# Adding an on-site Stripe card option to checkout: purchases flat

- Outcome: Flat / inconclusive
- Page type: Checkout (SaaS)
- Elements: Checkout steps
- Date shared: 2012-08
- Test run by: [Patrick McKenzie](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/patrick-mckenzie/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/08/06/stripe-and-ab-testing-made-me-a-small-fortune/
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/patio11-bcc-add-stripe-card-option/

Adding an on-site Stripe credit card form next to PayPal and Google Checkout did not change total purchases for Bingo Card Creator. Patrick McKenzie ran this checkout test and published it on the Kalzumeus blog in 2012. About 90% of buyers picked the card option once it was offered, but they mostly shifted from other methods rather than adding new sales.

## Result

**purchases flat**

- No significant difference in total purchases between the two versions.
- When the card option was offered, about 90% of buyers chose it, with roughly 5% each for PayPal and Google Checkout.
- No sample size or conversion rates were shared.

## Control

Checkout offered two payment methods: PayPal and Google Checkout.

## Variant

Checkout offered PayPal, Google Checkout and an on-site credit card form powered by Stripe.

## Why it likely came out this way (our reading)

- People who wanted to pay were already paying with the existing options, so a new method mostly moved buyers around.
- The card form was quickly built, which may have limited any gain from keeping buyers on the site.
- A preferred payment method changes how people pay, not always whether they pay.

## Caveats

No sample sizes or rates were shared. The data is from 2012, and the payment options tested have changed since then.

## How to run this test

- Hypothesis: If we add an on-site card payment form next to our off-site payment options, then more people will complete a purchase because they can pay without leaving the site.
- Primary metric: Completed purchases per checkout visitor
- Guardrail: Payment method mix
- Guardrail: Payment failure rate
- Guardrail: Refund and chargeback rate
- Who should test it: SaaS and software sellers whose checkout only offers off-site wallets or redirects. If you already take cards on-site, adding one more method is unlikely to move total sales much.

---

Credit: Patrick McKenzie ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/patio11-bcc-add-stripe-card-option/).
Usage: Free to use, quote and build on, with credit and a link: name the practitioner or organization that ran the test and link to its LiftArchive page. The results belong to the practitioners who ran and shared them; the summaries and commentary are LiftArchive's.