How to Boost Sales by Adding Buy Now Buttons in WordPress (2023)

Hey there, WordPress site owner! Are you looking for a way to optimize your conversion funnel and get more sales? One simple but powerful technique is adding buy now buttons to your product pages and strategic locations across your site.

In this expert guide, I‘ll walk you through exactly what buy now buttons are, why they work, and provide you with multiple easy ways to set them up on your WordPress site. Whether you‘re using WooCommerce or another eCommerce platform, you‘ll be able to start increasing your sales with buy now buttons by the end of this post. Let‘s dive in!

What Are Buy Now Buttons?

First things first – what exactly do we mean by "buy now" buttons? A buy now button is a call-to-action (CTA) button that allows a customer to instantly purchase a product and go directly to checkout. It skips the standard "add to cart" step and removes extra friction in the buying process.

Here‘s an example of a buy now button on a single product page:

The buy now button is often shown next to or in place of the add to cart button. Clicking it immediately adds the product to the customer‘s order and takes them to the checkout page to complete the purchase.

Why Use Buy Now Buttons? The Psychology and Data Behind the Scenes

So what‘s the big deal about buy now buttons? Why should you consider adding them to your WordPress site?

The main reason is that buy now buttons simplify and shorten the path to purchase. Web usability experts have long emphasized the importance of reducing clicks and making it as easy as possible for users to complete actions.

This is especially crucial in eCommerce, where every extra step in the checkout flow is a potential point for the user to change their mind or get distracted. The more streamlined the journey from browsing to buying, the better.

The data backs this up. According to the Baymard Institute, the average online shopping cart abandonment rate is a whopping 69.82% across industries. That means for every 100 potential customers, nearly 70 will add products to their cart but leave without completing the purchase.

While there are many reasons for cart abandonment, a complicated checkout process is a major culprit. A study by the Baymard Institute found that 18% of shoppers have abandoned a cart because the checkout process was too long or complex.

By offering a buy now option, you‘re able to capture more of those impulse purchases before the customer has a chance to second-guess themselves. It‘s the online equivalent of strategic product placement and point-of-sale offers in physical retail stores.

But don‘t just take my word for it – let‘s look at a real-world case study. VWO published a study on buy now buttons that showed an eCommerce site increased sales by 17% after adding a buy now button on product pages. That‘s a significant lift!

How to Add WooCommerce Buy Now Buttons Using Plugins

Convinced that buy now buttons are worth trying out on your WordPress site? Great! Let‘s look at some easy ways you can add them, starting with plugins.

If you‘re using WooCommerce, there are several plugins that allow you to quickly add buy now buttons to your product pages, shop pages, and more. Here are a couple top options:

1. WooCommerce Direct Checkout

The WooCommerce Direct Checkout plugin streamlines your store‘s buying process by letting customers add products to their cart and instantly check out. It adds buy now buttons to your single product pages that shoppers can click to go straight to checkout.

Source: WooCommerce.com

To use this plugin:

1. Purchase the plugin from the WooCommerce marketplace and download the plugin files
2. Go to Plugins → Add New in your WordPress dashboard
3. Click the Upload Plugin button and choose the plugin zip file you downloaded
4. Install and activate the plugin
5. Go to WooCommerce → Settings → Products → Direct Checkout to configure the settings

Here you can enable/disable the buy now buttons, change the button text and position, enable AJAX add to cart, and more.

The plugin also lets you enable a "quick view" lightbox for your products that includes the buy now button. This allows shoppers to purchase directly from your shop and category pages without having to open the single product page.

2. YITH WooCommerce Quick Checkout

Another great option is the YITH WooCommerce Quick Checkout plugin. This free plugin adds an eye-catching buy now button to your WooCommerce product pages that takes the customer straight to the checkout page.

In addition to the product page buy now button, this plugin also lets you enable buy now buttons on your shop page, category pages, related product sections, and more. Customers can purchase directly from a product listing or widget without an extra click.

Buy now buttons on a WooCommerce shop page using the YITH Quick Checkout plugin

Setting up the plugin is simple:

1. Install and activate the free plugin from the WordPress plugin repository
2. Go to YITH → Quick Checkout in your WordPress dashboard
3. Configure the settings to enable buy now buttons on your desired pages
4. Customize the button text, color, and position to match your theme

The core version of the plugin is free, with a premium version available that adds more customization options and compatibility with other YITH plugins.

Adding Custom Buy Now Links for Individual Products

What if you don‘t want to use a plugin or you only want to add buy now buttons for certain products? You can also create custom "buy now" links for specific products and place them wherever you want on your site.

Here‘s how:

1. Find the ID of the product you want to link to by going to Products → All Products and hovering over the product name. Look for the "ID=" in the URL.

2. Determine how many of the product you want to be added to the cart when the customer clicks the buy now link (default is 1)

3. Create your buy now link using this URL structure:

   https://yoursite.com/checkout/?add-to-cart=PRODUCT_ID&quantity=QUANTITY

   Replace PRODUCT_ID with the ID you found in step 1, and QUANTITY with the number you want to be added to the cart.

So for example, if we wanted to create a buy now link for a product with an ID of 47 and have a quantity of 2 added to the cart, our link would look like this:

https://yoursite.com/checkout/?add-to-cart=47&quantity=2

You can place this link anywhere in WordPress where HTML is accepted – text widgets, posts, pages, custom HTML blocks, etc. Just wrap your link text in an <a> tag like this:

<a href="https://yoursite.com/checkout/?add-to-cart=47&quantity=2">Buy Now</a>

To make your buy now link stand out, you can style it to look like a button. Here‘s an example of adding button CSS:

<a href="https://yoursite.com/checkout/?add-to-cart=47&quantity=2" class="buy-now-button">Buy Now</a>

<style>
.buy-now-button {
  background-color: #4CAF50; 
  border: none;
  color: white;
  padding: 10px 20px;
  text-align: center;
  text-decoration: none;
  display: inline-block;
  font-size: 16px;
  margin: 4px 2px;
  cursor: pointer;
}
</style>

This CSS code will make your buy now link display as a green button with white text and some padding. Feel free to customize the colors and sizing to fit your site design.

Best Practices and Advanced Strategies for Buy Now Buttons

At this point, you have everything you need to start adding buy now buttons to your WordPress site. But to really maximize the impact of these buttons, there are a few best practices and advanced techniques to keep in mind.

1. Make Buy Now Buttons Prominent

If you want shoppers to notice and click your buy now buttons, they need to be visually prominent. A few tips:

• Use a contrasting color for the button that stands out from the rest of the page
• Place the button "above the fold" (visible without scrolling) and near the product image/title
• Use arrows, graphics, or other visual cues to draw the eye to the button

Take a look at how Amazon uses buy now buttons on their product pages:

The buy now button is large, brightly colored, and located right next to the product image. It‘s an unmissable call-to-action.

2. A/B Test Your Buy Now Buttons

As with any change to your website, it‘s a good idea to A/B test your buy now buttons to see how they impact your conversion rate. Try testing different variables like:

• Button color and size
• Button text ("Buy Now" vs "Purchase Now" vs "Add to Cart")
• Button placement on the page
• Showing the buy now button on certain products vs all products

By scientifically testing different versions of your buy now buttons, you can optimize your setup for maximum conversions.

3. Use Scarcity and Urgency

Scarcity and urgency are powerful psychological triggers that you can use to drive more buy now clicks. A few ideas:

• Show low stock alerts on the product page ("Only 3 left in stock – buy now!")
• Add a limited-time discount for buyers who purchase through your buy now button
• Include a countdown timer to create a sense of urgency

Here‘s an example of an effective buy now button that leverages scarcity:

Source: OptinMonster

The "Buy Now & Save 50%" button combined with the "Hurry" text makes it hard for shoppers to resist an impulse purchase.

4. Offer Related Products Post-Purchase

The customer journey doesn‘t have to end when a shopper clicks your buy now button. You can boost your average order value by offering related product recommendations on the checkout or thank you page.

Source: Conversio

By showing additional products the customer may be interested in, you give them the chance to add more items to their order before completing checkout.

To implement this, you can use a plugin like Smart Offers to automatically generate related product offers. Or, you can manually select products to recommend and add them to your WooCommerce thank you page.

Start Boosting Your Sales With Buy Now Buttons

There you have it! A complete guide to adding buy now buttons to your WordPress site and using them effectively to increase conversions.

To recap, the main points we covered:

• Buy now buttons simplify the checkout process and reduce cart abandonment
• You can quickly add buy now buttons using WooCommerce plugins like Direct Checkout or YITH Quick Checkout
• Custom buy now links let you manually add buttons for individual products
• Buy now buttons should be visually prominent and strategically placed
• A/B test your buy now buttons to optimize conversions
• Use scarcity, urgency, and post-purchase offers to maximize revenue from your buy now buttons

I hope this guide has given you the knowledge and tools you need to start leveraging buy now buttons on your own WordPress site. The sooner you implement them, the sooner you can start capturing those impulse purchases and boosting your bottom line. So what are you waiting for? Get out there and buy now-ify your store!

If you have any questions or clever ways you‘ve used buy now buttons, I‘d love to hear about them in the comments. Happy selling!