4 Reasons Shoppers Abandon Their Carts and How to Stop It From Happening

Online shopping interest continues to climb and stores need to adapt to reduce common risks of online retail. When looking at key performance indicators (KPIs), brands may find that shoppers continue to leave their stores after adding items to their carts without actually making a purchase. This is a concern as many brand owners do not know the reasons why their shoppers may be leaving before making a purchase. In this article, we shed light on the main reasons shoppers abandon their carts and offer a solution to ensure that you resolve these issues before they occur. 

What is Cart Abandonment

As mentioned, cart abandonment refers to the consumer act of adding items to their carts and leaving before actually making a purchase. Cart abandonment is incredibly challenging for the modern online store as mystery shrouds the decisions of consumers as to why they do so. But, we have insight into why based on industry sources as well as an answer to help you minimize the risks of cart abandonment. 

Why Consumers Abandon Their Carts

Below, we explore the main reasons consumers abandon their shopping carts before making a purchase.

1. Limited Payment Options

Consumers want variety and prefer to shop with businesses that can provide payment options tailored to their unique shopping behaviors. Every shopper is different, and brands can attract a wider audience by facilitating a seamless payment experience. Through partnering with Fintech companies like ChargeAfter, brands can also leverage additional payment options that involve comprehensive consumer financing coverage. Consumer financing is one of the most attractive payment options as it allows customers to receive zero-interest repayment plans without having to go through credit checks. The benefits for businesses are that more consumers can shop with their online stores, increasing their consumer base and leveraging greater sales in the process. 

2. High Costs

Consumers often choose to abandon their carts as they fear the high costs when reviewing their items. But, brands can eliminate these fears by integrating consumer financing features. Consumer financing connects consumers with lenders capable of covering the total expense without requiring any interest. This means that shoppers can not only pay for their carts on the fly but do not have to suffer from expensive monthly repayment packages. This is a key strategy for reducing abandonment rates.

3. Web Security Concerns

The modern shopper is skeptical and aware of shady marketing strategies that many brands deploy in the online retail industry. For these reasons, brands need to give consumers confidence in their purchases. Doing so can greatly reduce the risks of cart abandonment rates as building trust is critical to online eCommerce success. Ensuring that you have and clearly display web security coverage is important. From shopping guarantees to online ID protection, every security feature is noticed by the consumer. You can also build trust other ways, and the following resource provides suggestions on ways to build brand trust with your consumers beyond integrating stronger website security features. 

4. Account Creation

Many shoppers steer clear of websites where they have to create an account to shop. Instead, brands should offer guest shopping functionality and continue to make consumer financing available to shoppers that choose this option. Though the checkout process is longer, consumers sometimes prefer this route as it is a more private way to shop online. 

As mentioned, the integration of consumer financing can help brands reduce cart abandonment rates as shoppers are extremely attracted by the benefits that the feature offers them. Therefore, businesses should consider partnering with leading consumer financing platforms to minimize risk and improve sales, seeing long-term and profitable growth as a result. 

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How to Increase Social Commerce Conversion Rates With BNPL

The modern consumer spends plenty of time on their social media platforms, using Instagram, TikTok, an array of apps that offer advertising opportunities for online stores. From advertising on YouTube videos to running campaigns on Instagram feeds, there are many ways for businesses to attract a bigger audience through social commerce. In this article, we discuss social commerce, ways to improve your brand’s social commerce with BNPL (buy now pay later), and the benefits of doing so. 

What is Social Commerce?

Social commerce simply refers to the process of selling online via social media platforms. Today, social media platforms have made this easier than ever, blurring the lines between social media and shopping through the integration of shopping features designed for brands. Facebook, for example, can pull your website’s entire product catalog directly into a dedicated Facebook Shop. Instagram allows you to tag products in posts to encourage sales. These are two examples of ways that businesses can efficiently activate online shopping through social channels. 

Social commerce has gained tremendous traction, and statistics state that approximately “$475 billion in revenue” was generated back in 2020, and this should grow by “a rate of 28.4% annually, reaching $3.37 trillion by 2028”. For this reason, all businesses should develop stronger social commerce strategies to leverage these impressive numbers. Below, we discuss ways you can improve your social commerce.

Ways to Improve Social Commerce

You should implement the following efficient steps to improve your online store’s social commerce and boost conversion rates:

Improve Conversion Rates With BNPL

Before implementing any social commerce steps over and above those that you already do, we highly recommend integrating BNPL features into your online store. BNPL, or consumer financing, is a powerful integration that can improve conversion rates by offering consumers several benefits. Partners like ChargeAfter provide affordable, efficient, and effective BNPL services with a proven track record. You can learn more about the many consumer and brand benefits of BNPL beyond improving conversion rates of your social commerce strategies here

Set Up TikTok Shopping With Shopify

TikTok remains one of the most prominent social media platforms, especially among younger audiences. For this reason, we highly recommend establishing a brand presence on TikTok and making use of TikTok shopping facilities through Shopify integration. Using the TikTok Shopify app, products are pulled directly from your website. This is a seamless process that requires little web development know-how and can be done by any brand that utilizes both platforms. Doing so will help you enter a unique social media space where you can improve conversion rates by attracting new consumers. 

Take Advantage of Live Streaming

Taking advantage of social commerce requires brands to stay on-trend and utilize the new features of the platforms that their audiences shop through. Live streaming is an example of a social media feature that brands can leverage to improve conversion rates. Live streaming marketing campaigns let brands communicate more closely with their audience, encouraging a more consumer-centric marketing space that shy away from traditional marketing strategies. This can win brand trust and drive sales.

Engage Your Customers With Messages

A unique method of social commerce is attracting consumer buy-in through instant messaging. Provided that you adhere to social media advertising policies and regulations on your chosen platforms, you can improve conversion rates by talking directly with your target audience. There are many benefits of instant messaging advertising campaigns. This is predominantly because personalized marketing strategies are more attractive to the modern consumer. 

Brands should be using social commerce to their advantage and can improve sales by integrating BNPL services, utilizing TikTok Shopify features to attract younger audiences, using live streaming for marketing campaigns, and engaging customers with instant messaging.

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Consumer Financing, BNPL and More Marketing Tools Every Online Store Needs

Online stores should consider new marketing tools this year as digital marketing evolves to suit the modern shopper. Considering the impressive rise of online retail and the ever-changing demands of these consumers, staying up to date with the latest trends and marketing tools can help businesses stay ahead of the competition. In this article, we discuss consumer financing and more marketing tools that you need to integrate into your online store to drive sales, increase customer retention, and more.

Improve Sales With Consumer Financing

The first strategy to business success is introducing consumer financing functionalities at checkout. Leading Fintech companies like ChargeAfter are paving the way for the evolution of online shopping through the integration of powerful financing platforms. These platforms enable fast and affordable shopping, appealing to consumers that wish to avoid the traps of traditional financing from financial service providers and third-party lenders. With consumer financing, shoppers do not need to undergo credit checks and receive zero-interest repayment plans. As a result, businesses with consumer financing see an increase in interest from these consumers, especially younger shoppers with improved buying power. 

Retain Customers With Email Marketing

Email marketing is a fundamental marketing tool that can help businesses retain customers. Brands can create massive databases of customer emails by encouraging sign-ups or requesting them during the sales process, and then utilize these addresses to feed marketing material directly to the inbox of existing customers or interested consumers. Brand’s can send discounts, promote new offerings, provide free resources, and more through email marketing to peak the interest of customers and entice them to buy again. This resource offers handy recommendations to help you develop a comprehensive and lucrative email marketing campaign. 

Invest in Consumers With Social Commerce

If you are not selling your products on social media then you are missing a powerful means of attracting shoppers. Social media platforms have grown to offer incredible advertising functionalities, enabling brands to integrate their online shops onto social media platforms efficiently. Doing so means that you are constantly front of mind with your consumers as they are notified with product announcements and other brand content directly in their social media feeds. Furthermore, they can quickly shop through the platform without having to leave. We highly recommend integrating a comprehensive social commerce strategy that incorporates social media selling to attract shoppers. 

Captivate Buyers With Content Marketing

Consumers are smarter than ever and align with brands that offer tangible value over and above selling a product or offering a service. Buyers want brands to engage with them, and content marketing remains one of the most critical tools to do so. From blogs to podcasts, videos, social media posts, white papers, and more, brands can captivate the attention of their audiences through content marketing. Furthermore, brands can optimize that content for search results, improving the chances of their content being noticed by new shoppers using search engines. SEO and content marketing go hand-in-hand, and you can use this resource to develop a strong SEO strategy.

Influence Shoppers With Influencer Marketing

What may have been considered a fad is now an essential marketing tool for businesses to attract shoppers. Influencer marketing has the power to engage customers and win brand trust through recommendations from the most influential people on social media. Brands can partner with celebrities, social media gurus, and micro-influences to tap into their social audiences. This is a powerful marketing tool, and you can use this resource to inspire your influencer marketing strategy for the year ahead.

Every store should integrate consumer financing, invest in email marketing, develop social commerce strategies, create content, and utilize influencer marketing to improve sales, retain customers, influence shoppers, and more.

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How Fintech Companies Like ChargeAfter Can Improve Omnichannel Marketing Strategies

Seamless shopping experiences, comprehensive brand connections, and consistent marketing across channels all constitute reasons why omnichannel marketing is essential in the modern eCommerce age. Online shoppers are more demanding than ever, expecting brands to represent clear identities on all sorts of channels, which is where omnichannel marketing comes in to resolve consumer consumers. In this article, we explore omnichannel marketing in more detail and suggest how fintech companies are improving the modern shoppers’ omnichannel experience. 

What is Omnichannel Marketing?

Omnichannel marketing refers to a comprehensive marketing strategy whereby shoppers can expect a seamless experience across a diverse range of channels. The key attribute of omnichannel marketing is that it is consistent and authentic, appealing to consumers that are more skeptical of online brands have experienced a combination of successful eCommerce platforms and untrustworthy online companies. Introducing omnichannel marketing can, therefore, promote trust by modeling the success of the best eCommerce brands on the market. 

Omnichannel marketing involves considering all aspects of the consumer journey and optimizing every touchpoint to align with key marketing goals. The ability to provide cross-channel marketing that promotes consistent messaging will attract return customers and shoppers who have not yet heard of your store. Furthermore, omnichannel marketing is a means of reinventing the shopping experience to meet the modern demands of shoppers.

The Role of Fintech Companies in Omnichannel Marketing

Fintech companies continue to see interest from the best eCommerce platforms for their ability to support the most critical consumer touchpoint in an omnichannel marketing strategy, the checkout stage. These companies, particularly ChargeAfter, offer one of the most powerful payment options for consumers that beats traditional financing solutions.

These solutions, referred to as buy now pay later (BNPL) services, are integrations at checkout that allow shoppers to receive online financing at the push of a button. These shoppers, using BNPL, no longer need to consult their financial service providers or third-party lenders to purchase products at the later checkout stage of the omnichannel marketing process. Furthermore, they do not have to pass credit checks and repayments are made with zero interest. 

Beyond supporting the consumer and the omnichannel marketing strategy, fintech companies that offer BNPL services benefit businesses by improving the online shopping experience. In fact, BNPL services contribute to an increase in conversion rates of approximately 20% to 30%, according to authoritative sources

These statistics suggest it is essential for businesses to adopt BNPL at checkout to support their omnichannel marketing strategy and promote profitable business growth.

Additional Support Ensures Success

Fintech companies can go above and beyond to support the businesses that they partner with, and the leading Fintech companies like ChargeAfter offer consistent checkout support to constantly improve the final stage of one’s omnichannel sales funnel. The delivery of checkout data and regular analysis of key metrics enables ChargeAfter to provide marketing teams with insights and actionable steps to improve the shopping experience. Recommendations like cross-selling and up-selling scratch the surface of the kinds of strategies that these companies can provide based on key metrics each month. Furthermore, round-the-clock support means that businesses can consult for advice at any point regarding their checkout stage of the omnichannel marketing strategy.

Omnichannel marketing is essential in the modern age of online shopping as consumers become more skeptical of online retailers. Introducing an omnichannel marketing strategy that includes BNPL integration can help businesses grow as this particular service supports the most important stage in the funnel, the checkout stage. With consistent support and regular analytical updates, businesses can leverage the best BNPL services on the market to improve their omnichannel marketing strategies.

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The Future of Virtual Shopping and Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL)

With online shopping becoming a fully-integrated and preferred consumer experience, the need for businesses to adopt innovative digital marketing strategies is paramount. The competition is rife, and developing new solutions to solve online shopping problems will help eCommerce stores stand out in the coming years. One particularly powerful new-wave technology is virtual shopping, a process whereby consumers can connect more deeply with their favorite brands. In this article, we explore the future of virtual shopping and how BNPL platforms make modern shopping experiences more powerful than ever.

How Does Virtual Shopping Work?

The term virtual shopping may conjure images of consumers wearing headsets and interacting with products, which is possible in some cases, but this is not the only method of virtual shopping accessible to eCommerce platforms. As a vast majority of online businesses do not have the budget to integrate virtual reality (VR) experiences into their digital marketing strategies, several tools and platforms enable more easy-to-use virtual shopping functionalities that we discuss below.

Virtual shopping can include all sorts of innovative, immersive, and personalized experiences that invite shoppers to connect with eCommerce companies in new ways. Virtual shopping can involve live chat features through platforms like Zoom or Google Meet, specifically around products or services that consumers may need support with setup or installation. It can also involve unique showrooms where consumers can browse products in a way that is more intuitive than traditional product catalogs. Some companies utilize live social media feeds to Twitch as an avenue to connect with their consumers. These are a few examples of ways that you can introduce virtual shopping into your eCommerce experience. 

In a nutshell, virtual shopping revolves around bringing consumers closer to brands in a way that integrates modern marketing platforms. The above strategies represent a few of the most common ways that eCommerce platforms are taking advantage of virtual shopping.

Virtual Shopping by the Numbers

One needs to look no further than the latest statistics to recognize that virtual shopping is one of the most powerful online strategies for eCommerce. According to sources, “About a quarter of consumers have shopped online in a 3D virtual store” with a vast majority of those shoppers falling within the Millenial and Gen Z consumer segments. The source goes on to suggest that over 50% of these shoppers would be willing to spend more for products sold via modern virtual shopping strategies. These numbers indicate the need to introduce virtual shopping into one’s digital marketing strategy, but how can you ensure you land sales after doing so?

How BNPL Supports Virtual Shopping

The integration of BNPL services can greatly improve your chances of securing sales through virtual shopping experiences. Leading BNPL partners offer comprehensive checkout integrations that provide consumers with the easiest way to receive online financing, a process that does not require them to undergo credit checks, and offer repayment plans with zero interest. These are a few of the consumer-facing benefits of BNPL platforms. The virtual shopping experience becomes more powerful when there is tangible value to the shopping experience beyond the opportunity to connect with brands. This is because the modern shopper is looking for exceptional deals as much as they are searching for better brands to shop with. The combination of these two features can yield great results for the modern eCommerce business.

The future of eCommerce is virtual, with virtual shopping becoming a must for the modern online platform. Brands can attract younger audiences and leverage sales through the introduction of these experiences in their sales funnels combined with the integration of consumer financing via BNPL services. This can help eCommerce businesses remain competitive in the evolving modern marketplace.

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How BNPL Creates Sales Efficiency for eCommerce

Sales efficiency is essential to eCommerce success, and a faster sales funnel leads to greater average order volumes. As online retail reaches its height, businesses should be taking steps to ensure that sales are as efficient as ever. One such strategy is implementing buy now pay later (BNPL) services at the checkout. These consumer-facing solutions provide shoppers with seamless payment functionalities to ease the checkout process, promote sales efficiency, and leverage buy-in. In this article, we discuss how BNPL creates this efficiency further to help you take advantage of growing eCommerce trends.

The Function of BNPL

BNPL’s primary function is to provide consumers with easier ways to shop. The integration lives on a website’s checkout page, is clearly visible to the shopper, and offers a financing solution that shies away from more traditional methods. Instead of having to seek the services of a financial institution, chat with lenders within their network, or utilize third-party services, shoppers can receive on-demand financing and loans right there on the eCommerce platform. This saves them time, requires no credit checks that could stall financing, and provides repayment options with zero interest on installments. These are a few of the benefits of a sales strategy that integrates waterfall consumer financing, or BNPL, for the modern shopper.

Over and above supporting the consumer, BNPL services are powerful tools for business growth. First and foremost, BNPL creates sales efficiency by streamlining the sales funnel and shopping process at the checkout. Shoppers can quickly purchase their carts, ensuring a faster time to sale which correlates with an increase in average order volumes. Furthermore, BNPL enables higher average order values as shoppers are more likely to use the feature to purchase large ticket items, like cellular devices and other electronics or expensive products. The best BNPL partners offer businesses these benefits and more through consistent analysis of key data and ongoing support. 

What Greater Efficiency Means for eCommerce

Efficiency is the name of the eCommerce game as shoppers seek seamless experiences that are quick and easy. Growing expectations among modern shoppers call for eCommerce businesses to install newer innovations that support their user journeys. Greater efficiency means facilitating these shopping needs, answering the pain points that most online shoppers now face.

Greater efficiency also means attracting new consumers to one’s website. Millennial and Gen Z shoppers are particularly powerful consumer groups that eCommerce companies can leverage sales from using tools like BNPL consumer financing. This is because these younger shopping segments are not strangers to fintech services and are more likely to purchase from platforms that integrate the latest technologies in a beneficial way. Greater efficiency means greater opportunities to appeal to these diverse consumer segments.

Furthermore, greater efficiency means more profitable margins as businesses can reduce time spent on remedial tasks and reallocated resources accordingly. When partnering with BNPL service providers, like ChargeAfter, eCommerce brands gain access to a support system that resolves payment issues on behalf of the company. This dedicated checkout personnel also provides consistent progress updates and data to inform further marketing strategies at checkout. The supportive nature of this service ensures that every aspect of business becomes efficient beyond the sales funnel itself. 

In Summary

The best eCommerce businesses promote efficiency at checkout through the integration of new fintech solutions such as BNPL. This service gives brands greater control over their sales funnel, encourages new consumer segments to shop, and streamlines the user experience for an increase in sales and other key marketing metrics. eCommerce platforms can partner with the best BNPL service providers to further their growth and raise their profit margins in the coming months. 

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Choosing The Right Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) Service For Your eCommerce Business

Having buy now, pay later (BNPL) integration is becoming an essential facet of successful eCommerce as the best companies utilize these services to increase their profit margins among other benefits of BNPL. But with so many BNPL service options available on the market, business owners can be stumped at which solution to choose. The best BNPL partners are those with simple integration processes and a track record for increasing conversions at checkout, and we will explore everything that you should consider when you choose a BNPL service for your eCommerce business. 

Choose a Simple and Seamless Integration

The best BNPL services are also the most simple and seamless to integrate. These partners have worked with a range of businesses across industries to develop a method for integration that requires little effort from the business owner. The implementation and management of BNPL services by these partners instead of relying on an in-house eCommerce team save businesses time and money, doubling down on the benefits of partnering with a supportive BNPL service provider.

Choose a BNPL Service to Boost Your Bottom Line

BNPL is designed to support businesses by growing their bottom line through increasing sales, improving average order values, and encouraging return customers. The best services on the market have a proven track record for doing so. ChargeAfter is an example of a leading BNPL company that has an 85% approval rate and a 45% increase in average order volumes. These statistics indicate the success of ChargeAfter’s BNPL service in living up to claims, encouraging the use of this particular BNPL solution for better business and profit margins. 

Choose a Partner Suitable for a Wider Consumer Base

Over and above raising the values and volumes of your existing orders, BNPL solutions can entice new shoppers to eCommerce platforms. The best BNPL solutions appeal to a wider consumer base as shoppers do not have to apply for credit checks when sourcing consumer financing from these partners. The integration, available at the checkout, provides one of the most efficient means of receiving financial aid, appealing to consumers without credit cards and those with lower credit scores. Capitalizing on these consumers is critical to the success of eCommerce platforms as more and more individuals are turning to online shopping after the pandemic. 

Choose a Flexible BNPL Service

Your chosen BNPL provider should be flexible, able to adapt to business decisions and user experience changes on the fly. These solutions should be available across all platforms, easily available no matter the consumer’s device, and uninterrupted to reduce downtime that could reduce the rate of sales for eCommerce growth. 

Choose a Partner That Provides Comprehensive Support

The best BNPL partners provide round-the-clock support for eCommerce businesses, providing analytical feedback and strategic recommendations to improve the consumers’ checkout experiences. ChargeAfter supports companies that choose to partner by providing full reporting with insights and comprehensive data, giving business owners key metrics to make better decisions and improve their eCommerce platforms. These full reporting capabilities can support an online store’s consumers as marketing teams can utilize data to make smarter marketing decisions and provide comprehensive customer support. These BNPL service providers focus their efforts on improving your business, a mutually beneficial partnership for joint business growth.

When selecting your BNPL service provider, consider the above-mentioned factors before making your decision. You should ensure that your chosen provider provides simple and seamless integration, is dedicated to boosting your bottom line, gives you access to a wider consumer base, is flexible at every level of marketing across devices, and provides comprehensive support for the duration of the partnership. Doing so will ensure that you achieve your profit goals this year.

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How Does Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) Increase Website Conversions?

Increasing website traffic with lead generation and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is only one facet of the strategy to increase website conversions. Consumers arriving at online stores will often leave without purchasing or even signing up for a newsletter. Many eCommerce businesses lose out on these new leads, and their conversion rates suffer. For this reason, the inclusion of strategies to encourage purchases remain pivotal to eCommerce success. Buy now, pay later (BNPL) services are becoming popular additions to marketing strategies as they help businesses close more deals. In this article, we explore how BNPL increases website conversions and how you can integrate the service into your online offering.

Younger Shoppers are Taking Advantage of BNPL

As more Millenials and Generation Z consumers choose to forego traditional financial advice from their parents in favor of seamless and efficient eCommerce solutions of the modern marketing age, a major advantage of BNPL lies in its ability to support shoppers without credit cards. Issues surrounding credit cards continue to plague the modern consumer, and BNPL services are a solution that eliminates the need for younger consumers to have access to credit card facilities. This is particularly beneficial as older consumers continue to battle the pressures of owning one or multiple credit cards for ease of use while others cite dissatisfaction with concerns around credit approval. The younger generations want to avoid these entirely, and BNPL enables them to shop without credit cards as no credit checks are necessary for shoppers to receive comprehensive loans.

BNPL is a New Consumer Expectation

BNPL services are becoming a consumer expectation rather than a unique selling point for eCommerce stores around the world. In fact, resources suggest that over 70% of consumers are more likely to purchase from websites that include easier payment options such as BNPL services. These incredibly high statistics indicate that BNPL is quickly becoming a consumer expectation, and more shoppers are likely to shun organizations that do not model their checkout strategy after successful BNPL systems.

Mobile POS Systems Make for Easier Transactions

A large part of BNPL’s success is a result of how the service improves mobile point of sale (POS) systems. During the pandemic and amid a post-pandemic environment, eCommerce businesses have seen an increasing number of shoppers purchasing from their stores using mobile devices from the comfort of their own homes. BNPL solutions can be integrated at every level of the checkout experience and are versatile in their integration across platforms. Optimized for mobile, eCommerce stores can capitalize on the rise in mobile shoppers

Fintech Services Improve Efficiency and Affordability

ChargeAfter, a leading Fintech BNPL company, offers services that improve shopping efficiency and affordability for consumers. These two factors play a key role in increasing website conversions as the modern shopper is attracted by seamless user experiences and affordable service delivery. BNPL services at checkout help fast-track the time to sale as well as mitigate the need for consumers to turn to their financial service providers for any consumer support. The ability to receive comprehensive loans on the fly is extremely appealing to shoppers that utilize BNPL services on eCommerce websites as it saves them time and money. With ChargeAfter, shoppers can receive repayment options that include zero-interest installments. This is an attractive offering as very few third-party financing organizations or traditional banks can compete with this type of integration. 

There is a growing need to adopt new integrations on an eCommerce checkout page as competition stifles many businesses’ conversion rates. With BNPL services, eCommerce stores can leverage the expectations of modern consumers, attract younger shoppers, improve mobile POS technologies, and improve the efficiency and affordability of a purchase. All of these benefits can ensure that eCommerce stores remain competitive by increasing their website conversions.

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