PayPal Introduces a Smart Payment Button
PayPal Checkout just added “smart payment buttons” to their set of merchant-oriented services. These dynamic buttons will help them customise their display for available payment options, based on their end customers and their location. PayPal mostly aims for small e-merchants to further improve their conversion rate.
The latest version of PayPal Checkout comes with a new feature, highlighting smart payment buttons, with dynamic display.
These buttons will change the way available payment options are presented depending on each specific customer. This feature is first intended for PayPal’s own payment methods: “PayPal”, “Venmo” and “PayPal Credit” will only be proposed if the customer is likely to use them –based on use rates (his preferred means of payment), and on whether he subscribed the given solution.
PayPal is now rolling out this feature to cover other payment options. All local methods are step by step being added: they will be displayed if the user’s location is relevant: iDEAL (the Netherlands), Bancontact (Belgium), MyBank (Italy), Giropay (Germany) and EPS (Austria). Other options will later be covered.
Comments – PayPal chooses and recommends payment options
PayPal sees these smart buttons as a way to address a recurring issue: the increasing number of e-payment options actually confuses customers at checkout. They rely on several studies explaining that conversion rates increase when 5 to 6 means of payment are proposed; beyond this point, they tend to decrease. With an easy to integrate service, PayPal allows merchants to avoid looking into local payment options and optimise their conversion rate via simplifying the transaction validation process. Small merchants are mostly targeted, and stats regarding this button are also provided (conversion rates based on each means of payment, recommended methods, advice to improve these results).
PayPal keeps focusing on ease of use and assisting small merchants. They go even further as they avoid that end customers should spend time choosing a relevant option. This service will help secure small merchants’ loyalty (PayPal already is well established with this segment), and will contribute to gradually shifting priorities from means of payment-only focus to streamlining customer processes.