5 Things to Know About Turning Online Browsers Into Buyers

Display information about your store credit card and applicable offers on virtually all of your website’s pages: home page, product page, search-engine landing page, credit landing page, account page, shopping cart page and checkout page. Giving your customer many different entry points into understanding your credit offerings helps optimize the customer’s path to purchase.

Our research shows the majority of big-ticket customers (84%) begin their shopping journey on the home page, the category page or the product page. But wherever they begin, their path to purchase is typically not linear. Shoppers click around of their own accord, depending on where they are in the process. That’s why it is critically important for you to make your credit value proposition clear and easy to discover throughout your site

Shoppers specifically searching for your store credit card present a major opportunity. So, it is crucial to ensure our credit landing page is relevant to those shoppers. On the first screen, make sure they can easily see all the information they need to fill out a credit application. Clearly show percent-financing deals and cash-back awards with a clear call to action (a prominent “Apply Now” button). That will take them to the credit landing page, another make-or-break location for your ability to convert browsers into buyers.

This page exists specifically to detail your credit offers and terms, so they need to be as clear as possible. The header on your credit landing page should include images of your credit card, the value proposition for your card and a clear call to action (“Apply Now” gets the message across). The body of your credit landing page should contain keywords in text, not images. Include special offers via internal linking, and make sure the links are relevant. This helps the customer experience in terms of relevance and convenience. (If you’re looking for an example, follow the lead of Amazon, which handles internal linking to many different products and categories very effectively.)

For example, it is problematic if a banner on your home page does not include the credit offer, the card value proposition or the financing link. A lack of prominent or consistent message may mean you will miss out on orders. On product pages, we often see the financing option is not included near the price of the product— another clear missed opportunity. Unused white space is another problem, as well as mentioning financing options in a generic area where they are likely to be overlooked by shoppers. It seems obvious, but our research indicates many checkout pages do not present a financing offer as a payment option or information about other special offers that are relevant to the shopper. These are missed opportunities.