For those of you have have not seen these yet I thought I’d post links to two very nice articles on what you can do to utilize the power of Google’s Website Optimizer.

Google’s Website optimizer is a powerful tool that enables you to increase the conversion of your website using testing methods such as Multivariate and traditional A/B split testing. When setup and utilized correctly, Website Optimizer gives you the ability to discover what really works to turn visitors into sales (or just about any other action you are seeking from your audience). No more guessing.

For any of you have have already tried your hand at “manual” split testing, you know it can be tedious, time consuming, and down right tough to keep track of all the possible combination’s that are put together for any given test. That process is made much simpler with the use of Website Optimizer.

The instructions for setting up optimizer are easy to follow and do a great job for even newbies on helping them get up and running (although if your cart requires programming to integrate the code into the pages you may need the help of your technical team).

One article circulated last year and was titled 55 Google Website Optimizer Tips and Tricks.

The other surfaced February 23 of this year as a “sequel” to that original post and it is titled 25 Google Website Optimizer Tips for Better Product Pages.

Together these articles combine to provide a total of 80 different tests you should consider running on your site. I highly recommend reading them and keeping them on your bookmarked list for future reference.

I’m a big “conversion” person as many of you already know.

I like conversion increases and I am always seeking higher conversion levels, even tenths of a point at a time (it all builds up.)

Having said that, I thought it was important to point out one thing I tell store owners. I bring this up because many store owners I meet think that increasing conversion automatically means increasing sales and that’s not always the case. You can increase conversion without increasing sales.

You see, conversion rate is a metric that helps you measure the effectiveness of your efforts. It tells you how well your site performs to turn visitors into sales (or into other actions if you consider conversion rate in that respect.) Although it helps you measure effectiveness, and is a critical metric toward moving your business in the right direction, you can actually gain higher conversion without increasing sales.

I have store owners ask me to help them increase conversion—and I am happy to do so (in fact I love that.) But when I explain to them that we can increase conversion without increasing sales they look at me like I have two heads.

Here’s an example of how this is done:

Let’s say you have 100 unique visitors to your website and you make 2 sales from that. Your conversion rate is 2%.

After looking at analytics it is determined that one marketing channel—we’ll say paid search for this example—is delivering unqualified traffic to your site. For sake of this example again, let’s say that 50%, or 50 visitors, are deemed non-qualified. You decide to turn off that channel so as to not waste any more money on it (it’s good to stop the bleeding before you burn a hole in your pocketbook. Take that saved money and put it toward resources that can help you better your business.)

In taking this approach (i.e. stopping traffic from the portion of the channel that is non-qualified) you now have 50 (not 100) unique visitors arrive at your site and you still have 2 buy (because the first sales came from that qualified group of 50 anyhow—so those sales shouldn’t change at all.) If you had 2 before you should have 2 now. All you did was eliminate the bad traffic.

Guess what just happened? Your conversion rate just doubled to 4%! But notice what did not happen. Your sales remained the same and did not increase. Although conversion increased, sales remained consistent.

So what good does it do to increase conversion and not sales? A lot when you know what you are looking at and understand that conversion is a measure of effectiveness. Under the example presented here, the double in conversion rate tells us that our site is doing a decent job at converting the traffic from the channel which is driving the 50 qualified visitors. Knowing that, we could increase sales in several ways, one of which is to attract more of the same traffic from that qualified channel (there are other ways to increase sales as well but I won’t go into them in this article.)

Our conversion rate told us our site was effective at generating sales from a specific segment of traffic. Let’s now say that we attract 50 new visitors from within that same channel (on top of the 50 already arriving at our site.) Ideally, we should gain at least 2 more sales (we win 2 sales per every 50 visitors from that channel.) Now you have increased sales!

Your increase in sales would not have been possible though without the knowledge you gained from understanding what your conversion rate was telling you. So the conversion rate is related to sales and typically an increase in conversion rate can translate to an increase in sales, but not always as directly as some might think.

Conversion rate is a metric that measures performance—understanding what it is telling you about your business is the key toward increasing sales.

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Just a reminder here to everyone that today is the last day to take advantage of the Free Website Video Review I am performing for anyone who joins my online coaching program Ecommerce Amplifier.

The reviews have been more than beneficial to those who have already received them and in many cases have helped increase their website conversion in as little as one week.

If you want to take advantage of this offer you need to do it today. My coaching program comes with a 30 Day Money Back Guarantee so you have nothing to lose.

I’ll be moving through the reviews as fast as possible and will complete them so you can implement the suggested alterations in time to gain additional holiday sales.

In addition to the limited time video reviews members can also download a ton of bonuses including source templates, cart add-ons, graphic files and more from my Vault as well as get access to the members only forums.

More information on this can be found in my original post on the launch of Ecommerce Amplifier here.

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The holidays are quickly approaching and you should already be pushing promos geared toward that (and have others planned). However, this timely post provides you with a checklist of things to consider while moving toward the holidays.

1. Ensure your checkout process is stable and the shopping cart is streamlined.
You should be aware of this part of your site all the time, but take one good look at it and make sure it is working (and across multiple browsers) before the holiday shopping season hits big. It does you no good to get an customer who is interested in your product(s) put items into their cart and then abandon due to circumstances that could have been avoided.

2. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.
If your website is working and is smooth, now is not the time to try new programming alterations etc… You might risk introducing a bug or problem into the current process and if it can wait, you should put all your major changes off and sit tight until the holiday season passes. Instead, focus on sales efforts. Sales are more important than new innovations during the 4th quarter.

3. Ensure your search marketing and ads reflect the holiday things people are looking for.
Free shipping, big discounts, buy one get one free, etc… are all big items people consider during the holidays especially. Also consider running ads during the holiday season only that reflect products people are looking for (that you offer).

With the major engines you can easily schedule your ads to run during a given period (I recommend creating a new campaign(s) and calling it “holiday” or something like that.) You can break this new campaign into various ad groups that all target different holiday products.

Schedule it to run during the holiday season only and end it when the holidays are over. This is something that can really help boost sales.

I recently worked with a retailer that had some holiday products (limited time) which just arrived. A quick search of Google Trends told me the exact points in time each of these products was in it heaviest demand on the internet and thus we setup a number of ads targeting those keywords and products. The results were immediate with new sales coming in within a few hours.

4. Utilize your Social Media channels to ensure you spread the word about your offers.
Viral marketing during this time of the year is something you simply can’t overlook. Good news (and offers) spread fast!

5. Tweak navigational elements to cater to the holiday shopper.
Consider adding the following temporary categories to your navigation during the holidays.

Gifts by Price: Organize and suggest gifts by price range. For example, highlight gifts under $10, 25, 50, 100 or whatever price points are appropriate for your business. Maybe try a “Gifts Under $10″ category or something.

Gifts by Person: Organize gifts intended for different people groups such as kids, teens, parents, and grandparents. Consider a “Gifts for Him” or “Gifts for Her” category as well as “Gifts for Boys” and or “Gifts for Girls.”

6. Showcase stocking stuffers.
Be sure to highlight low cost products that would make good stocking stuffers. You may even want to utilize these types of items for “cross promotional selling” as a way to increase your average order value.

7. Make sure your shipping and return info is clearly marked on your product pages.
Again, this is something that I say should be there all the time anyhow, but during the holidays you better have it. Shipping and return issues will be top of mind for your customers at this time and one of the first places the begin to seek answers to these questions is on the product page. Be sure you display or link to your shipping and returns pages from your product pages.

A favorite way I like of doing this is to provide a “tabbed” experience as is the case with many big online retailers and providing tabs for the product description, shipping info, returns info etc… This is a super way to keep the user on the product page and still provide them with the information they seek.

8. Consider offering gift wrapping.
If your business can do it, consider offer gift wrapping services to your customers. You can add this as an “upsell” on the product page (and remember to cross sell it on the shopping cart page in case they missed it) but be sure to add enough additional charge to cover any labor and materials associated with this.

9. Create product bundles.
Product bundles are a great way of increasing average order value and sales across the board. Consider taking several related products and grouping them into a “gift package” at a discounted rate than if the items were purchased separately (this too will encourage sales.) Gift selection is much easier when related items are grouped together in some sort of gift basket or bundle.

10. Consider gift messages.
If you r cart enables you to do so let your customers add a personal message to their gift. For simplicity, you can have the message appear on the packing list which will already be included in the box. If your cart doesn’t enable that, consider using the “Additional Comments” box (which many carts have by default) as an opportunity for them to add their gift message. Just ensure this message appears on the packing slip as well.

11. Determine shipping cut-off dates.
This is probably one of the most important pieces of information to communicate to customers during the holidays. Check with your shipping carriers to determine what the cutoff days are for the various methods of shipping. Ensure you add a “guaranteed arrivel in time for (name your holiday here) if ordered before (name your date here.)”

12. Prominently display your return policy.
As mentioned above, your return policy should be easy to find. Consider re-wording it as a “no hassle” policy in order to calm the fears of first time buyers (if you are not already doing so).

If your current policy is stiff, consider loosening it up during the holiday season. While a 30 day return policy is commonplace for the rest of the year, it may scare off early shoppers during the holidays. Make it clear to your visitors that you will accept returns and exchanges on all Christmas (or name your own holiday) gift purchases. This ensures them that they can expect total satisfaction.

QVC always does a super job of wording their return policy during the holidays—Why? because it works.

13. Show holiday spirit in your graphics.
Go ahead, decorate for the holidays! Consider redesigning some of the artwork on your site with a holiday theme. If you do any shopping (or searching) on the internet you’ll see all the big players do this. Even Google decorates for the holidays by reworking their logo to get you in the buying mood.

14. Ensure your server can handle any increased capacity.
If you don’t host in-house, talk with your web host about how you can increase your server performance during the holiday rush. The quickest way to lose sales is to have a website that is not online or is very slow. This will not only cost you holiday sales, but will likely cost you many future customers as well so the effect can be long term.

If you are on a shared hosting platform and looking for hosting, I recommend Media Temple as an option.

If you are looking for a dedicated hosting solution, no one beats Rackspace in my opinion. (I would not recommend moving your site to a new hosting platform if you are in the midst of the holiday shopping season though!) If you weren’t prepared for the rush then you’re just going to have to wait till next year to make the move. Lesson learned.

15. Enable customers to ship to alternate locations than the one they are buying from.
If a customer is buying a gift for someone that does not live near them they may want to have it simply shipped to to the recipient’s address as a holiday gift surprise.

16. Communicate with fulfillment & customer service.
Make everyone involved in the order process aware of any promotions etc… you plan on running. Don’t surprise your customer service and fulfillment staff with an unplanned 24 hour blowout sale.

Taking 10,000 orders in a day is great, but if your warehouse can only ship 5,000, you’re in for trouble.

17. Ensure your email campaigns promote the holiday offers and your website backs those up.
If you are running any email campaigns you need to ensure that offers presented in the emails are easily found and similarly presented on your website. Consider using similar graphics and pushing the traffic to specific landing pages on your website that are setup to convert that traffic.

It’s all about relevancy here. The more relevant the site is in comparison to the email offer, the more success you’ll have generating sales.

18. Consider offering gift certificates.
Even if you do not offer gift certificates any other time of the year, consider offering them during the holiday season. These often provide an added option for shoppers who may not have a “wish list” but know someone they are buying for likes to shop at your store.

These might also be a way to get “last minute” shoppers to buy—that is, providing your cart offers the ability to generate “digital gift certificates” that are sent and redeemed online (rather than printed or sent in a traditional “gift card”.

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Increasing website conversion is something that all of us seek. More sales, better qualified traffic, bigger profits, lower cart abandonment, and the list goes on. It’s the foundation of what I write about in this blog.

However, I realize that although the answers are often provided in articles, it can be difficult for store owners to put those bits into the proper sequence which ensures they reach their goals. You see, having the right information in front of you is just one small portion of the puzzle. It’s knowing how to use it and when to implement it that makes all the difference.

Don’t put the cart before the horse

I can’t count the number of times I hear store owners say “I’ve already tried this” or “I tried that and it didn’t work”, or “Why does it seem work for everyone else but not for me?” It’s not to say that what they tried doesn’t work (but you must test), rather, the answer often lies in the way the process was implemented.

As the old saying goes, “don’t put the cart before the horse”. Why? Quite simply, doing so will render the horse useless even though all the elements are in place to succeed. The key here is in the proper implementation of the elements in the process. If you simply switch the location of the elements, and put the horse before the cart, you’ll likely find the success you were looking for. The answer was in front of you all along, you just had to know how to implement it.

Building a successful ecommerce store is no different in principle than the cart before the horse analogy mentioned above. Sure, it’s harder to run an online store than it is for a horse to pull a cart, but the fact that it all comes down to proper implementation is often the missing ingredient.

Ecommerce Amplifier: Your Blueprint for Success

I’ve been helping store owners both large and small increase their website conversion for quite some time now. Over this lengthy time period I continually developed, tested, and refined a systematic process that has proven time and time again, to increase store conversion for anyone that follows it—regardless of size.

Several months back I decided to put this process into a do-it-yourself online coaching program called Ecommerce Amplifier. My objective was to make my program available to as many store owners as possible by keeping the monthly investment ridiculously low and provide them with a system that put all the elements into the right order through easy-to-follow weekly lessons.

I launched Ecommerce Amplifier about 2 months ago and the current members love it. The results spoke for themselves almost immediately in store owners reporting increased conversion in as little as one week after entering the program.

My online coaching program not only provides an exact blueprint for reaching your goals, but I also provide my members with the exact tools, resources, strategies, and secrets I use daily to help store owners achieve success. In addition my members get access to me as their personal coach through exclusive members only forums (complete details of what you get can be found by clicking here.)

Anybody ecommerce store owner can benefit from this system. It doesn’t matter if you are just starting out or already have an established ecommerce business, this system will help you build a stronger, more successful online store.

I don’t have to tell you how expensive it can be to hire out all the resources needed to find success. For just peanuts, my system will provide you with a do-it-yourself blueprint to success.

Ecommerce Amplifier walks you step-by-step through a 6 step process that has been proven to increase ecommerce sales.

The 6 Steps

I’ll guide you through the following 6 step process toward building your online business:

1. Plan
2. Focus
3. Streamline
4. Target
5. Measure
6. Retain

You’ll learn how to:

• Increase Conversion
• Generate More Sales
• Attract More Qualified Traffic
• Reduce Cart Abandonment
• Decrease Bounce Rates
• Run Stronger More Successful Promotions
• Use Social Media as a Viral Marketing Element
• And that’s just the beginning …

If you want complete unrestricted access to all the tools, resources, strategies and secrets that will help you build a more successful ecommerce business you should give Ecommerce Amplifier a serious look. I’m confident you’ll like what you find.

Remember, the answers are often right in front of you, you just need to know how to implement them. Ecommerce Amplifier helps you do just that.

To your ecommerce success!

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In 1956 a book written by Victor Schwab described forty driver based emotions which we as people want and that cause us to act. That was over 50 years ago and would you believe after all that time, some things never change?

It comes down to this. No matter how sophisticated our technology is, no matter how much we evolve, there are a number of basic needs and wants we all long for as people. Whether they make us feel complete, happy, fulfilled, comfortable, or any other combination of feelings, these emotional drivers often become the foundation for our actions.

As I see it, in the simplest form consumers buy to fulfill either a need or want. Needing and wanting, although slightly similar, are actually quite different if you look at the true emotional driver behind the word.

Consumers that buy based on need are typically filling a void for something that is a necessity rather than anything else. Needing something usually indicates more than a desire. It represents a functional reason why they must buy.

For example, a consumer needs to buy a new tire for their car when the current tire has gone flat. This is a need—the car will not run properly without the tire. Sure, they would rather spend their money on a want (like a vacation or heated seats) yet the problem with the tire causes them to buy based on need first.

Wanting however is different and is often based on desire. Consumers who buy based on want are usually buying with leisure in mind (whether they know it or not.) Wanting often indicates a “non-need” yet something that will make their life easier or more enjoyable.

For example, a consumer who adds heated seats to their car is buying based on want not need. Having heated seats in a car makes the ride much more enjoyable on those cold commuter days yet it does not necessarily fulfill a functional role (the car will still run without heated seats.) The consumer is buying based on a want that will add comfort to their driving experience.

In some cases, having heated seats might make a driver feel as though they have gained some status in life. Not all cars have heated seats, and to add that could be seen as higher class.

Knowing some of what drives consumer emotions can help us better write product descriptions which speak to them. Considering how their emotions drive their buying habits, we can develop a list of product benefits which address the various areas.

Having said that, here are a few of Schwab’s drivers that I think might be particularly beneficial for consumer (B2C) type marketing.

People want to gain:
Health
Self-confidence
Time
Improved appearance
Comfort
Leisure
Increased enjoyment

They want to save:
Time
Discomfort
Risks
Money
Worry
Embarrassment
Doubts

They want to be:
Efficient
Up-to-date
“First” in things
Proud of their possessions
Influential over others (as seen in the submission of product ratings)

They want to:
Express their personalities
Appreciate beauty
Improve themselves generally

Consider these when writing your next product description and aim to develop a benefit list which addresses those you feel fit your product type.

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Many successful companies use urgency as a known factor to help them win sales. Urgency is a form of persuasion that works very well when combined with promotional offers. It creates an anxiety within the buyer which makes them feel that they might lose a benefit if they don’t act immediately.

For this reason, offers with words like “Limited Time” attached to them tend to do better than offers with no time frame or urgency factor attached to them. Urgency offers are generally concerned with or focused on time but are often combined with scarcity (only a few left) and availability (chance, opportunity.) Home shopping network sites like QVC use this to their advantage all the time and it’s one of the primary reasons they move product as fast as they do (not to mention the large audience they reach.)

QVC has the “today’s special value”, they have the countdown clock, they have the number sold and constantly push the number remaining in their broadcasts. They do it well and they are a good example of how to do it right.

So how do you add urgency to your sales promotions? Here are a few common words and methods used to express urgency.

Common words used to express urgency

LIMITED TIME
ONLY
TODAY
HURRY
ACT NOW
RUSH
LAST CHANCE
DEADLINE
FINAL CLOSE-OUT
GOING OUT-OF-BUSINESS
ONE DAY ONLY
NEVER AGAIN
CLEARANCE
DON’T DELAY
NOW OR NEVER
DON’T MISS OUT
OFFER EXPIRES
ONCE IN A LIFETIME
PROMPTNESS BONUS
PRICES GOING UP

Nonverbal ways to express urgency

Ticking clocks
Countdowns (7,6,5,4,3 …)

So here I’ve listed a few methods of creating urgency. Don’t overuse it, but do consider using it during one of your next promotions. Compare the difference between your standard promotion and one that utilizes urgency. I think you’ll be pleased with the results.

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I’m always saying how offering free shipping will boost sales. After all, it is one of the most important factors in turning a potential customer who is “on the fence” into a lifetime customer.

Survey after survey reveal that consumers rate free shipping high on their list of expectations from online e-tailers.

So I ran a survey of my own on a current client site which has a number of very nice offers that distinguish them from the competition. I will add that this client has product prices which are on average higher than the competition … in some cases significantly.

We placed an optional “after order” survey on the thank you page of the website so as not to interfere with the buying process and asked a number of questions. The first question was simply “What was the main reason for your purchasing from us today?” The results are below and guess what reason was a leader of the pack? You guessed right if you said free shipping.

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To be successful in ecommerce you need to be proactive not passive. Continually analyzing to discover problem points and testing methods that better those points is essential. You must market, promote, adapt and be willing to go out on a limb in some cases — thinking outside the box. You must continually monitor the customer experience your site delivers to your visitors and ensure the layers of that are working together.

You cannot sit back and expect sales to come in simply because you have a website listing products which target a specific market — even if you are getting loads of traffic to that site. If you are not going to be proactive you are not going to see results.

During my coaching engagements with store owners I often see the same underlying mis-conception in where to focus improvement efforts, and what objective to target first for increasing sales conversion.

As the old saying goes, “you must crawl before you walk and walk before you run.” To expect conversion increases without first targeting the most important areas often ends up in frustration.

For example, to focus on the checkout process in an effort to increase sales when your website analytics shows that the majority of your visitors never even make it that far will yield nothing. Why? Because if your visitors are not even making it that deep into your site then they can’t checkout anyhow. It goes to say that if they don’t see the checkout process then making adjustments to it will not yield additional sales.

So where should you focus your improvement efforts?

To answer that question for every store is difficult. Each business is different and each situation needs to be analyzed in order to develop an action plan for improvement based on the unique circumstances and objective desired. You should let your website analytics dictate where to begin.

However, although the answer to that question is not clear cut, I can certainly give you a starting point for focusing improvement efforts. You see, although each ecommerce site is unique, the pages that visitors encounter — on any ecommerce site — which influence them to make a successful purchase remain fairly consistent.

If you are wondering where to focus your improvement efforts try adding these pages to the top of your list.

1. Home Page

Oftentimes (unless paid search or SEO efforts dictate otherwise) the home page of a website is where a bulk of your visitors will end up at some point — if not right from the beginning.

The home page needs to effectively speak to the visitor demographic(s) in such a way that they desire to continue deeper into the site. If they don’t move past your home page (often indicated by high website bounce rates) they aren’t getting to the product pages. If they aren’t getting to the product pages they likely can’t add an item to their cart. If they don’t add an item to their cart, they won’t checkout. Got that?

The home page should, at the very least, give visitors multiple options for accessing the products on your site and should have some room reserved for the latest promotion.

If your website has a high bounce rate from the home page, you need to first focus your efforts on that page with the single objective of getting deeper visitor penetration into the site (i.e. increased pageviews, longer time on site.) This is one example of what I meant when I referenced the “crawl before you walk …” statement above.

2. Product Pages

It is from this page that most product information is gathered and questions are answered which ultimately lead the buyer to adding an item to their cart. Take care in your presentation, placing wording, descriptions, photos, and customer assurances in the best location to persuade action.

The goal of a product page should be to get the user to add the item to their cart. You can’t make a sale if the item is not in the cart!

3. Checkout Pages

Once an item has been added to a visitors cart the only way they can get out of your store with that product is through the checkout. This is a critical part. Think of it … you have an interested visitor who has a product or products in their cart and that likely wants to become a customer. The only thing keeping from that now is your checkout.

The checkout process should definitely be monitored for abandonment rates using website analytics. In Google Analytics I recommend setting up a funnel and associated goal for this process alone to keep track of its effectiveness. You want to know where in this process people may leave so you can refine it to capture future opportunities.

The ultimate goal of the checkout process is to get the visitor out the door with a successful sale. Keep in mind though that for multiple step checkout processes you may likely need to develop smaller incremental goals throughout the process to get to that final objective. Your abandonment points reported by your tracking funnel will tell you where and what these smaller goals should be.

In Summary

There are an almost unlimited number of areas on a website which contribute to higher conversion. In reality, the entire customer experience must be considered if a sustainable and profitable ecommerce business is the goal. The list of pages I provided here are just a starting point for organizing your approach.

Although these pages are important (each serving its role in closing the sale) changing just one will not always guarantee increased sales. You will need to interpret what your analytics is telling you in order to determine which page(s) to devote attention to.

Pay particular attention to your visitor click paths and develop an action plan for improvement with realistic incremental goals as the objective. Think big but be willing to start small. Measuring and expecting incremental improvements over the “ultimate goal” will result in that final goal being reached more often.

Remember, identifying and addressing the actual problem is the first step toward increasing conversion. You wouldn’t put the cart before the donkey and the same applies when looking for improvement from your website.

Finally, take it in stride making alterations to the most “problematic” pages first as reported by your analytics program. In doing so, you’ll be gradually building what I call a “trail to the sale” which will lead the visitor down a specific and intended path toward the end goal.

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I’ve written articles in the past about the importance of offering paypal as an alternative payment option.

Recent studies show that PayPal has a pretty good hold on the market and according to PayPal, 1 in 3 internet shoppers look for and even prefer to pay using PayPal payment method. Even with a variety of payment methods available today, Paypal has a 21% market share of all consumer internet payments (source: UK Payments Market 2008, Payments Council). This is a 5% increase over the previous year.

If you sell to the UK market, you should know that a whopping 30% of UK shoppers prefer to checkout using PayPal over any other method offered. If you aren’t offering PayPal as an option to this group, you most certainly are losing sales.

Why PayPal?

So, what’s the fascination with PayPal? Well, it might not necessarily be so much a fascination thing as it is a security issue. Shoppers are still concerned about identity theft and are hesitant at times of typing their credit card details into ecommerce sites. For those with that mindset, PayPal offers them peace of mind that their financial information is not shared.

On the flip side, I’ve often heard PayPal shoppers (those that pay using there PayPal account) say “It doesn’t feel like I am spending any money because I just take it out of my PayPal account (which acts like an escrow account to some degree — the funds sit in that account until asked to be withdrawn.) This attitude can often lead one to spend even more than they typically would because they are not as “conscience” of the amount of money actually leaving their pocket.

What has changed with PayPal?

In general, not a lot. Long ago, in order to use PayPal, one needed a PayPal account themselves. That is no longer the case and has not been the case for quite some time. PayPal still offers the buyer the option to quickly pay using their PayPal account and with just a few clicks they are on their way. However, they also offer the seller (with the right account) the option of allowing customers who do not have (or do not want to have) a PayPal account the ability to checkout.

From the sellers perspective, PayPal offers the ability to accept a wide variety of credit card types as well as echecks (if activated). From a buyers perspective PayPal offers an alternative to the traditional payment methods and the security they need to feel comfortable making an internet purchase.

I’m not saying that offering PayPal (IPN) as the only option is right. I am saying as I have in the past that it is wise to offer it in addition to other options. The statistics here only further bolster that thought.

I have seen a gradual shift in the amount of orders coming through PayPal (vs. traditional on site methods) from a number of clients I work with over the past 6 months or so. I attribute it to a combination of offering the option in the first place and making that option readily available during checkout.

If you have yet to setup a PayPal account you can do so for free in a few simple steps. I personally feel it is best to choose one of the “business” account types (not a personal PayPal account) so you can offer the credit card option to your customers as well.

Promote using PayPal as a checkout option as much as you do other methods and you too will likely see a difference reflected in sales.

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