How Bolt Is Making It (Even) Easier For Shoppers to Purchase At the Point of Inspiration

<h2>Retailers, meet the Buy Now customer</h2><p>Among the biggest shifts in retail in the last decade is the rise of the “buy now” consumer. They aren’t just browsers, they’re buyers. They are ready to purchase, and they’re looking for brands to meet them at the point of inspiration.</p><p>In response to these shifts in consumer behavior, social media and commerce platforms have introduced new products and a range of Buy Now call-to-action buttons. Merchants have dabbled with Instagram Shop, universal carts, and drop shipping, among other tools. These product enhancements and innovations have also simplified the shopping experience for consumers.</p><p>But despite the progress, these products have a key flaw: They often keep merchants at arm's length from their customers, relegating them to fulfillment centers. Shoppers also feel the pain of that disconnect, for instance when checkout and customer service experiences are disjointed.</p><p>Online retailers also struggle to put these Buy Now buttons in place, which forces them to wade through intricate technical changes and extensive roadmaps—all subject to individual platforms and their peculiarities.</p><h2>Google adds merchant-powered checkout links to Free Product Listings</h2><p>In 2020, Google attempted to address this pain point. They launched Free Product listings to help businesses connect more easily with consumers online. Merchants participating in Free Listings saw their product information organized and displayed for free across various Google channels, including the Google Shopping tab, YouTube, Google Images, and Google Lens.</p><p>Free Product Listings also opened the door for merchants to participate in Buy on Google. This new call-to-action (CTA) gave shoppers the possibility to buy natively from product listings without leaving Google. The product seemed to bear fruit: Per a study from ROI Revolution, free Google listings accounted for 3.5-5.3% of overall Shopping Landscape clicks in 2022.</p><p>Then Google shuttered the product last month. Thankfully, in the wake of Buy On Google came a fresh Google pilot for merchants: Google made it possible for retailers to create their own accelerated checkout experience by building checkout links. These, too, seem to be paying dividends: Merchants using the new Google “Buy Now” CTA have reportedly seen an improvement in gross merchandise value (GMV) between 1-10%, according to Google US retail data from March 2023.</p><p>Merchants who use this product get an increased GMV on an existing, free marketing channel; shoppers who use the product get a faster, distraction-free checkout. But the key phrase here is “merchants who use”: Already time-strapped retailers must implement this new Google product, diving into publicly available code and constructing something from nearly whole cloth.</p><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dugcmkito/image/upload/v1698858046/checkout_everywhere_badgley_mischka_1afda6ce76.gif" alt="checkout-everywhere-badgley-mischka.gif"></figure><h2>Generate checkout links for Google instantly with Bolt</h2><p>Enter Bolt. Since we have a long history of working within a retailer’s existing checkout infrastructure, we can automatically incorporate a range of products and services—including this latest Google advancement. That’s how we can recognize and log-in more shoppers, more quickly so that retailers can enable one-click checkout to drive conversion and repeat purchases—all without having to pull all-nighters and write new code.</p><p>Our no-code integrations work with any cart platform to automatically activate the “Buy Now” call-to-action on Google. We’re trying to simplify matters on both ends: Shoppers shouldn’t have to face headaches checking out; merchants shouldn’t face headaches integrating the latest checkout tools.</p><p>Case in point: merchants like <a href="https://www.bolt.com/case-studies/badgley-mischka">Badgley Mischka</a> are already choosing <a href="https://www.bolt.com/checkout">Bolt Checkout Everywhere</a> to create a One-Click Checkout experience that takes shoppers directly to a pre-populated checkout page, bypassing the distraction of homepages, pop-ups, and carts. Merchants also enjoy streamlined order management. Orders powered by Bolt flow into existing work streams, just as if they took place natively on the merchant’s website. Thanks to Bolt’s simplified onboarding, merchants can set up and start operating within days.</p><h2>What’s next?</h2><ul><li>Bolt is focused on simplifying checkout for our retail partners. Whether you want to reach shoppers via SMS, social, in-store, email, or QR code, Bolt empowers you to target individuals and audiences at scale, including transactions that originate from: digital advertising channels including search, affiliate, social ads, and creator posts.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;</li><li>QR codes: Checkout in venue, at street kiosk, public transportation ads, and many more locations. Awareness now means conversion.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;</li><li>In store: With Checkout Links, items are never out of stock and you can fulfill orders online from foot traffic in your local store.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;</li><li>Email, SMS, and chat: You can streamline the digital customer journey and get users right to the checkout cart from newsletters, SMS, and any type of first-party marketing channel. &nbsp;</li></ul><p>&nbsp;</p><p><a href="https://www.bolt.com/checkout"><span style="font-size:19px;">Learn more about Checkout Everywhere and contact our team</span></a><span style="font-size:19px;">.</span></p>