Member Avatar for acrylic

When I look at site stats, a very high percentage of paypal sales are forwarded to cancel.html page. Should I switch to a different (faster)cart system? Seems like they go thru 3 steps to making a purchase and change thier mind. Shipping is low, flat rate, and clearly marked, so no surprises. It's a clothing accessory site, average price is $30.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by pbridgman

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33% cancelled checkouts sounds alarming, but put it in context: modern cross-industry cart abandonment averages roughly 70%, so a one-in-three loss is actually better than many sites — but still worth fixing because every percent recovered is pure profit. (baymard.com)

Start by measuring the exact funnel drop. Instrument a checkout funnel (track begin_checkout, add_payment_info, purchase) and use Funnel Exploration or your analytics reports to see which step loses people. Push a dataLayer event when checkout is started and when the PayPal redirect is triggered so you can isolate “left at redirect” vs other causes. Correlate with session recordings and page-speed metrics to separate UX problems from payment method hesitancy. (developers.google.com)

Address PayPal-specific friction next. Move from a full-page redirect to PayPal Checkout / Smart Payment Buttons (in-context overlay) and enable the PayPal guest/credit-card option where your account and region allow it — that reduces the “I have to sign up” fear some buyers feel. Add concise microcopy on the cart like “You can pay by card — no PayPal account required” and show card-brand icons near the checkout button so customers see familiar options before they click. Test these changes A/B style to measure impact. (paypal.gitbook.com)

Recover and iterate. Implement a 3-step abandoned-cart email flow (soon after, 24h, 48h) that includes the exact cart contents and a single CTA — abandoned-cart flows reliably recover measurable revenue in live stores. Track results, then iterate: run an A/B test of Smart Buttons vs current flow, and only move to a hosted merchant gateway if testing shows PayPal flow changes don’t lift conversion enough. Quick checklist: implement GA4 funnel + GTM dataLayer, enable Smart Buttons/guest checkout, add clear microcopy and logos, deploy 3-email recovery flow, run A/B tests and measure. (klaviyo.com)

Example dataLayer push to mark checkout start:

<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
window.dataLayer.push({
  event: "begin_checkout",
  ecommerce: { value: 30.00, currency: "USD", items: [{ item_id: "SKU123", item_name: "Accessory" }] }
});
</script>

(Adapt names/values to your platform and test in GA4 DebugView.)

Recommended Answers

All 11 Replies

Member Avatar for TopDogger

Are you letting customers know up front that payment is through PayPal? I've never had a problem with PayPal, but there are a lot of people who don't like it. It could be that when they see the payment method, they get skittish.

You might want to offer an alternative payment method in addition to PayPal.

Member Avatar for acrylic

All the alt text on the paypal buttons have "pay pal" plus it's free and secure etc. I have a paypal logo and a mail payment page, but that still doesn't explain all the cancellations.

Member Avatar for zippee

Are you based in the UK? You can use Nochex as there is no signup required. Some users tend to avoid signing up with a new service everytime they shop. For example, I personally don't like to signup with websites (like those who use oscommerce) and prefer to pay directly. That's why I develop mine...

Anyway, if you have your paypal's "Website Payment" enable, you can accept credit card directly from your customer witout having them to register with paypal. But... you need to be a verified business account.
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Member Avatar for cmills83

Do you state somewhere on your site that you accept payments through Visa, Mastercard, etc..? A lot of customers will see the Paypal shopping cart and automatically think they need to use Paypal or have the money up front. So if someone was wanting to make a credit card purchase that might scare them off.

Member Avatar for cmills83

BTW, how did you setup your site so that when someone cancels their order it goes to the cancel.html page? This would be really good to have. Thanks!

Member Avatar for zippee

If you refer to Paypal user manual, you can include a variable called "cancel_return". Specify the url where you want your customer to send to. But I found this wasn't very useful as users tend to use forward and backward button on the browser to travel between pages.

I would suggest you have a statement, may be at the shopping cart page, to tell your customers the procedure of paying you online and mentioned the payment gateway you are using. I do not have any feedback from my clients regarding their customers drop the order when they are redirect to paypal or nochex site.
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Member Avatar for pulse

Ufortunately, the fact is that most people do not feel comfortable paying on a separate site and that is one reason why your cart abandonment rate is so high. Another reason may be an in-effective checkout process (not explaining the checkout correctly etc.).

Care to link the site in your signature or profile for us to look at?

Also, if you can affoard it, a merchant account is always the best and most professional solution.

Member Avatar for zippee

pulse, it may be true in Asia or South America, but paypal is considered as a safer mean to pay sellers in Europe and USA. They simply need to have fund (and enter credit card detail) and pay for everyone from one source, rather than have to typed in cc details everytime visiting a new website.

Merchant account wasn't something "you can afford, you can get it". Normally a merchant bank would require you in business for a min 12 months and has transactions size they are happy with. To be honest, if you have >£1,000 sales per month, then merchant account may be a cheaper option as compare to third party gateway.

Member Avatar for acrylic

Put this shopping site in my profile.
There is a "mail payment" page, but those numbers don't explain
the high numbers or canceled transactions.
It is sort an elderly market, still they go pretty far before changing
their mind. Might add a visa, mastercard etc, image, so they don't bail when they see paypal.

After the holiday season, will try the
PayPal Website Payments Pro, it's only $20 a month.
I wonder if that would make the checkout process move along easier.

Member Avatar for greghuston

33% cart abandon is nasty but keep in mind industry average (depending on source) is 25 - 30%. I know marketingexperiments has some articles on reducing the abandon rate but you could try and capture their name and email before paypal so you can follow up if they don't complete the purchase.

Member Avatar for pbridgman

hello

i have just been on your site and had a think about your problem.

i personally do not like paypal, as it is just extra fuss, as a result i dont know much about it.
there is no indication that paypal is the method of payment, and when i got to the cart screen i would have given up. If you could intergrate it so that you had your own shopping cart, and then a link that went to the second page of the paypal bit i would have bought from the website (in theory).

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