How to boost peak season conversion rates with Stripe

The end-of-year holidays are unsurprisingly the biggest, most competitive time of the year for many online merchants.

WooCommerce found that during this time, 57% of merchants typically see a significant rise in sales and 73% attribute these sales to over 20% of their annual revenue. From Black Friday to Cyber Monday last year, Stripe processed 465 million transactions, totaling a record-breaking sum of over $31 billion USD.

With figures like these, it’s clear that businesses can’t afford to let these conversion opportunities pass them by. 

Whether you’re preparing your site for a surge in traffic or fine-tuning it for last-minute shoppers, perfecting your online checkout experience is key. 

Thankfully, this often doesn’t require any major or drastic changes — a simple upgrade will do. Stripe’s Optimized Checkout Suite makes the checkout process smoother than ever.

Here are four proven tips to convert more customers during the holidays. 

1. Aim for a checkout conversion rate of 3.5% or more

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When customers visit your site, that’s half the win; the real celebration is when they make a purchase. All your marketing efforts should be leading up to this moment. 

Conversion rate benchmarks will vary from business to business, but here are a few figures to keep in mind when determining what yours should be:

• The global average conversion rate sits at 3.68% (though this may differ depending on industry).
• Newer businesses tend to see lower rates between 1% and 2%.

If your store’s current rate is under 3.5%, there are likely missed opportunities and areas for improvement within your checkout process.

At first glance, a slight increase in conversion rate may not seem very impressive. Upon closer review, however, you’ll see that this often translates to a considerable rise in revenue. Even a 0.5% increase could result in thousands in additional sales, without an increase in traffic.

How to determine your checkout conversion rate

The analytics dashboards within Stripe, WooCommerce, or Google Analytics can help you find your conversion rate.

You can also calculate it manually using this formula:

Checkout conversion rate = (Completed purchases ÷ Checkout sessions) × 100

As an example, let’s say 1,500 people initiated the checkout process, and 50 of those customers completed their purchase:

(50 ÷ 1,500) × 100 = 3.33%

So, for every 100 people who initiate checkout, about three complete their order.

It’s important to note that checkout conversion should not be confused with site conversion. The formula above measures performance at the bottom of the funnel, or the last step before you generate revenue and conversions.

2. Offer the right payment methods for your customers

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Customers expect to pay how they always pay. If something unexpected happens before they’re able to pay, they’re more likely to drop off and not complete the purchase.

Stripe’s global payments study found that businesses that offered Apple Pay saw an increase in conversions by 22.3%. Overall, when businesses added at least one more relevant (either local or common) payment method, they saw, on average, a 12% increase in revenue and a 7.4% increase in conversions. 

With Stripe’s Optimized Checkout Suite, you don’t need to figure out which payment methods to show. Stripe’s AI models are trained on billions of transactions to automatically display the most relevant payment methods for each customer based on their location, device, cart size, and more. 

Stripe’s models analyze global consumer habits and behavioral trends to create personalized experiences for each individual session, going beyond generic best practices. 

Last holiday season, Stripe merchants offering buy now, pay later (BNPL) methods saw 30% more conversions and up to a 40% increase in average order value (AOV). When a customer is likely to choose BNPL methods, Optimized Checkout Suite can automatically display it, ensuring you provide the preferred option for everyone. 

3. Build trust and reduce friction

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When customers reach checkout, their trust and perceived ease close the sale. A confusing interface, unfamiliar payment methods, or anything that causes a delay is enough to trigger cart abandonment. This is especially true during the holiday peak when customers are usually under more pressure and may have less patience. 

To effectively reduce friction and build customer confidence, follow these three best practices: 

• Keep it clean and focused: Avoid overwhelming customers with unnecessary distractions. Stick to the essential fields and streamline their path to payment.
• Display security cues: Reinforce trust with card network logos, SSL certificates, and secure payment badges. A professional, secure-looking checkout inspires confidence.
• Offer familiar payment methods: Common and familiar payment methods make customers more comfortable. Mobile wallets like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Link — Stripe’s secure, one-click checkout option for returning customers — dramatically speed up checkout times and reduce drop-off.
  

Mobile customers dominate traffic during peak shopping periods and are also the quickest to drop off. Taking advantage of autofill, mobile wallets, and mobile-friendly layouts will reduce friction and keep them moving.

Checkout optimization isn’t about adding more options; it’s prioritizing what’s most helpful and removing the rest. A seamless checkout experience focuses on clarity, speed, performance, and familiarity. 

4. Test and track what works

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Not sure which checkout changes will make the biggest impact? The no-code A/B testing tools in Stripe’s Optimized Checkout Suite allow you to experiment and test how different changes will affect your revenue and conversion rates, without writing custom scripts or involving developers.

When you use Optimized Checkout Suite, you can access and benefit from intelligent features such as mobile wallet prioritization, country-specific payment methods, and real-time optimizations with Stripe’s Payments Intelligence Suite.

While relying on these default features will streamline your checkout process, running A/B tests can take you one step further, helping you tailor your checkout experience to your unique customer base.

You can test for changes like: 

• Adding or removing a specific payment method.
• Local versus global method prioritization.
• The impact of wallets versus cards for specific locations or devices.

Stripe’s testing tool evenly splits checkout traffic across different configurations, tracking conversions to show you which version performed better. You can view these insights in the Stripe dashboard and quickly turn them into future best practices.

Celebrate the holidays — and every peak season — with Stripe

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Stripe’s infrastructure is designed to handle the chaos of the holidays.

Over last year’s BFCM weekend, Stripe:

• Handled 137,000 transactions per minute.
• Maintained 99.9999% uptime.
• Processed $31 billion in total payment volume.
• Saved shoppers nearly a million minutes at checkout via Link.
• Protected $917 million in revenue from potential fraud with Stripe Radar.

Stripe is built to handle and accelerate holiday shopping and with Optimized Checkout Suite, your business will be too.

Install or upgrade to Optimized Checkout Suite

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If you’re using the WooCommerce for Stripe extension (version 9.8 or later), you already have access to Optimized Checkout Suite. If not, upgrading is free and only takes a few minutes. 

Once enabled, Optimized Checkout Suite will auto-activate valuable features like Link, mobile wallets, and its dynamic payment method display.

During the holiday season, maximize your potential revenue by making every checkout count. 

Install or upgrade to Optimized Checkout Suite to make your holidays that much better.