Express checkout vs payment icons on PDP: -14% mobile conversion
Test run byBlend CommerceCRO agency
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsAdding Shopify's dynamic Express Checkout button under the Add to Cart button cut mobile conversion by 14% and mobile revenue per visitor by 21%.
A second variant showing payment icons instead lost on desktop and gained only 1% conversion on mobile.
Blend Commerce ran this A/B/C test for a premium travel equipment brand.
- Express Checkout, mobile: conversion rate -14% and revenue per visitor -21%. It also lost on desktop. This is a clear negative result.
- Payment icons, desktop: every major metric fell, so the icons hurt on larger screens.
- Payment icons, mobile: conversion rate +1%, revenue per visitor +2%, average order value +1%. These are small gains with no significance reported.
- Payment icons, mobile funnel: add-to-cart rate -1% and checkout-begin rate -4%, so the icons did not help every step.
- Across all devices the combined result was negative. The agency kept the control on desktop and rolled out icons on mobile only.
The change
Variant A added an express checkout button under Add to Cart; Variant B added payment icons there instead
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
The product page showed the standard Add to Cart area. No payment methods were shown near the button.
Variant
Variant A added Shopify's dynamic Express Checkout button under the main button. Variant B kept the normal cart flow and added icons for Shop Pay, Amazon Pay, Klarna, PayPal and credit cards under the button.
Why it likely lost
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- An express button asks shoppers to commit before they have built a cart. On a high-consideration product, that may feel too early.
- A second strong button next to Add to Cart can split attention and make the main action less clear.
- Payment icons reassure without changing the flow, which may explain why they did less harm than express checkout.
- On desktop the icons may have added clutter near the button without adding much reassurance.
Caveats: Significance was not reported, so the small mobile gain for payment icons is directional only. Sample size and test length were not shared.
Who ran it
Blend Commerce ran this test for a premium travel equipment brand and published the results (Blend Commerce A/B test). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on Blend Commerce →
How to run this test on your store
- Hypothesis
- If we show accepted payment methods under Add to Cart on mobile, then more visitors will buy because they know early that familiar payment options are available.
- Primary metric
- Conversion rate, split by device
- Guardrails
- Revenue per visitor
- Add-to-cart rate
- Checkout-begin rate
- Who should test it
- Stores selling higher-priced, considered products where payment options like buy-now-pay-later matter. Test by device, and be wary of express buttons on product pages if your shoppers usually buy more than one item.
Questions
Should I add express checkout buttons to my product page?
Test it before you ship it. In this test, an express button under Add to Cart cut mobile conversion by 14%.
One likely reason is that it pushed shoppers to commit before they were ready.
Do payment icons on product pages increase conversion?
Sometimes, and it can depend on the device.
Here they lifted mobile conversion by 1% but lowered desktop results, so the brand showed them on mobile only.
Why test changes separately on mobile and desktop?
The same element can help on one device and hurt on another.
A blended result can hide a winning segment or a losing one.
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