BigSummit Panel Reveals Key Strategies to Boost Conversions and Brand Loyalty
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In August 2024, we launched BigSummit, our flagship thought leadership conference designed to empower ecommerce leaders. Throughout the event, we hosted several panel discussions that allowed industry experts to share their knowledge and insights on the ecommerce landscape.
During our From Clicks to Customers: Strategies to Boost Conversion Rates panel, Ali Afzalirad, SVP and GM at BigCommerce, sat down with Kabeer Chopra, Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Burrow; Daniel Burrow, VP of Sales and Marketing at UPLIFT Desk; Emma Ode, Global Head of Ecommerce at Homedics; and Mike Sutter, SVP and Head of Checkout at PayPal, to discuss strategies for increasing conversion rates and enhancing overall site performance.
Here are some highlights and key takeaways from the panel that brands can use to elevate their ecommerce presence.
Ali Afzalirad: What are today’s main challenges influencing site conversion?
Kabeer Chopra: “We had gotten used to filling up the top of our funnel and letting customers convert down, with much of our marketing focused on ad platforms, like Meta and Google. What we were doing and succeeding at was growing by buying transactions rather than building long-term relationships with customers. There's been a shift in the last couple of years, and that strategy no longer works.
“We had to change our entire marketing strategy over the last 12 months. We've removed a lot of reliance on those platforms, shifted budgets, and reconfigured our team.”
Daniel Burrow: “When we talk about conversion, the focus often gets stuck on optimizing the cart or checkout page. But for me, conversion happens throughout the entire funnel. I want my customers to get excited with every click.
“If someone can start interacting with our product and thinking about what it will look like in their home, that's the conversion step. Now, there is the final step, where they open their wallet and make the purchase. That's important. But I think that once the trust is there and the excitement is there, customers are more likely to purchase.”
Emma Ode: “The challenges I’ve encountered involve making pricing easily discoverable across our various product channels. When you think about our catalog — durable consumer goods — a customer won't come to us frequently. So, we spend a lot of money on new customer acquisition.
“When we get a consumer to our site, I want to ensure they can find exactly what they want. We've got a lot of competitors in the same category, so I want to get customers through the funnel quickly, give them that comparison, and really just hope that I can bring them back. We've seen success with turning direct-to-site traffic into retention."
To succeed in today’s market, brands need to stay agile and responsive to evolving consumer habits. Building long-term relationships, fostering trust at every touchpoint, and ensuring seamless product discovery is essential for driving conversions.
Shifting away from an over-reliance on ads and focusing more on retention strategies — like creating personalized shopping experiences — can set brands apart and strengthen relationships with existing customers, leading to repeat sales.
Afzalirad: What are some of the tools and tactics that brands and retailers can employ to remove friction at checkout?
Mike Sutter: “Consumers are intolerant of any level of friction in the checkout process, and it's because they're very busy. So, I think a focus on speed and friction is key. Checkout pages need to load fast. People are on their phones, and if it doesn’t load quickly, they get distracted and move to the next task. With each interaction, things must happen quickly, particularly on mobile devices.
“The second piece is that nobody wants to enter a password. Finding biometric-based login methods that are smooth and take away friction is essential. There’s also a lot of manual entry for checkouts from a guest perspective, which should be optimized.”
Ode: “When I acquire a consumer for the first time who's on mobile, and I know they’re going to use Buy Now, Pay Later, I can provide a quick checkout with PayPal.
“Behind the scenes is that I’ve got a fairly healthy fraud rate. I’ve had to work with our payment staff to minimize where I’m declining valid consumers and who I’ve spent quite a bit of money on to bring into the funnel. This part of the experience is really challenging, but we’ve made good progress.”
Burrow: “Fraud is the worst thing in my mind. It's one thing for us to lose a little bit of money to an actual fraudster, but turning down a legit customer just because something seems fishy ruins my day. This makes them question their trust in the brand, the checkout process, and payment method.
“We moved over to PayPal’s fraud prevention a few years ago. And the tools we've seen within that — from preventing fraud and not impacting legitimate customers — are incredible.”
Offering a fast and easy checkout experience makes shoppers more likely to complete their transactions. By optimizing the mobile checkout experience and implementing streamlined features like biometric logins, brands can minimize friction, save shoppers time, and boost conversions.
At the same time, finding the right balance between preventing fraud and keeping the checkout smooth helps build trust and ensures customers can complete purchases without hassle. Using tools like PayPal’s fraud protection safeguards brands from fraud without flagging legitimate customers, creating a seamless experience for shoppers and backend teams.
Afzalirad: How do you test and learn to optimize your site, and what kind of results have you seen?
Chopra: “More of our users checkout on mobile devices each day. What we don’t want them to do is leave checkout because they have unanswered questions or decision paralysis. We try to learn their questions beforehand and provide all that information so they feel confident during checkout.
“The other thing is 80% to 90% of our checkouts are guest checkouts, so we want to make the experience as quick as possible. To optimize our checkout, we got in touch with PayPal and had the opportunity to test Fastlane. It was easy to implement on the BigCommerce panel and didn’t make a difference to any guest customer who didn’t want to use the Fastlane experience. The tool was also compatible with all our checkout features.
“What we got in return was a guest checkout experience that previously took four and a half minutes now taking less than half that time. The best thing is that if you're a Fastlane customer and you come to Burrow.com, you get a native login checkout experience, which lets you checkout with one click. In terms of results, we've seen that anyone using Fastlane completes checkout 40% faster, and their average order value is up by 5%, which is about $100 extra per order.”
Ode: “One of the biggest pieces of feedback we get from customers has to do with pricing. We now focus on getting the right promotion in front of consumers based on the events they had in their session. If they try to abandon their cart, we can usually bring them back.”
Understanding consumer behaviors and adjusting to meet their needs is key to building a loyal customer base and increasing conversions. With many of today’s shoppers using guest checkout, brands should prioritize optimizing this experience.
By harnessing tools like Fastlane by PayPal, brands can offer a fast and efficient guest checkout, significantly increasing the likelihood of conversions. Additionally, providing consumers with an informative shopping experience and offering strategic promotions can reduce or alleviate shopper pain points, further promoting sales.
Afzalirad: What do you see as the biggest opportunities to drive conversions?
Chopra: “It’s important that customers have all the information they need before making decisions. We implemented a chatbot to help answer questions, and one in every four customers who chatted converted to a sale. What we’re trying to do now is create a more personalized shopping experience.”
Sutter: “Consumers expect speed and simplicity. I also think personalizing the experience and giving them flexibility is key to driving conversions. This means offering Buy Now, Pay Later, which we’re seeing more demographics use.
“Letting shoppers know what payment method will give them the best value — like if a certain credit card gives more points — gives them another reason to buy from you. It’s also important to optimize the post-purchase experience. Package tracking seems like a pretty simple solution, but consumers love it. It gives them the confidence to plan their own lives. It also creates a point of engagement with the consumer where you can take the next step and show them a unique product offering or deal related to that product.”
Meeting customer needs and creating a seamless shopping experience are major opportunities for brands to drive sales. Personalizing the shopping journey with enhanced support and search features helps customers find what they need more efficiently, leaving a lasting impression and increasing conversion rates.
Additionally, offering flexibility — such as Buy Now, Pay Later options — addresses consumer pain points and boosts purchasing confidence. It's also important to remember that the user experience doesn’t end at checkout; optimizing the post-purchase journey is key to turning first-time shoppers into loyal, repeat customers.
Afzalirad: Daniel, Emma, and Kabeer, how do you build trust in customers so they’re confident to convert? Mike, how does PayPal foster trust with tools like Fastlane?
Burrow: “For us, it’s around the engineering, the brand, and the quality of the content we give customers. If someone calls our sales team, they’re likely already on our website and trying to figure out if they’ll get the same answer they found online with a salesperson. If they don’t, they won’t convert. Even if they like the answer from the salesperson better, the trust is still broken. So, it’s important to have a harmonious message and be consistent in how you talk about your product.”
Ode: “We definitely lean into social proofing. Our customers tell us they purchase from us because of our brand reputation and product quality, so ratings and reviews are huge for us. We lead with photo reviews so consumers see user-generated content on the product page. In addition, we ensure our brand elements show up everywhere a consumer may convert — like Amazon — to reinforce our reputation.”
Chopra: “A lot of our trust-building happens after shoppers convert. Many of our customers buy our furniture when they have critical moments in their lives, and we try to ease their buying experience. We try to simplify what to expect, when to expect it, and what to do when you get it. That entire life cycle after buying something is a moment to build loyalty and trust with customers and their social circles.”
Sutter: “We have buyer protection and protection for the seller as well. That’s essential to giving people confidence in that moment of uncertainty at checkout. The same is true on the brand side, knowing that if they accept the payment, we have their back as far as taking care of any fraudulent transactions. And while it’s important to prevent mistakes from happening, owning up to them and fixing them when something goes wrong is the key to building loyalty.”
Trust is vital to building a loyal customer base and generating repeat sales. Consistent messaging across all channels helps brands establish themselves as reliable, deepening customer relationships.
In addition to unified messaging, businesses can reinforce trust through user-generated content, clear buyer protection policies, a seamless post-purchase experience, and accountability when issues arise. By showing customers they are the top priority, a brand positions itself as one shoppers want to buy from.
In today’s competitive ecommerce environment, offering a seamless customer experience that builds trust is key to standing out. By staying agile and adapting to shifting consumer behaviors and industry trends, brands can position themselves for success and drive higher conversions.
Watch the full panel discussion to learn more ways brands can optimize the user journey and boost conversions.
Annie is a Content Marketing Writer at BigCommerce, where she uses her writing and research experience to create compelling content that educates ecommerce retailers. Before joining BigCommerce, Annie developed her skills in marketing and communications by working with clients across various industries, ranging from government to staffing and recruiting. When she’s not working, you can find Annie on a yoga mat, with a paintbrush in her hand, or trying out a new local restaurant.