Added Paypal explanation, cart abandonments go up?

Paypal logo, short description added to cart initial step,sales go down.

[flyerguy]

We've been just fine-tuning our new cart, trying to clean it up and make it a lean mean selling machine.

One question I asked myself, from the role of the customer, is "Is the payment method clear?". It wasn't. The first time the customer discovers we only offer Paypal is after they click 'Submit Order' after 3 steps of info-filling.

I've conversed with some customers who asked if they could phone in the order because they 'don't use Paypal', so I figured it's time to clear up the Paypal concept for people not exposed to it before (all 3 of them).

So I added the Paypal logo with the credit card images, and a short description (Paypal is big, trust them, we don't touch your private data, etc.) to the first page of the cart.

Good idea? I would always have thought so.. except.. sales are down from 8-10 widgets a day to 3-5.

Seems a bit paradoxical, while shortening the hoops to jump through and text to be read between the Landing Page > Payment Complete route is a must, I would think payment method is always on peoples mind.

[rocknbil]

It's actually a bit ironic - people are more confident providing their credit card to a "unknown system" that may be, and often is, bereft with security holes, rather than make a payment to payPal, which has some of the best security methods in place that I know of.

The problem is the effect of mass hysteria. Pick any one "payPal sucks" site. People get ahold of that information and say "whew, good thing I found this" and that's what they remember.

I am not undermining those unfortunate enough to have had accounts frozen, etc. due to fraud. But I am one of millions who has used payPal for years without a single issue of consequence.

I think what you might be seeing is people are able to dump out early if they see payPal in advance. Or it could just be a dip in your sales curve.

[pageoneresults]

Paypal is big, trust them, we don't touch your private data, etc.

The way that it is written, it may lead me to believe that I have to sign up with PayPal to make a purchase.

PayPal's stigma comes from years of forcing users to have a PayPal account before checking out. Even though it hasn't been that way for a couple of years now, it is still something that I see happening.

Get rid of the explanation and see if sales immediately go back up. If they do, then there is a good chance that was the culprit. ;)

[RailMan]

the easier it is for shoppers to buy online, the easier it is to make money
thats why i use worldpay - no hassle for customers, no fuss, no accounts to open, just enter card details and pay - job done

i don't know if it's true about paypal not requiring accounts now, but last time i tried to pay for something through paypal i couldn't use my card or email address as they were linked to a paypal account that had been used with a previous purchase - like first purchase automatically opens a paypal account and ties that card and email address to that new account - so i'm effectively barred from paypal

[axgrindr]

no hassle for customers, no fuss, no accounts to open, just enter card details and pay - job done

Yup, this pretty much exactly how Paypal works now.

On the two sites we have that use Paypal for payments I'd say approx 70% of sales are straight credit card transactions and 30% use their Paypal account.

We have a statement on the shopping cart page that says "All major credit cards accepted, Paypal account not required".

[jecasc]

I think the trick here is to lead the customer so far into the order process that he has invested too much time to simply abandon when he notices he uses Paypal.

Don't lie to your customers but don't trouble them with too much information either.

[flyerguy]

Well a couple days into the week and it's definitely a bit -better- that I removed the pre-notice about Paypal. It's hard with max 5-10 sales a day to establish a baseline for statistics..

My cart can do Worldpay, and I've already gotten a quote from them, however of course the setup and monthly is pretty expensive. Can anyone point out any experiences (i'm sure this has been discussed before here too) of the effects on sales of adding a standard merchant gateway vs. 'just paypal'?

[Conard]

The experience of adding a regular payment gateway to sites that had only used PayPal in the past are always an increase in sales. Some as high as 75% increase.

[drhfinegifts]

My sales went up dramatically when I added a regular merchant credit card processing account along with the Paypal processing.

Even though you don't have to have a Paypal account, many potential customers would email me that they didn't want to sign up for a Paypal account in order to make a purchase.

I would estimate that approx. 80% - 85% of transactions are through the merchant account gateway and the remainder through Paypal.

If you want to give your sales a BIG boost, open a merchant account!

[vincevincevince]

Did you use the Paypal icon with the cards on it, or did you put the card icons individually and then a paypal icon as well?

I'd go for the second option of those - show them their familiar Visa, MC etc. and the PayPal logo. Some people actually like PayPal. Those who don't think they want to use it will see the card icons on their own and carry on.

Send them seamlessly to the PayPal payment page where they can see it's just a case of card number, name and address and they will be happy enough to enter them.

[axgrindr]

merchant gateway vs. 'just paypal'?

I have three ecommerce sites. Two just Paypal and one a cc merchant gateway only.
When we went with the merchant gateway on our main site our sales increased 200%.

I think it depends on the product you sell though.
In my experiemce if it is a physical product that you ship go with a merchant gateway.

If it is a fairly low cost digital download product then Paypal seems to do really well because the people who want this type of product have most likely used Paypal before.

[flyerguy]

We're selling downloadable digital files in the $3 - $50 range. The offer we got from Worldpay would mean we are paying significantly more than Paypal: 5-ish percent per transaction, PLUS .60 cents per transaction, PLUS $450 CDN setup fee, PLUS $60 CDN monthly fee. I guess its worth the gamble to see what happens, we'll probably never know unless we try.

The Paypal info I tried adding at the beginning of the cart process was their mid-sized logo, with the 5 credit card / echeck logos underneath.

The text we added basically said something to the effect of "Paypal is one of the biggest payment providers, owned by Ebay, we don't see your private data".

Maybe a simpler text, "Pay securely by credit card or bank account", with the Paypal logo -under- some more prominent credit card logos would be a more effective setup?

[axgrindr]

Our two Paypal sites have approximately the same price range as yours.

Here is the text we have been using for a while. This sits directly above the big 'Paypal, Click Here to Pay' graphic.
We have never had a complaint from a customer using this method.

• To pay for your listing, please click the Paypal button below. You will be transferred to PayPal's website, our payment processing partner.

• You will be able download your selected widgets immediately after payment.

• A Paypal account is not required to use this system (simply click on the 'do not have PayPal account' link on the next page if you are not registered)

5-ish percent per transaction, PLUS .60 cents per transaction, PLUS $450 CDN setup fee, PLUS $60 CDN monthly fee

This sounds like a third party merchant account type setup. Very expensive with none of the benefits of having your own merchant account.
Like:
• your business name on the customer credit card statements
• customer doesn't ever leave your site
• having your own secure server

[flyerguy]

Well my experience is that you may never receive a complaint, because 99.9% of potential clients will just move on without telling you anything.

Errors, bad colors on the landing page, etc. they just don't give a crap and will mosy on to the next website. The only way I'm measuring effectiveness of these subtle cart adjustments is by loss or gain in sales.

We've got Google analytics but i'm still fumbling around with the normal statistics stuff, I have no clue how to use the A/B testing stuff they have in there. Real marketing jock stuff..

[pageoneresults]

"All major credit cards accepted, Paypal account not required".

We also provide a similar statement and highlight the PayPal Account Not Required. Many still think an account is required. And, PayPal has this uncanny way of making the user "think" they need a PayPal account. ;)

[RailMan]

>>many potential customers would email me that they
>>didn't want to sign up for a Paypal account in
>>order to make a purchase

and many more simply click the back button and buy from the next site in the search engines - so much quicker and easier ......

[flyerguy]

Thats exactly my problem, if people get turned off they just go.

Currently we have an 84% abandonment rate on our most popular product page, i.e. 16% of people actually add to cart or do at least a few more page explorations. I'm not sure if this is normal or what.. I have read in these forums that lots of people come back later, so maybe theats why it seems so poor.

[axgrindr]

It's not really abandonment if you're referring to the product page is it? those are just shoppers.
What's the abandonment rate on your cart?

Ours seems to be vary from 40% to 60%, sometimes more on heavy traffic days.

[BananaFish]

If you use paypal payments pro, you offer both paypal checkout and normal onsite credit card payments. I've found conversions to increase upon offering paypal as a payment method.