Best practices to help merchants optimize their e-commerce presence

May 12 2021 | Dr. Tiffany Raymond, PhD

The pandemic has accelerated already explosive ecommerce growth. In parallel, consumer expectations for frictionless ecommerce experiences have risen.
Attracting users to your website is only step one. Your ecommerce experience needs to deliver on customer demand for a clean, streamlined shopping experience that allows for easy browsing and frictionless buying. This applies to both mobile and desktop. Mobile conversion rates are still lagging behind desktop. Capturing conversion at the point of interest is critical. A poor mobile experience may never convert to a desktop purchase later.
 
Let’s think mobile-first and cover some simple ways to optimize your ecommerce site across the browsing and buying journeys.
 
On Product Pages:
  • Give your customers a quick and secure way to check out by adding a PayPal Buy Now button to the product page. Creating that quick path can lead to up to a 5% increase in revenue per visitor.1
  • Include product images from a variety of angles and make sure all call-to-action (CTA) buttons are large and high-contrast. This CTA best practice can lead to up to a 3% increase in conversion.2
 
On the Cart Page:
  • Add a PayPal Checkout button to the cart to help consumers complete their purchase quickly. Did you know that when PayPal is selected, there’s a 28% increase in checkout conversion?3
  • Capture higher basket sizes by presenting low-cost upsells on the cart page that complement the selected products. For example, if the user has a sleeping bag in the cart, suggest a camping pillow.
 
In Checkout:
  • Avoid pre-selecting a payment method so it’s easy for consumers to scan the options and find the payment method they want.
  • Clearly communicate shipping methods and costs. 75% of consumers expect shipping to be free, even on orders under $50.4
 
Tap into PayPal’s 2-sided network of 390+ million active consumer and 31 million merchant accounts. Use these tips to compete and capture more consumer spend. Make it easy for your customers to turn a browsing journey on your site into a buying experience.
 
The content of this article is provided for informational purposes only. You should always obtain independent business, tax, financial, and legal advice before making any business decision.

1: HiConversion Mobile Optimization ongoing study (2019). These results reflect the average findings of all participating merchants and are not guaranteed for all users.
2: HiConversion Mobile Optimization ongoing study (2019). These results reflect the average findings of all participating merchants and are not guaranteed for all users.
3: Nielsen, Commissioned by PayPal, A Study to understand and measure the impact that PayPal has for US-based LE merchants across different verticals (e.g., health & beauty, travel, fashion) excl. Amazon by Nielsen Behavioral Panel of desktop transactions from 15,144 US consumers between July 2020 to September 2020. Conversion is determined from the point at which customers start to pay.
4:"NRF study says more online shoppers want free shipping", National Retail Foundation, January 2019.
5: PayPal Internal Data – Q1, 2021 Results.
 

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