Ecommerce merchants frequently run into issues with cart abandonment, low conversion, and account creation. Amazon Pay easily addresses these problems by providing a fast, trusted, and convenient checkout for customers. But there are ways to get the most of your Amazon Pay integration to reduce checkout friction ever further. Read on for tips on how to provide an optimal experience for your customers.
1. Do not request any additional information that is already provided by Amazon Pay!
One of the major benefits of Amazon Pay is that it allows your customers to check out without typing in any redundant information. Make sure that you aren’t asking your customer to provide any details that will also be provided by Amazon Pay. For example, you don’t need to ask your customers for their address, email, or payment information. But you might want to consider a form fill for a phone number from the customer in case the number Amazon Pay has on file is invalid. See this page for more information on the customer details you will receive.
2. Implement redirect authentication
Customers are often using a variety of devices and browsers as they shop your store - you should always customise the experience to the device being used. For browsers on a desktop, pop-up windows allow your customers to stay on your website without redirecting them away. On the other hand, popups on mobile browsers do not provide the best experience due to 3rd party cookie issues and lack of popup support in all mobile browsers - a redirect experience is typically a more seamless and consistent customer experience for mobile browsers.
Note: Popup authentication is the default authentication mechanism for Amazon Pay, please see this page on how to implement the redirect authentication.
3. Incorporate your brand logo
You have the option to create a more branded experience for your customers by including your brand logo at checkout. You can upload your logo inside Amazon Seller Central, your account management portal, which will allow your customers to see it when they click on Amazon Pay to start the checkout process. By taking advantage of this functionality, you create more continuity during the transaction, which can result in higher conversions, improving the trust you’ve establish with the customer throughout the final stages of the shopping experience. If you haven’t uploaded your brand logo already, do so right away by signing into Seller Central and choosing the Login with Amazon marketplace. You can also see this video to get a quick overview of how to change the logo for your account.
Did you know? Amazon Pay will honour a successful authorisation as long as the fund capture is called within seven days of the authorisation (as long as the status of the Authorisation object is Open). If your business processes dictate that you always initiate capture on an authorisation within the first seven days, then you don’t need to build extra logic to handle pending or declined captures.
4. Review the checkout experience for Amazon Pay
Customers can be very hesitant to place their orders, especially during the order review stage. If your checkout allows it, you should prioritise a one-page checkout experience by displaying the Amazon Pay address and wallet widgets on a single page so the customer can quickly place the order. If your checkout has a separate page for order review that allows customers to see the address and payment method selected, we recommend using the Amazon Pay read-only widgets for address and payment details. This helps on the final step by reassuring your customers that they have provided their data correctly and simultaneously reduces the need to build out your own read only text for the address and payment
5. Implement login services
In ecommerce, account creation is a major point of friction: Customers can be weary about sharing their details with unfamiliar online stores. Amazon’s commissioned research from the Baymard Institute shows that customers are highly reluctant to provide data if there is no explanation for why that information is required. What’s more, customers don’t want to spend extra time creating another account, or having to remember another username and password. This is part of the reason why customers have consistently placed their trust in Amazon, and we want you to avail the benefits of this trust as well. Providing Amazon Pay as an identity service at the time of login provides a trusted way for your customers to securely create an account. Additionally, your customers can conveniently, securely sign in to your store on their future visits by using this service.
6. The sandbox environment is your best friend
As the proverb goes “an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure.” Similarly, fixing problems during testing is better than debugging issues in production where buyers can be affected. Make sure you thoroughly test your checkout flows and payment processes before going live with Amazon Pay. Amazon Pay’s sandbox environment offers an easy way to simulate a variety of payment scenarios, so you can be confident in your system before you have to process real payments. But it’s worth noting that there are a few minor differences in how sandbox and production environments work.
Did you know? If your system generates an Order ID only after the payment is confirmed, you can call the SetOrderAttributes API once to update the Amazon Pay order details after the payment.
7. Handle declines in the recommended manner
Always aim to handle payment declines in the recommended manner. Not only do you provide your customers with a much better payment experience but you also increase your chances of recovering lost revenue. Checkout some of our recommendations on handling declines.
To learn more about the custom integration, visit the Amazon Developer Services and Technologies website: https://developer.amazon.com/docs/amazon-pay-onetime/intro.html.