Global checkout with less friction

Shopping cart abandonment concerns many online merchants, yet few truly understand why or how frequently shoppers exit their websites empty handed. To help merchants master the digital world, Massachusetts-based BlueSnap Inc. developed technology that optimizes global, mobile checkout to drive higher conversion rates, as much as 40 percent in some cases, according to the company.

BlueSnap noted that it works with more than 2,500 clients spread across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Israel, where the company originated and still has much of its development team. Clients run the gamut from subscription-based digital goods businesses to traditional online merchants with physical goods.

"In both cases, a lot of merchants take advantage of our international capabilities, where we're able to not just do localized payments in terms of currency, but we're able to do localized languages on checkout pages," said Scott Conti, Vice President of Sales at BlueSnap. He added that these steps alone eliminate much of the friction customers encounter.

Dialed into merchants

BlueSnap's homegrown "powered buy platform" is flexible. Some merchants start with simple functions, like creating a buy button on a website; then they graduate to more advanced functions like running marketing campaigns or subscription programs. "Once you're using the platform, the ability to add functionality and tune up and down the use of that functionality is really important," Conti said.

The platform delivers versatility regarding payment gateway features, integration options, global payments, intelligent payment routing, payment analytics, e-commerce solutions and tools, subscription billing, and fraud prevention and security tools. Conti noted that each component was designed to eliminate checkout pain points, such as false declines due to improper routing or basics like too many fields or lack of security logos.

"When you look at the various challenges that can cause checkout abandonment, it's not a single fix," Conti said. "Once we code it, ongoing monitoring is required. We have reporting in our platform that examines checkout abandonment, payment conversions, and how sales are going by country or price. Merchants often get into a regular cadence where they are evaluating conversions and making changes to optimize conversions."

BlueSnap also developed an online Checkout Conversion Calculator. Merchants input information, and two scores are generated: one related to checkout friction and the other payment processing friction. Based on a scale of 0 to 100, with higher scores meaning better conversion rates, merchants can assess where improvement is needed.

Dialed into mobile

Providing mobile checkout entails more than offering screens that adapt in size. "There is less real estate, so you have to be more efficient in your use of fields and payment types, but you don't want to lose that localization that is important if you're trying to sell in multiple countries," Conti said. "We have focused a lot of our technology there as well as the acceptance of the different digital wallets."

The ability to integrate is an important component. "What we've got in the market is a purpose-built set of capabilities around mobile, and this includes enhanced API functionalities that allow better integration to iOS and Android phones, as well as the checkout pages that we host as well."

Being tech-agnostic helps merchants, too. "We're not trying to pick a winner, because we're in it to help that merchant convert as many shoppers to buyers as possible," Conti said. "But as a merchant wants the ability to turn on and off things like Visa Checkout, MasterPass, AmEx Express Checkout or PayPal, the platform gives them that capability."

Dialed into partners

BlueSnap offers multiple levels of partnership, from vertical market specialists to technology partners.

"Whether they're experts in gaming or website e-commerce development, we have programs that do everything from technology-sharing through revenue-sharing programs where we incent these guys to include BlueSnap as part of an offering they're bringing to either a particular vertical or particular technology," Conti stated.

Notice to readers: These are archived articles. Contact names or information may be out of date. We regret any inconvenience.