Out of the box, your Shopify account doesn't allow you to customize much in the way your checkout flow looks and behaves. This can have a dampening factor on your control over conversions, especially if you are a highly visual brand that relies on its image to drive engagement.
Part of the novelty of an application like Batch is that it behaves as a legitimate checkout alternative. It aims to capture more immediate value from customers who have the intention of abandoning items in their cart.
And now, it is also the only application of its kind to introduce deep checkout customization features. This enables your brand to stand out by its ability to innovate for customers while retaining a fresh and consistent look throughout.
Introducing Checkout Customization
Today, we're excited to introduce Batch Customizations to all Pro customers. It's the best way to make Batch feel like a native part of your store. It's what helped Spanish Shopify retailer Lagaam get featured by Barcelona's biggest fashion magazine.
"Can I customize it?" is one of the biggest feature requests we've received since creating Batch. We took the time to expose several dozens of options so you can have full control and freedom over how Batch looks and behaves.
Digital marketers fully appreciate the need to maintain a consistent experience when it comes to user interface. From the way advertisements look to every other element in your website, ensuring you have visual continuity is a surefire way to amplify the trust and authority your customers develop over time.
Batch Preferences
Upon loading into the Batch app from your Shopify admin interface, the first thing you'll notice is a new tab in your navigation titled 'Settings.'
As you enter the Settings section, you'll be greeted with a variety of Preferences you can customize.
Display Checkout Introduction Card
When a customer clicks on the 'Make an offer' button, a modal appears explaining what is about to be displayed, how it works and what to expect. Customers can elect to opt-out of the message ever being displayed again, but you can also override the default behaviour by disabling the Introduction card from being displayed altogether.
Enable Address Autocomplete in Checkout
The Batch checkout is one of the fastest in the business: make a full price purchase and offers all at the same time within 60 seconds. One of the ways this is accomplished is with a custom address autocomplete field that greatly reduces the number of form fields a customer would have to fill out to move forward with checking out. This option is on by default, but you can override it here.
Maximum Offer Discount
As the name indicates, this is a control option to choose how low customers can go when making offers. Assuming an example product listed for $100, a maximum offer discount of 60% would mean the lowest possible offer for that product would be $40 ($100 - 60%). This option is set to 50% by default.
Offer Expiry Limit
Part of the magic Batch creates is that you can instantly turn offers into new, unfulfilled orders. But since time is of the essence – our research shows customers aren't willing to wait longer than a week for an answer to their offers – you may choose to expire offers a certain number of days after it is made. This option is set to 7 days by default.
Note: we plan on expanding this section by automating the process of messaging customers when their offers expire (so they can make new offers) and giving you the ability to manually expire an offer prematurely.
Call to Action Delay
Every retailer strives to create a unique user experience and timing is often an important factor in that equation. As requested by customers, we've added the ability to delay the display of the Batch button on the Product and Cart pages. This option is set to 0 milliseconds by default.
Looking for a Preference Setting that isn't there? Let us know and we'll add it!
Customization Options
Using the tabs on the Settings sub-navigation, select Customization to customize nearly every visual element of the Batch checkout, from the Button through to the post-checkout card (upsell features are on the way!).
The Customization settings contain a Preview of your work in progress and what the final product will look like on your store.
To access additional customization sections down-funnel, simply choose the appropriate section from the right-most navigation provided in the Preview area.
1) Button
The first element – and some would argue, the most important – is the button customers click to access the Batch user experience and checkout.
2) Intro Card
As mentioned above, the intro card is an informational first step explaining to the user how Batch works and what to expect.
3) Product Selector
This core shopping component enables customers to Buy Now at full price or slide down the price to Make an Offer. It is this element customers will interact with when making a decision about what to buy right away and what they'd prefer making offers on.
4) Checkout
The part of the flow in which customers must enter their name, email, address and credit card details. This section also informs the user their offer will not be charged today, which has been shown to drive additional offers by an order of magnitude.
5) Confirmation
The final stage of the process which reviews the customer's choices, including what they are buying today and what they are making offers on. It is a final confirmation on any amounts outstanding today – and in the future, depending on whether their offers are accepted or not.
6) Post Confirmation
This card fulfills the usual post-checkout page purpose, which confirms the transaction and order were successfully created. This contains a section to upload a customized image or GIF to show to customers completing their checkout.
Together, these six sections make up the Batch checkout funnel. As of today, you have the power to match Batch to your own brand to ensure a consistent look and feel across your Shopify store.
The new customization features are offered to Batch customers on the Pro plan, the price of which will increase from $10/month and $100/year to $19.99/month and $199.99/year at the end of January 2021.
All existing Pro customers will be grandfathered at their current price–don't delay if you haven't yet upgraded so you can safeguard this price.
Flaunt your checkout
With every new feature comes exciting new possibilities! You'll find a variety of articles in the Help Center dedicated to answering any questions you might have on how to make the best out of the new customization features.
In the meantime, we encourage you tag @sellwithbatch on Twitter and Instagram with your own checkout. We'll be randomly selecting a lucky winner before 2021 whose Shopify fees will be paid for a whole year!
As always, the Batch Support Team is always at your disposal should you run into any unexpected behaviour or if you'd simply like to shoot around ideas to improve your checkout and conversions.
Until next time!
