While retailers and brands have been shining a brighter light on conversion rate optimization recently, there’s one important step of the journey that still shivers in the shade. Checkout. Whether intimidating or misunderstood, most optimization efforts stop before the journey ends. With the release of the Checkout Benchmark, though, Bold Commerce signals why retailers should start their improvement efforts at the end of the journey. The report is filled with the insights drawn from 3 million checkout sessions, 1.5 million orders, producing more than $125 million in GMV in Q3 2021. The analysis provides the proof of some widely-held perceptions, while also uncovering some head-turning new insights. Check out the full report, The Checkout Benchmark. Here are some of our favorite insights:
Mobile Underperforms Desktop... even at the End of the Journey
It’s well reported that mobile represents - far and away - the largest share of traffic. Salesforce pegs it at 72% in Q4 2021. But, what retailers know all too well is that mobile does not convert nearly as well as desktop. While the majority of checkouts - 55% - begin on mobile, checkout completion rate lags considerably. Checkout completion rate is 20% lower on mobile than on desktop, a full 10 percentage points. That’s a big drop. And, mobile contributes less GMV than desktop. For many brands, optimizing mobile checkout holds the promise of double-digit growth.
Checkout is a HUGE opportunity
The insight that stopped us in our tracks was the performance gap between low, average, and top performing sites. Comparing checkout performance of the top 25% and bottom 25% of performers revealed a massive spread: the top performing sites performed 2-3 times better than the low performers and 50% better than the average. Rarely does such a wide spread in a core KPI emerge like this.
Check-in on Checkout
And finally, it turns out that check-out is actually not the ‘drive-thru’ that it’s been characterized as. Buyers don’t move through checkout in a swift, linear process - instead they are checking-in, before checking out. Checking in can mean reviewing items in the cart, adjusting shipping or payment options, or testing a promo code. The Checkout Benchmark reveals that on mobile, shoppers that convert to buyers are 41% more likely to ‘check-in’ compared to those that abandon during checkout. With this insight, brands should be thinking about checkout as a stage, not simply a point in time.
These are just a few of the interesting insights available in Bold’s Checkout Benchmark Report. You can (and should) access the full report here. For a deeper look inside these numbers and what this means for brands today, join Bold and PayPal for an interactive webinar on February 17, 2022. Register here to join the conversation here.