Is a confirmation screen necessary for an order form?

Question

In a discussion about how to streamline an order form on our site, the idea of eliminating the confirmation screen. So, instead of filling out the form, clicking "Submit", seeing a summary on a confirmation screen and clicking "Confirm", the user would simply fill out the form, hit "Submit", and the order's done. The theory is that fewer clicks and fewer screens means less time to order and therefore the ordering experience is easier.

The opposing opinion says that without the confirmation screen, user error increases and people just end up canceling/changing orders after the fact.

I'm looking for more input from the SO community. Have you ever done this? How has it worked out, compared to a traditional confirmation screen setup? Are there examples of a true "one click and done" setup on the web (does Amazon's 1-click have a confirmation screen? I've never been courageous enough to try it)?

EDIT: Just to clarify, when I say "confirmation screen", I mean a second step where the customer reviews the order before placing it. Even if we did do away with it, the user would still receive a message saying "your order has been placed".

Answer 1

user error increases and people just end up canceling/changing orders after the fact.

This sounds expensive for whoever has to deal with it.

I say try to keep a confirmation screen if possible

Answer 2

Normal Amazon purchasing works via a confirmation screen. 1-Click does not (hence the name - sorry if that sounds obvious).

I would definitely have a confirmation screen. It'll reduce the amount of manual work down the line backing out orders.

Perhaps more importantly, most (all?) e-commerce sites work like this. Changing how people normally work with a website is potentially confusing and alienating, and I wouldn't want to turn away or confuse customers.

Answer 3

personally, until I see a 'your order has been received and is being processed' message, find an order confirmation email in my inbox, and see the money deducted from my account, I have no reason to believe that I've made a purchase. Your own hesitance to try amazon's one-click checkout function is a good indicator.

Answer 4

I look to Google's products (not all -- they're inconsistent in some places -- but most) as something I'd like to implement soon. They let you do your work and regularly give you opportunities to "Undo" what you've just done.

To take that sort of approach when you're taking people's money seems bold, but I'm a big fan of software getting out of the way and letting people do what they came to do. Perhaps you should let them opt-in to the feature.

Answer 5

You'll have massive repudiation problems without a confirmation screen. No confirmation will put you in legal hot water. Check with your lawyers on what "non repudiation" of a transaction means.

Customer: "I never agreed to buy that."

You: "You clicked submit."

Customer: "No I didn't. I never saw a confirmation, therefore, I must not have clicked submit."

You need to prevent this conversation.

Answer 6

A confirmation screen is there for a reason. It's easier to proofread the data entered (the billing address, etc.) when you see it laid out on the page, rather than when each piece of data is in its own input field.

Unless you want to deal with orders submitted with errors and the resulting aggrieved customers because their neighbour received their order and they never saw it themselves as they made a mistake in the address field or something like that, I would recommend keeping the confirmation screen.

Make a simple order page where you have everything the user needs to enter upfront: the address, payment details and whatever else is needed. Follow it up with a confirmation screen that has the information laid out clearly and from where any errors made are easy to fix. What is frustrating is not the confirmation step; it's bad when the order process drip-feeds you the requirements for completing the order: the billing address on one page, the shipping address on the next one, coupon entry form & gift wrapping on the third, etc. so by the end of it you've almost forgotten what is it that you are ordering.

Answer 7

You are not your users. What problem are you solving? I'm going to go out on a limb and say no users complained about the checkout process and no one in your company has polled users to see what they want. The whole idea of "fewest clicks" was a UI/UX idea that died off years ago. "As many clicks as it takes but no more." Breaking a common commerce site convention is not a good idea.

Answer 8

Necessary? Absolutely not.

A really freaking good idea that should never be skipped... YES!

Some order forms take like four pages to get through, and I agree with some earlier posters that until I see "your order is being processed", I have no reason to believe anything official has transpired.

Answer 9

It is commendable that you streamline the order taking system. The current multi-page payment wizard is absurdly clumsy. More pages is not only inefficient, it can be confusing, with the user more likely to get lost or make bad entries (e.g., users goes back to check shipping selection resulting in the newletter checkbox getting reset, but they don’t notice it). We should strive to have concise compact shopping carts that include fields for payment and shipping information. The user clicks “Buy Now” and they’re done. Apple has recently redesigned their order form to keep it all on one page, which forms-guru Luke Wroblewski praises. A recent AB test at one ecommerce site saw a 22% conversion improvement with a one-page checkout over a four-pager.

It shouldn’t be hard to figure out if you can eliminate the confirmation page. Check your logs and see how often user go back to modify an order after seeing the confirmation screen. If it happens very very rarely, then get rid of it. If it happens not-so-rarely, then redesign the previous pages so it doesn’t happen and then think about eliminating the confirmation page.

If you do pursue eliminating the confirmation page, keep these things in mind:

• User may expect a confirmation page, so make sure by your labeling that users understand that Buy Now means buy now.

• Users may want a confirmation page not because they think they’ll make mistakes but because they think you’ll make mistakes. They want to see that what they entered was received and correctly interpreted by your system. You may need to provide feedback to that effect on the order form (e.g., autofilling Shipped To fields when the user indicates “Use same address”).

• Provide a clear easy means for the user to hold and edit an order after it’s made in the event the user wants to change something (e.g., provide a link in the invoice page and email). If that means holding off actually processing the order for a few minutes, then so be it. Ideally, users will never use it, but it’ll build their confidence to see it there.

Answer 10

I think part of the answer depends on whether or not orders can be easily canceled, and what the effect is if a wrong order is placed. The confirmation screen gives peace of mind to a customer that everything is correct. I personally like them for casual purchases. If I was using a site dozens of times a day it might get annoying. So,as with most UI questions, "it depends".

If, for example, it is easy and cost effective to cancel an incorrect order, or the effect of an incorrect order is minimal, no confirmation may be necessary. If, however, the cost of making a wrong order is sufficiently large, a confirmation screen will likely help reduce the chance that an incorrect order will be processed.

Talk to your users and ask them what they think. They know more about the usability of your site than you do.

Answer 11

If the website causes most customers to transact a single line item per order—that is, buying one type of item, whether one unit or multiple units—then a confirmation screen is clumsy and less than necessary. However, shipping and billing information tend to be complex, so the single line item per order aspect is of minor significance in relation to the overall complexity of the transaction. Who hasn't struggled entering an online order with separate bill to and ship to addresses? Such situations demand confirmation—if nothing else, as a video game-like congratulations you done good page.

If, somehow, the website is brilliant simplicity—only five inputs are needed to complete an order—then a single page without confirmation should be a good fit.

Why not default to having a confirmation screen and allow each customer to opt out of confirmation screens for future orders? After that's been running for a few months, collect statistics and let that decide if "one size should fit all".

Answer 12

Absolutely a must have in my opinion.
When I do an online purchase I always look for a summarizing screen that tells me the exact details of the transaction, including the final amount, and that gives me a last moment to regret.

A site failing to do so will not have the benefit of me purchasing there again.

I think it is a must have to have the consumer's confidence in your integrity and fairness for a last minute regrets/changes.