Offer multiple payment methods, including buy now pay later
Card, wallet, and an installment option like Affirm or Katapult all sit on the same payment screen, so the shopper who prefers to split the cost is not the one required to go find a different way to check out.
What it is
The payment step lists several distinct ways to pay: a card field, a wallet button, and a buy-now-pay-later option that splits the total into installments, all selectable on the same screen rather than the installment option being a separate product-page banner that never reappears at checkout.
Why it works
Different shoppers hesitate at the final total for different reasons, and a single payment method assumes everyone hesitates for the same reason or not at all. A shopper who is fine with the total but does not trust putting a full card number into a form they are unsure of will take a wallet button. A shopper who is put off by the size of the total specifically, not by the merchant, will take an installment option that turns one large number into four smaller ones. Offering both means checkout accommodates the actual reason a given shopper is hesitating instead of only the average one.
How to test it
- Hypothesis
- Adding a buy-now-pay-later option alongside card and wallet payment will lift checkout completion rate and average order value, because shoppers hesitating specifically on the size of the total get a way past that hesitation without leaving the page.
- Primary metric
- Checkout completion rate (sessions that start checkout)
- Guardrail metric
- Net margin per order, since installment providers charge the merchant a higher processing fee than standard card rates
Related ideas
Want this tested on your store?
We run the experiment, call the result honestly, and get paid on what it adds.
See the performance program