Friction Can Kill an Otherwise Good Sale
Baymard Institute’s checkout research has found that shoppers abandon orders because checkout processes are too long or complicated.
These are not people who never showed interest. They already selected something and placed it in the cart. The business got them close to the finish line and then created enough friction to lose them.
Every Extra Step Asks for More Effort
Create an account. Verify your email. Enter twelve fields. Choose from seven options. Re-enter information already provided. Navigate another page.
The same principle extends beyond e-commerce. A service customer may want an estimate but be faced with eleven questions. A customer may want an appointment but have to create an account first. Every unnecessary requirement creates another opportunity for someone to say forget it.
Customers Compare Effort Too
Businesses frequently focus on price, features and competitors. But convenience itself is part of the value proposition.
If two companies solve the same problem and one makes the buying process dramatically easier, that difference matters. The easiest company to do business with may gain an advantage before the product or service is ever delivered.
Audit the Friction Nobody Owns
Complicated customer journeys are often created accidentally. Marketing adds a form field. Operations adds a verification step. Legal adds a disclosure. Sales adds a qualification question. Finance adds another approval. Each addition may seem reasonable on its own, but the customer experiences the combined burden.
That is why friction needs an owner. Someone should periodically complete the entire buying process exactly as a customer would—from the first click through confirmation—and count the unnecessary decisions, repeated information, unclear instructions and waiting periods.
The most useful question is simple: does the business genuinely need this step before the sale? If not, remove it, postpone it or collect the information automatically. The company may still need detailed data later, but every requirement does not have to sit between initial interest and the customer’s first meaningful action. Convenience is not just a nice interface feature. It is part of how customers evaluate the business itself.
Turn the Insight Into a Decision
A useful owner exercise is to turn this issue into a short operating review. Identify the customer, cost, capacity or market signal most likely to move first; decide what evidence would justify action; and assign someone to watch it. That keeps ‘Why Is This So Complicated?’ from becoming an interesting headline that never changes a business decision. The goal is not perfect prediction. It is earlier recognition and a more disciplined response when the evidence becomes clear.
The BizScope
Businesses should examine the customer journey from the customer’s perspective. How many clicks, questions, forms, decisions and waiting periods are truly necessary? Sometimes customers do not need more persuasion. They simply need less friction.
Every unnecessary obstacle gives the customer another chance to leave.
Business Experience. Shared Forward.