App of the month: Partial.ly. Take part payments with Shopify
About two weeks ago a Shopify customer of ours approached us with a very unusual dilemma. He was running a successful store with a wonderful product which was gaining cart additions. But low conversion rates.
The average price on his store was €1,000 per item. Potential customers were adding to the cart but dropping off. Site traffic was increasing as a result of a viral Facebook marketing campaign. He had followed all the rules.
As Shopify store owners ourselves, we know that a store with an average transaction value of over €1,000 is the place online entrepreneurs want to get to. Chances are, a single item sale of €1,000 means a low shipping cost, high margin and profitability even when sales numbers are low.
So what could be wrong? He has the customers, an optimised store and a cool product.
When we analysed the store, the answer was actually off portal. The answer lay with his customers. On analysis of his customer interaction (which he outsourced) for the previous month, a trend gathered whereby customers were asking if the store allowed partial payments.
Bingo. We found the problem - customers wanted the product. They just needed some flexibility to pay. Asking potential customers to place their personal credit card details for a transaction for that size can often lead to cart abandonment.
And from there we met Partial.ly. We installed a solution.
Partial.ly enables Shopify store owners sell your products and services with payment plans. The app is loaded to your store and a 'pay by partially' appears on your checkout page.
The system is quite slick. Customers open an account and Partial.ly will automatically take payments from the customers card using your link to Stripe. You have the flexibility to define the payment term, amount and can even allow customers to define their own terms of payment.
While the App delivers exactly what it says on the tin, it was the support which simply bowled us over. Shopify app developers generally have stellar support but the Partial.ly team are wonderfully helpful and responsive. By far the best support we've received on any app.
Check it out here and reach to the team with any questions. They rock :).
Cheers, Peter
peter@milkbottlelabs.com
