How to Optimize Your Checkout with Payment Methods: Insights from Billy Gene is Marketing

You’ve created your digital product. You actively post quality content on social media. You’ve built your authority, and your followers trust you. One such follower, who engages with you regularly, has finally decided to buy from you. 

They add your product to their cart, fill in their details, but then abandon everything when it comes time to enter their payment information. 

You just missed out on a sale.

The reason?

Your buyer didn’t feel like entering their credit card information on yet another website. 

Now, imagine if they had multiple payment methods to choose from. If, instead of entering their credit card information, they could just log into their Apple Pay or PayPal account, they’re much more likely to complete their purchase.

Getting potential customers to your checkout page is the hardest part of being a creator. The last thing you want is to lose sales because of an inconvenient checkout process or not offering enough payment methods.

According to the Maynard Institute, the average cart abandonment rate in 2022 is 69.99%. That’s a lot of money that’s being left on the table!

Billy Gene Shaw of Billy Gene is Marketing has taught over 150,000 students in 75 countries through his courses. He’s one of the world’s top marketing educators, runs a successful marketing agency, and has an in-depth knowledge of checkout pages and payment methods.

Recently, Billy partnered with Hotmart to help scale his business globally, and take advantage of the platform’s comprehensive payment system. He was able to completely migrate 25 products in 2 weeks and his international sales increased 20%.

In this post, he shares his insights about how checkout pages and payment methods affect conversions, the importance of a globalized payment system, how to optimize your checkout page, and what he loves most about HotPay, Hotmart’s payment suite.

Billy Gene on checkout pages, payment methods and conversions

If a buyer has already made it to your checkout page it’s because they want to buy from you. They trust you and want your product, but that isn’t enough to secure the sale!

Completing a purchase online can be a delicate process, and it doesn’t take much for a buyer to abandon their purchase altogether.

Many people are reluctant, or at the very least cautious, about where they enter their credit card information online. If a buyer doesn’t feel comfortable on a checkout page they’re unlikely to complete their purchase.

We asked Billy Gene what aspects of a checkout page he believes most affect conversions. Let’s take a look at what he shared, how these issues affect your checkout, and how to avoid them.

Long load times

Customers expect things to be convenient nowadays. They want instant access to content. They want things quickly, and they certainly don’t have patience for long loading times. 

In the era of high-speed internet, load times that take longer than the blink of an eye are an inconvenience no one can afford. Especially on a checkout page!

Billy Gene cites load time as one of the most important factors of a checkout page, “If you’re dealing with a checkout page that has trouble loading, people bounce right away.”

This highlights just how fragile the checkout process is and how a matter of seconds could be the difference between making or not making a sale. 

To avoid this, keep your checkout page clean and simple. Make sure that your site is hosted on a reputable server. And make sure you have optimized versions of your checkout page for desktop and mobile. 

Site doesn’t look trustworthy

Many are cautious about where they enter their credit card information online. And for good reason! In 2020, more than 1.3 million people lodged complaints to the FTC relating to identity theft. 

Make sure your website and checkout page look trustworthy to buyers. 

For Billy Gene, trust is the one thing that makes buyers more likely to purchase. Again, make sure you keep the design clean and simple. Install an SSL certificate, display your business’ credentials, as well as contact and warranty information. 

Another good idea is to highlight customer testimonials to help potential buyers feel confident about their purchase.

Checkout process too long

A simple checkout process can be negatively impacted by long load times. On the other hand, a checkout process that is too long, even if it loads quickly, can also lead to high abandonment rates. 

Try to streamline your checkout process as much as possible. Avoid including too many mandatory fields to be filled in, and cut out anything unnecessary that lengthens the checkout process.

VIDEO: How can you create an amazing sales page? | Hotmart Tips

How payment methods affect conversions

This blog post started with an example of a sale that was lost as a result of not offering adequate payment methods. While you need to optimize your entire checkout page, the payment methods you offer are possibly what most impact your conversions.

Even if your checkout page is trustworthy, loads quickly, and your checkout process is timely, you can still lose sales if you don’t offer the right payment methods. 

Let’s take a look at how payment methods affect the checkout process and conversions.

Greater convenience for buyers

Completing a purchase can be made significantly easier and more convenient by offering the right payment methods. 

With a payment method your buyers already use, they can complete their purchase by simply logging into their account instead of having to enter their credit card information.

Consider how easy it is to complete purchases on mobile stores like Amazon. With their payment information already stored on the platform, users can instantly complete their purchases in a single click. 

The kind of convenience provided by a payment method a customer already uses, makes them much more likely to complete their purchase.  

It’s easier for buyers to trust a familiar payment methods

Here again, the issue of trust is monumental to avoid customers abandoning their purchases. Even if your customers’ data is totally safe, many customers may still be wary of giving you their credit card information.

Offering well-known payment methods is another way to make customers more confident in purchasing from you. 

Many customers will feel much more comfortable completing a purchase with ApplePay or Venmo, for example, than having to enter their credit card information. 

Payment methods that fit buyer needs

Customers have different needs when it comes to making payments. Some customers may want to complete their purchase with two credit cards. Others may want to pay for their product in installments.

Depending on their needs, not offering the right payment methods may mean customers won’t be able to purchase from you. 

The importance of localized payment methods

Since they vary greatly from country to country, payment methods play a huge role when it comes to making international sales. If you want to make international sales and scale your online business, you need to offer buyers in other countries payment methods they’re familiar with.

For example, young customers in the US may prefer to complete their purchases with Venmo. 

In Brazil, the Brazilian Central Bank recently launched Pix, an instant payment method that is already used by 71% of the Brazilian population.

In Mexico, cash-based payment methods account for 46% of ecommerce transactions in Mexico, and OXXO is Mexico’s leader in cash payments.

If you want to sell in other countries, you need to offer local buyers localized payment methods. Otherwise, your attempts to scale your sales globally will fall short.

Increase conversions with Hotmart payment methods

Whether you want to offer your customers greater convenience at checkout, or scale your sales internationally, Hotmart has the right solutions for your online business.

Hotmart lets buyers complete their purchases with multiple payment methods and in 13 currencies. There are also numerous local payment systems that offer greater flexibility to buyers in different countries. 

This is something that was extremely important for Billy Gene and his team when looking for a platform to partner with. 

“What I personally like most about Hotmart’s payment system is the globalization,” says Billy Gene. 

“We advertise all over the world and it feels so good to know that when someone logs in in Brazil, the States, or Mexico they’re getting the payment page that’s most convenient for them. 

As a result, we see a massive increase in conversions. I know for my business in particular, it has reduced our cost per sale substantially, and allowed us to scale as a company. My favorite feature about Hotmart is how they allow us to really play in the global marketplace.”

Another advantage of using Hotmart that Billy Gene appreciates is the amount of payment methods available to buyers. “A lot of people prefer to pay with Paypal, ApplePay, and Venmo,” he says, “Hotmart allows you to use all of them which is great and I love them.”

Don’t leave money on the table! 

A sale lost because of an inconvenient checkout page or not offering the right payment method, is money left on the table. 

Optimizing your checkout page and offering convenient options for your buyers to complete their purchase, is an easy way to increase your conversions. 

It’s a small detail to adjust, especially after all your hard work creating your digital product and bringing buyers as far as your checkout page!

Check out this article to learn more about optimizing your checkout page with Hotmart, and our solutions page to see how Hotmart can help you boost your sales.

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