During checkout, should a shopping cart assume a visitor’s shipping address is the same as their billing or let them decide?
Neither.
It should assume but then let them over-ride it.
I agree with Page. It should default to the billing address and let you change the shipping address as needed. I am sure it varies by business type but in our three online stores, most of our retail customers’ billing and shipping addresses are the same. When I say most, I am guessing well in excess of eighty percent.
A few years ago, we actually considered limiting sales to customers whose billing and shipping addresses matched to limit our exposure to fraud. We decided against it but now call prior to shipping whenever the addresses do not match.
Bob
I agree with you Page.
It would be nice if in the one page checkout it didn’t hide the checkbox behind an edit button in the third step. It should show step 3 in edit mode to begin with. This way a customer can uncheck the box if the want to and enter another address right there without having to figure out where the heck to do it.
A lot of customers don’t catch on to things too quickly and the frustration caused by not knowing where to enter another address may cost you a sale.
Defaulting to them being the same is fine as long as you make the option to change it very visible and easy to change. Hiding it behind the edit button is not how you do that.
You could have step 3 open in edit mode -or-
You could have the shipping same as billing check box in the billing address area, like in the multipage checkout.
That’s all I’m saying.
Thanks,
T