completed sales a significant amount, and popular research on the subject indicates that allowing buyers to complete transactions without registering could increase sales by as much as 30%. If you stumble across a checkout which can only be used with registration, or have thoughts on forcing it on your potential clients, do so forewarned: it will dramatically undercut your potential sales! Instead, look for carts which provide options simply to skip a registration process such as 'checkout as guest' or 'continue without registration'. You'll thank us later!

The Bottom Line

Shopping cart abandonment online can be as high as 70 to 80 percent. With numbers like that, if you're operating a web store, it's in your best interest to do everything you can not just to make an amazing checkout experience for your customers, but to ensure that your checkout process is fast, efficient, and tech-savvy. Not only will this help you capture more sales, but many of the best tools can even improve customer retention, ensuring that more of your completed sales will become repeat clients.